Yijie Wang

“Left‐behind” children refer to those who live in rural areas but have parents migrating to urban areas for work. They are at increased risk for developmental problems and family dysfunction. However, we currently know little regarding their support systems at school. Using daily data over five school days from 90 adolescents ( M age = 13.70) in rural China, this study investigated daily associations linking teacher and peer support to school belonging, and how these associations varied by parental migration. Teacher but not peer support was positively associated with same‐day school belonging. However, this association was attenuated for adolescents with longer duration and history of parental migration. The findings highlighted the importance of considering school settings and within‐group variations for left‐behind adolescents.

Limited research has investigated the changes in ethnic‐racial support that adolescents received during the COVID‐19 pandemic. This study collected 2‐week, daily data from 185 Midwest U.S. ethnic‐racial minority adolescents (14.60 years old; 52% female) at two waves, spanning about 1 year apart. For the Pandemic Cohort (936 days of data, 41 participants; 2019–2020), peer cultural socialization declined significantly from before to during the pandemic; family cultural socialization, as well as family and peer support against discrimination, became more positively associated with same‐day ethnic‐racial identity over the pandemic ( = .13–.16). No significant changes emerged for the pre‐Pandemic Cohort (3304 days of data, 144 participants; 2017–2019). Findings highlight the importance of ethnic‐racial support during the pandemic when ethnic‐racial issues were amplified in society.