['Life satisfaction' as a moderator or mediator of accommodation category and loneliness for rural school students].
OBJECTIVE
To examine life satisfaction as a moderator or mediator of accommodation category and loneliness for elementary and middle school students in rural areas so as to provide evidence for psychological health intervention among said students.


METHODS
All participants were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire battery which including an 18-item General Health Questionnaire, Children's Loneliness Scale and Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction.


RESULTS
The average score of loneliness scale (35.0 +/- 9.5) among boarding-school students was significantly higher than those students living at home (33.1 +/- 10.1) (P < 0.01). The average scores on school-satisfaction (33.5 +/- 6.3), friend-satisfaction (42.1 +/- 6.2) and self-satisfaction (32.4 +/- 5.0) of boarding-school students were significantly higher than those students living at home (35.9 +/- 6.6, 42.9 +/- 6.6, 32.9 +/- 5.3) (P < 0.05). The association between accommodation category and loneliness was fully mediated by school-satisfaction (the standardized coefficients of loneliness was reduced from 0.043 (P < 0.05) to 0.021 (P > 0.05) and partly mediated by self-satisfaction and friend-satisfaction. Data through Moderation analyses indicated that self-satisfaction, school-satisfaction and friend-satisfaction did not serve as moderators.


CONCLUSIONS
Accommodation category, life satisfaction seemed to be good predictors on loneliness among elementary and middle school students and the fully mediated effect of school-satisfaction between accommodation category and loneliness was significant, suggesting that intervention of loneliness should focus on these variables.
Huang
Zhao-Hui
ZH
School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China.
Tao
Fang-Biao
FB
Hao
Jia-Hu
JH
Yang
Ling
L
Cheng
Dai-Juan
DJ
Xiao
Li-Min
LM
D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008132:Loneliness / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D012424:Rural Population; D012574:Schools; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires