The relationship between emotional resilience and anxiety and depression in children who migrate with their families: the moderating role of mindfulness

Abstract

Background

Migrant children often experience greater anxiety and depression than their local peers due to challenges in adapting to urban life. Emotional resilience and mindfulness may serve as protective factors for mental health, but their influence on migrant children’s emotional well-being is not well understood. This study explored differences in anxiety, depression, mindfulness, and emotional resilience between migrant and local children and examined whether mindfulness moderates the relationship between emotional resilience and anxiety/depression.

Method

We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 695 children (aged 8–15 years; 396 local and 299 migrant). Participants completed standardized questionnaires measuring mindfulness, anxiety (GAD-7), depression (PHQ-9), and emotional resilience. Group differences were analyzed with chi-square tests (for anxiety/depression prevalence) and t-tests (for mean scores), and Pearson correlations were calculated for continuous variables. A moderated regression analysis (Hayes’s PROCESS macro) was performed to test the effect of mindfulness in moderating the relationship between emotional resilience and anxiety/depression.

Results

The results indicated that migrant children had higher rates and total scores of anxiety and depression compared to local children, while local children demonstrated slightly higher emotional resilience. No significant difference in mindfulness levels was found between the groups. Mindfulness was significantly negatively correlated with anxiety and depression and positively correlated with emotional resilience. Moreover, mindfulness moderated the relationship between emotional resilience and anxiety or depression, suggesting it consistently mitigated the negative impact of low emotional resilience.

Conclusion

These findings emphasize the critical role of mindfulness in supporting the mental health of children, particularly those from migrant backgrounds.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40359-026-04051-1.

Background

Children who leave their rural hometown (holding a rural household registration) to live and study in cities with at least one parent are defined by the Chinese Ministry of Education as migrant children. The 2022 National Economic and Social Development Statistics Bulletin released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that the number of migrant workers out of China has reached 170 million [1], and that 14 million of these children in the compulsory education stage are studying and living with their migrant parents in the cities [2].

Emotional challenges of migrant children

When they come to the cities, migrant children face various interpersonal and urban adaptation challenges [3], and emotional problems are highlighted. With the introduction of relevant policies and improvement of educational resources, the living and educational environment of migrant children has been greatly improved. However, it has also been found that migrant children experience negative emotions significantly more than local children [4], especially anxiety, depression, and loneliness than local children [5, 6]. Therefore, it is important to help address the negative emotions of migrant children.

Studies have explored the sources of negative emotions in migrant children. Factors such as less parental time [7] and lack of educational concepts [8], lower socioeconomic status of the family [9], negative attitudes of teachers toward migrant children [10], weak academic performance [11], and maladaptation to the city [3] can all make migrant children more prone to experience negative emotions.

Emotional resilience as a protective factor

Nevertheless, some migrant children do not experience negative emotions due to environmental changes. Research suggests that high emotional resilience can help cope with unfavorable environmental factors [12]. Emotional resilience is an individual’s ability to generate positive emotions and recover from negative emotions in stressful situations [13] Research has shown that emotional resilience is related to the ability to regulate emotions and is negatively correlated with anxiety and depression [14–16]. Adolescents with low emotional resilience develop more attentional bias on negative emotional input, which increases negative emotional experiences [17], which further leads to easier emotional extremes, causing problems such as interpersonal problems, aggressive behaviors, and school maladjustment [18, 19].

Mindfulness and emotional regulation

Mindfulness is “a state of consciousness that arises by directing attention to a present-moment goal, treating all kinds of occurrences or experiences that arise in the here and now without judgment” [20]. Numerous reviews and meta-analyses have found that mindfulness can be effective in enhancing emotional resilience and ameliorating negative emotions. For example, a meta-analytic findings of Joyce et al. [21] showed that mindfulness had a positive impact on individuals’ resilience (the ability to shift from unfavorable to favorable levels). Individuals with high resilience have relatively low levels of anxiety, depression, etc. Similarly, Zhang et al. [22] found in a meta-analysis that mindfulness is positively related to resilience.

Mindfulness-based training programs are increasingly being adapted for children. Not only have child-adapted mindfulness training programs been developed [23, 24]^, but studies have found that mindfulness training can be effective in improving anxiety and depression in children [25]. For example, Syeda and Andrews [26] found that children in an experimental group who participated in 12 weeks of 90-minute-a-week mindfulness training had significantly lower “parent-reported” anxiety levels than before participation. In contrast, “parent-reported” anxiety levels of children in the control group did not change significantly over the 12 weeks. Likewise, Sibinga et al. [27] demonstrated in a randomized controlled trial (5th–8th graders) that students who received mindfulness training had significantly lower depression levels than those who received only health education.

Regarding the generation of emotions, the American psychologist Arnold [28] believed that emotions arise from an individual’s appraisal of external stimuli. Different evaluations of stimuli by individuals in the same stimulus situation led to differences in emotional responses among individuals. On this basis, Lazarus [29] made the process of stimulus evaluation more concrete. He argued that different combinations of physiological, behavioral, and cognitive aspects produce different evaluative outcomes. This process involves primary, secondary, and reevaluation of factors such as information selection, affective behavior, and physical response. Moreover, the individual’s goals, beliefs, and the environment in which he or she lives also have an impact on this process. Such theories explain why different individuals can have very different emotional responses to the same events.

In terms of mindfulness mechanisms, Shapiro et al. [30] proposed the mindfulness “re-perceiving” model, which suggests that mindfulness enhances perceptual abilities, helps individuals shift their thinking, focus on conscious processing, and reduce automatic emotional reactions. Garland et al. [31] put forward a contingency model of mindfulness, arguing that when individuals adopt a mindful approach, they broaden their attention and enhance cognitive flexibility. This leads to redefinition and reappraisal of events, triggering positive emotions to alleviate stress. Based on neuroscience and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, researchers have proposed an upward spiral model of mindfulness training, which states that mindfulness expands an individual’s awareness. Since cognition and emotion are interconnected, mindfulness can alter cognitive processes to elicit positive emotions [32, 33].

The present study

It can be seen that an individual’s level of mindfulness may have an impact on emotional resilience, which in turn affects an individual’s perception of negative emotions. Based on the above, this study proposes a regulation model of mindfulness (Fig. 1), which speculates that individuals with high levels of mindfulness can better utilize emotional resilience to regulate negative emotions such as anxiety and depression. The present study explored the regulatory mechanisms of mindfulness on children’s emotions by focusing on the emotional conditions of migrant children, and tested the regulatory role of mindfulness in emotional resilience and anxiety and depression in school-aged children. It will provide a practical basis for solving the emotional problems of migrant children.

Fig. 1.

The moderation model of mindfulness

Despite a large body of international research on child mental health, little is known about how emotional resilience and mindfulness jointly influence anxiety and depression in children—especially in understudied populations such as rural-to-urban migrant children. To address this gap, we proposed a moderated model (Fig. 1) in which mindfulness was expected to alter (moderate) the impact of emotional resilience on negative emotions. In other words, we speculated that children with higher mindfulness levels could better leverage their emotional resilience to regulate anxiety and depression. The present study focused on migrant children’s emotional well-being, comparing migrant and local children on anxiety, depression, mindfulness, and resilience, and testing the moderating role of mindfulness in the link between emotional resilience and anxiety/depression for the full sample of school-aged children. By examining this model, our goal was to provide new insights into the emotional health of migrant children and inform strategies to improve their mental well-being.

Methods

Participants

The experiment recruited a total of 1,100 students in grades 3 to 5 from H private schools in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province. After excluding invalid participants who did not pass quality control (failed screening item, all choosing the same option), 695 valid questionnaires remained, (328 females, 47.19% of total; age range = 8–15 years, M_age = 9.88 ± 1.02 years; Grade 3: 193, Grade 4: 230, Grade 5: 272). There were 299 migrant children and 396 local children. None of the students had ever heard of mindfulness nor participated in related experimental studies.

Participants were categorized as migrant children if they were born in a rural area (or town), were currently attending school in a city, and the number of years they had lived and studied in the city was less than their age (indicating they had not lived in the city since birth). Conversely, participants born in a city, attending school in the same city, and whose years of city living equaled their age were categorized as local children.

Additionally, an a priori power analysis was conducted to ensure the sample size was sufficient. Using G*Power 3.1, we determined that a minimum of approximately 195 participants would be required to detect small-to-moderate effects (f² ~ 0.02) with 80% power at α = 0.05. Our final sample of 695 exceeds this requirement, indicating that the study is adequately powered to detect the expected effects.

Procedure

Questionnaires were distributed online through a data collection website (Wenjuanxing, www.wjx.cn). The questionnaire included basic personal information such as age, place of birth, school location, and length of time already living in the city. Parents signed an informed consent form and instructed their children to complete the questionnaire.

One screening item were used (“This item is designed to check whether you have answered carefully. Please select Not at all). If the participants did not choose Not at all, their data would be regarded as invalid and excluded. In addition, some data were excluded due to all choosing the same option.

Measures

All the following measures were self-report questionnaires that have been validated for use with children or adolescents. For each scale, we report Cronbach’s α and McDonald’s ω as indicators of internal consistency reliability [34].

Five facet mindfulness questionnaire

The 20-question short version of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) [35] measures the level of mindfulness in 5 dimensions: observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-reacting, and non-judging. Responses are on a 5-point scale, with higher scores indicating higher levels of mindfulness. This short-form FFMQ has demonstrated good internal consistency in a sample of children and adolescents (ages 10–18), indicating acceptable reliability and validity for use in youth populations [36]. In this study, the α reliability coefficients for the subscales of the scale ranged from 0.50 to 0.81. The descripting sub-scale (Cronbach’s α = 0.73, McDonald ω = 0.74) and the acting with awareness sub-scale (Cronbach’s α = 0.81, McDonald ω = 0.82) demonstrated strong reliability; The reliability of the observing sub-scale (Cronbach’s α = 0.65, McDonald ω = 0.66) was acceptable; The reliability of the Non-reacting sub-scale (Cronbach’s α = 0.47, McDonald ω = 0.47) and the Non-judging sub-scale (Cronbach’s α = 0.41, McDonald ω = 0.44) was poor. The total score consistency reliability coefficient was α = 0.69, MacDonald ω = 0.53.

Anxiety assessment tool

The Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) consists of 7 items, each rated on a 4-point scale from 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day), yielding a total score ranging from 0 to 21. Higher scores indicate greater anxiety levels [37]. The scoring breakdown is as follows: 0–4 indicates no anxiety; 5–9 indicates mild anxiety; 10–14 indicates moderate anxiety; and 15–21 indicates severe anxiety. The GAD-7 has demonstrated good reliability and validity among school-aged children [38], and the Chinese version translated by He et al. [39] has shown similarly strong psychometric properties in adult samples. In this study, the GAD-7 exhibited excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.85, McDonald’s ω = 0.85).

Depression assessment tool

The 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) is a self-report measure based on the diagnostic criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), developed by the American Psychiatric Association. Each item is rated on a 4-point scale from 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day), resulting in a total score ranging from 0 to 27. Higher scores indicate greater levels of depression [40]. The scoring categories are: 0–4 normal; 5–9 mild depression; 10–14 moderate depression; 15–19 moderately severe depression; and 20–27 severe depression. The PHQ-9 has shown good reliability and validity among older children and adolescents (e.g., students in grades 5–12 [41], and a Chinese version validated by Bian et al. [42] in adult outpatient samples also demonstrated strong reliability and validity. In the current sample, PHQ-9 internal consistency was α = 0.84 and McDonald’s ω = 0.85.

Emotional resilience measurement tool

The Adolescent Emotional Resilience Questionnaire consists of 11 items rated on a 6-point scale [43]. It assesses emotional resilience in adolescents across two dimensions: positive emotional ability and emotional recovery ability. The AERQ has been validated as an effective tool for measuring emotional resilience in Chinese adolescents, indicating its suitability for the current study’s age group. In this study, the overall internal consistency reliability coefficient α was 0.82, with a McDonald ω of 0.80. The positive emotional ability subscale showed good reliability (α = 0.80, ω = 0.80), and the emotional recovery ability subscale had acceptable reliability (α = 0.64, ω = 0.71).

Data analyses

Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0. Prior to hypothesis testing, we assessed the distribution of each continuous variable. Shapiro–Wilk tests indicated no significant deviations from normality for the key measures, so parametric analyses were deemed appropriate. Independent samples t-tests were performed on the level of mindfulness, anxiety, depression, and emotional resilience of the two groups of children. Regression analysis was also used to exclude the effects of gender, grade, age, and years of living in the city to test the differences between the two groups of children.

Pearson’s product-difference correlation analysis was used to test the correlation between the variables. And regression analysis was performed using Hayes’ PROCESS version 3.3 on the entire sample, which included both migrant and local children. Model 1 was chosen. In the model of Fig. 1, emotional resilience was used as an independent variable, and anxiety and depression were used as dependent variables, respectively. The level of mindfulness was used as a moderator variable. According to the criterion of “M ± 1SD”, the score of mindfulness level > M + 1SD was defined as high mindfulness level; the score of mindfulness level < M − 1SD was defined as low mindfulness level; the score of M − 1SD < mindfulness level < M + 1SD was defined as medium mindfulness level.

The moderating role of mindfulness level in the relationship between emotional resilience and anxiety and depression was examined by Bootstrap method with 5000 repetitions of sampling with 95% confidence intervals selected.

Results

Basic information of participants

There was a total of 695 valid participant data in this study, including 396 local children (214 boys and 182 girls; age range = 8–15 years, M_age = 9.88 ± 1.02 years; 122 in third grade, 134 in fourth grade, and 140 in fifth grade) and 299 migrant children (153 boys and 146 girls; age range = 8–15 years, M_age = 9.88 ± 1.02 years; 71 in third grade, 96 in fourth grade, and 132 in fifth grade).

Common method bias analysis

In this study, the common method bias test was conducted using the Harman one-way method. The results showed that the single factor obtained without rotation explained only 20.5% of the total variance, which did not exceed 40% of the total variance explained, indicating that there was no significant common method bias in the data of this study [44].

Analysis of differences between groups

Anxiety and depression detection rates

To compare the anxiety and depression levels between the two groups of children, we used the GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scoring systems. A chi-square test was conducted on the detection rates for both GAD-7 and PHQ-9.

The results indicated a significant difference in the detection rates of GAD-7 between the two groups (χ² = 18.58, p < 0.01). Similarly, there was a borderline significant difference in the detection rates of PHQ-9 (χ² = 9.27, p = 0.06). Specifically, the detection rates of mild, moderate, and severe anxiety and depression were higher in the group of migrant children compared to local children. Tables 1 and 2 illustrate the detection rates for each level of anxiety and depression within each group.

Table 1.

The chi-square test results of the anxiety of two groups of children

	Anxiety				χ2	p
	Mild	Normal	Moderate	Major
Local	60	319	9	8	18.583	<0.01
	15.20%	80.60%	2.30%	2.00%
Migrant	63	205	24	7
	21.10%	68.60%	8.00%	2.30%

Table 2.

The chi-square test results of the depression of two groups of children

	Depression					χ2	p
	Mild	Normal	Moderate	Moderate to severe	Major
Local	60	306	18	9	3	9.27	0.06
	15.20%	77.30%	4.50%	2.30%	0.80%
Migrant	63	201	23	8	4
	21.10%	67.20%	7.70%	2.70%	1.30%

Mindfulness, anxiety, depression, and emotional resilience

Descriptive statistics for the levels of mindfulness, anxiety, depression, and emotional resilience in both migrant and local children are presented in Table 3. Independent samples t-tests were conducted to compare these indicators between the two groups.

Table 3.

Descriptive statistics of emotional characteristics and the independent sample t-test results of the two groups of children

	Groups		t	p	Cohen’d
	Local Children	Migrant Children
Mindfulness	63.86 ± 6.61	63.68 ± 6.34	0.36	0.72	< 0.01
Anxiety	2.39 ± 3.42	3.52 ± 4.11	-3.94	< 0.01	-0.30
Depression	2.82 ± 4.14	3.85 ± 4.73	-3.05	< 0.01	-0.23
Emotional Resilience	44.26 ± 9.15	42.89 ± 9.17	1.95	0.05	0.14

The results revealed significant differences between the groups in terms of anxiety and depression levels. Migrant children had significantly higher total scores for anxiety (t = -3.91, p < 0.01) and depression (t = -3.02, p < 0.01) compared to local children. Emotional resilience showed a borderline significant difference (t = 1.95, p = 0.05), with local children demonstrating greater emotional resilience than migrant children. However, the difference in mindfulness levels between the two groups was not significant (t = 0.36, p = 0.72).

Correlation analysis

The results of the correlation test (Table 4) indicate that mindfulness is significantly negatively correlated with anxiety and depression and significantly positively correlated with emotional resilience. This means that higher levels of mindfulness are associated with stronger emotional resilience and lower levels of anxiety and depression. Additionally, emotional resilience is negatively correlated with anxiety and depression, suggesting that higher emotional resilience corresponds to lower levels of anxiety and depression.

Table 4.

　Correlation coefficient between variables

	Mindfulness	Anxiety	Depression	Emotional Resilience
Mindfulness
Anxiety	− 0.241**
Depression	− 0.299**	0.736**
Emotional Resilience	0.403**	− 0.476**	− 0.488**

^**p < 0.01

Analysis of the moderating effect of mindfulness

The moderating model test was conducted with emotional resilience as the independent variable, mindfulness level as the moderating variable, and anxiety level as the dependent variable. The results (Table 5) showed that emotional resilience, mindfulness level, and their interaction terms explained 25% of the variance in anxiety levels, reaching a significant level (p < 0.01). The moderating effect of mindfulness on the relationship between emotional resilience and anxiety was significant [β = 0.01, p < 0.01, 95% CI (0.005, 0.011)].

Table 5.

The moderation effect of mindfulness level in emotional resilience and anxiety

	β	se	t	p	95% CI
					Lower	Upper
Constant Term	36.08	5.14	7.02	< 0.01	25.986	46.183
Emotional Resilience	-0.70	0.11	-6.20	< 0.01	-0.919	-0.477
Mindfulness	-0.39	0.08	-4.85	< 0.01	-0.554	-0.235
Emotional Resilience ×Mindfulness	0.01	< 0.01	4.59	< 0.01	0.005	0.011
R square = 0.25

Mindfulness levels were categorized into high, medium, and low based on the “M ± 1SD” criterion. Simple slope analysis revealed that the moderating effect of mindfulness on the relationship between emotional resilience and anxiety was significant at all levels of mindfulness (low mindfulness level: β = -0.24, p < 0.01; medium mindfulness level: β = -0.19, p < 0.01; and high mindfulness level: β = -0.14, p < 0.01) (Table 6; Fig. 1). This indicates that mindfulness consistently moderates the impact of emotional resilience on anxiety, regardless of the mindfulness level.

Table 6.

The simple slope analysis of mindfulness moderation effect in emotional resilience and anxiety

Mindfulness Level	β	se	t	p
Lower level	-0.24	0.02	-12.67	< 0.01
Middle level	-0.19	0.01	-12.73	< 0.01
Higher level	-0.14	0.02	-7.46	< 0.01

The moderated model test was conducted with depression level as the dependent variable. The results (Table 7) indicated that emotional resilience, mindfulness level, and their interaction terms collectively explained 27% of the variance in depression levels, reaching a significant level (p < 0.01). The moderating effect of mindfulness on the relationship between emotional resilience and depression was significant [β = 0.01, p < 0.01, 95% CI (0.005, 0.013)].

Table 7.

The moderation effect of mindfulness level in emotional resilience and depression

	β	se	t	p	95% CI
					Lower	Lower
Constant Term	43.06	5.97	7.21	< 0.01	31.336	54.777
Emotional Resilience	-0.78	0.13	-5.94	< 0.01	-1.032	-0.519
Mindfulness	-0.48	0.09	-5.09	< 0.01	-0.666	-0.295
Emotional Resilience ×Mindfulness	0.01	< 0.01	4.35	< 0.01	0.005	0.013
R square = 0.27

Simple slope analysis showed that the moderating effect of mindfulness on the relationship between emotional resilience and depression was significant at all levels of mindfulness (low mindfulness level: β = -0.27, p < 0.01; medium mindfulness level: β = -0.21, p < 0.01; high mindfulness level: β = -0.16, p < 0.01) (Table 8; Figs. 2 and 3). This demonstrates that mindfulness consistently moderates the impact of emotional resilience on depression, regardless of the mindfulness level.

Table 8.

The simple slope analysis of mindfulness moderation effect in emotional resilience and anxiety

Mindfulness Level	β	se	t	p
Lower level	-0.27	0.02	-12.35	< 0.01
Middle level	-0.21	0.02	-12.49	< 0.01
Higher level	-0.16	0.02	-7.42	< 0.01

Fig. 2.

Mindfulness moderation effect in emotional resilience and anxiety

Fig. 3.

Mindfulness moderation effect in emotional resilience and depression

Discussion

Emotional characteristics of migrant children

This study focused on the physical and mental characteristics of migrant children, examining their emotional well-being through measures of mindfulness, anxiety, depression, and emotional resilience. The findings revealed that migrant children had higher detection rates of anxiety and depression compared to local children. Significant differences were observed in the levels of anxiety and depression, with migrant children exhibiting higher levels of both. This suggests that the emotional status of migrant children is poorer than that of local children, aligning with the findings of Zhang et al. [5].

One reason for the higher anxiety levels among migrant children could be the high academic expectations from their parents. Migrant parents often bear significant costs to enable their children to study in urban schools, resulting in high expectations for academic performance. The disparity between rural and urban education levels can lead to a stark contrast between the children’s actual performance and their parents’ expectations, causing self-blame and anxiety [45]. Additionally, school teachers and classmates may contribute to the heightened anxiety and depression in migrant children. Migrant children in public schools may face discrimination due to differences in dress, living conditions, and upbringing, leading to a lack of self-confidence and a strong sense of alienation [5, 46]. This results in increased interpersonal pressure at school. Furthermore, due to survival pressures, migrant parents often have less time to communicate with their children and may treat them harshly or neglectfully, limiting the emotional support available from their families.

The emotional resilience levels of the two groups of children showed borderline significance, with local children demonstrating higher levels of emotional resilience compared to migrant children. This suggests a tendency for differentiation in emotional resilience between the two groups. Huang’s study [47] supports this, indicating that both the capacity for positive emotions and the ability to recover from negative emotions were significantly lower in migrant children than in local children.

Economic conditions and family relationships may be primary factors contributing to this difference. Children from poorer families often face disadvantages due to less investment in education and exposure to physical stresses, such as chaotic and overcrowded living conditions, and psychological stresses, like family turmoil and separation from caregivers. These accumulated stresses can impair self-regulation [48]. Additionally, Lu found [49] that children’s emotional competence is positively related to parent-child interactions. Families that are closer, easier to communicate with, and more democratic tend to foster better emotional control and recognition in children. In contrast, Zhao and Wang et al. Found [50, 51] that parents of migrant children often adopt an authoritarian and commanding educational style, communicating less frequently with their children on topics such as “learning,” “life,” or “being a good person.” This reduced communication may hinder the emotional regulation process and decrease the likelihood of generating positive emotions.

Interestingly, despite having less access to resources such as social support and education, the mindfulness levels of migrant children did not significantly differ from those of local children. This might be due to the immature physical development of both groups. In school-age children, the frontal and temporal lobes, which are crucial for language and communication skills, are still developing and do not reach their peak throughout the school years [52]. Similarly, the amygdala, which is involved in emotion regulation, does not begin to accelerate in volume until late childhood or early adolescence [53]. The reticular formation’s myelination, essential for cognitive and self-regulatory abilities, is also not completed until adolescence [54]. Due to these physiological developmental constraints, school-aged children generally exhibit immaturity in cognitive and self-regulatory abilities, including emotion, behavior, stress regulation, and executive function control. Without proper guidance, children are unlikely to autonomously develop awareness of the present moment and emotional awareness.

Gender and urban life duration

In addition, the factor analysis results showed that, even after controlling for gender, grade, and age, the variability in anxiety and depression levels between the two groups remained significant. The differences in mindfulness levels remained non-significant. However, emotional resilience showed borderline significance in independent samples t-test, the difference between the groups was not significant after controlling for these factors. The gender factor played a significant role in emotional resilience, with boys showing higher levels than girls. This finding aligns with Zhang and Lu [17]. who observed that girls had a slower response to negative emotional stimuli, indicating an attentional bias toward negative emotions Social stereotypes about girls being more emotionally sensitive may lead to negative self-evaluations, affecting their emotional processing and regulation. Boys, subjected to stricter parental discipline, may develop a more positive mindset to cope with stress [55] helping them recover more quickly from stress.

When years of urban life were added as a control factor, the significant differences in anxiety and depression levels between the groups became non-significant. This suggests that the length of urban life is a crucial factor influencing the emotional state of migrant children. Longer urban residency appears to benefit children’s mental health [56]. Zhao found [57] that migrant children who had lived in the city for over 5 years adapted better to the learning environment and interactions with teachers and classmates compared to those who had lived in the city for less time. Similarly, Li found [58] that children who had lived in the city for more than 2 years exhibited better psychological resilience and emotional control. These findings indicate that migrant children who have lived in the city longer are better adapted to local life, reducing the anxiety and depression caused by interpersonal pressure and the challenges of a new environment.

Moderating effects of mindfulness

The second part of this study explored the relationships between mindfulness, emotional resilience, anxiety, and depression in school-aged children. We found that mindfulness was significantly negatively correlated with anxiety and depression and significantly positively correlated with emotional resilience. Additionally, emotional resilience was significantly negatively correlated with anxiety and depression and positively correlated with mindfulness.

According to the causal model of mindfulness, mindfulness can lead to new interpretations of stressful events by broadening attention and cognition [33]. This process involves elevating positive emotions and recovering from negative emotions, which are key components of emotional resilience [59]. Emotional resilience influences mood by altering interpretations of stressful events, increasing positive emotional experiences, and shortening negative ones [60, 61]. Emotionally resilient individuals are better at distinguishing emotions and selecting positive ones in stressful situations, and they possess more positive emotional factors that aid recovery from stress [62].

In our moderation effect studies, mindfulness levels significantly moderated the relationship between emotional resilience and both anxiety and depression. The impact of emotional resilience on anxiety and depression varied with mindfulness levels. Specifically, the effect was stronger when mindfulness was low and weaker when mindfulness was high, indicating that high mindfulness levels amplify the benefits of emotional resilience on reducing anxiety and depression. Conversely, low mindfulness levels diminish these benefits, but mindfulness still offers a protective effect for children with low emotional resilience. Researchers have noted that adolescents with low emotional resilience tend to focus more on negative emotional inputs, increasing their negative emotional experiences [17]. The mindfulness coping model suggests that mindfulness helps individuals reinterpret stressful events by expanding their attention and cognition [33]. Those with higher mindfulness levels focus more on the present moment and their needs during stress, thus regaining inner peace [63]. This heightened mindfulness helps mitigate negative emotions and enhances the positive emotional capacity inherent in emotional resilience. When mindfulness levels are high, the impact of emotional resilience on anxiety and depression decreases. This may be because mindfulness itself is negatively correlated with anxiety and depression. Therefore, individuals with high mindfulness are less likely to experience anxiety and depression, reducing the influence of emotional resilience on these conditions.

Implications and future directions

This study offers new insights into the interplay of mindfulness, resilience, and emotional health in children. To our knowledge, it is among the first to examine mindfulness as a moderator of the relationship between emotional resilience and mental health in a school-aged population. While previous research on mindfulness and resilience has been conducted largely with adults or in Western contexts, our findings extend these concepts to children in a non-Western (Chinese) setting, including a uniquely vulnerable group—migrant children. This addresses a notable gap in the international literature by demonstrating that the protective mechanisms of mindfulness and resilience against anxiety and depression are evident in young populations and across cultures [64]. In particular, our results show that the combination of high mindfulness and high emotional resilience confers strong protection against negative emotions, suggesting that these factors have a broad, generalizable impact on child well-being.

The findings have important implications for efforts to support the emotional well-being of migrant children – and children more generally – in both research and practice. From a practical standpoint, schools and community organizations should consider developing programs that enhance mindfulness and emotional resilience, as these skills can help reduce anxiety and depression. For example, age-appropriate mindfulness training could be introduced in school curricula or after-school programs to help children learn techniques for stress reduction and present-moment awareness. Additionally, resilience-building activities (such as social-emotional learning programs that teach coping strategies and emotional skills) could be particularly beneficial for migrant children coping with transition-related stress.

Educating parents is also crucial: parents (especially those who are migrants themselves) should be informed about how their expectations and communication styles affect their children’s mental health [65]. Parenting workshops or counseling could encourage more supportive and open parent-child communication, helping to buffer children from excessive stress. Teachers, too, play a key role – training teachers to recognize signs of anxiety or depression and to create an inclusive classroom environment can mitigate some of the interpersonal stressors migrant children face. Teachers equipped with strategies to foster mindfulness (like short mindfulness exercises in class) and to strengthen students’ resilience (through encouragement and positive feedback) can contribute to a more supportive atmosphere for all students.

From a broader perspective, our study suggests that interventions targeting mindfulness and resilience may have universal merit. Programs proven effective in Western contexts, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction or resilience training, could be adapted for Chinese cultural settings and specifically tailored for migrant families. Our evidence that mindfulness moderates resilience’s effect on emotional outcomes implies that combining these approaches might yield a compounded benefit – for instance, a program that simultaneously builds resilience (through skill-building and social support) and introduces mindfulness practices could be especially effective in improving children’s psychological health. Future research should explore such combined interventions and examine their long-term impacts. By doing so, we can better understand how to nurture mindfulness and emotional resilience in children, ultimately improving their capacity to handle stress and safeguarding their mental well-being.

Limitations

Despite its contributions, this study has several limitations. First, the sample was drawn from a specific region and age range, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. The migrant children in this study were all attending school and living in one city, so results might differ in other regions or among out-of-school youth. Second, all data were collected via self-report questionnaires at a single time point (cross-sectional design). This means we cannot infer causal relationships – for example, whether higher mindfulness leads to improved emotional resilience or vice versa. Longitudinal or experimental studies (e.g., mindfulness training interventions) are needed to establish causality and observe changes over time. Finally, our measures of mindfulness and emotional resilience, while validated for adolescents, may have been challenging for the youngest participants (age 8) to fully comprehend; incorporating teacher or parent reports or behavioral measures could strengthen future research.

Conclusion

This study highlights the vulnerability of migrant children to anxiety and depression compared to their local peers and elucidates the protective mechanisms of mindfulness and emotional resilience. Our findings demonstrate that mindfulness not only directly correlates with better mental health but also acts as a crucial moderator, enhancing the positive effects of emotional resilience in mitigating negative emotions. These results suggest that interventions combining mindfulness training with resilience-building strategies could be particularly effective. Educators and policymakers should consider integrating such psychological support into school curricula to facilitate better urban adaptation and psychological well-being for migrant children.

Abbreviations

GAD-7

Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale

PHQ-9

Patient Health Questionnaire-9

FFMQ

Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire

AERQ

Adolescent Emotional Resilience Questionnaire

CI

Confidence Interval

SD

Standard Deviation

SPSS

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

Authors’ contributions

XZ: conceptualization; substantively review and editing the work. YS: conceptualization; acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data; and writing — original draft preparation. YW: conceptualization; writing — editing; supervision. JW and FL: writing — editing. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Funding

None.

Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Ethics Committee of The Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Reference Number: H22037). Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. For participants under 16 years of age, informed consent to participate in the study was obtained from their parents or legal guardians.

Consent for publication

Not Applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.