Beyond the cities: socioemotional mediators of the link between childhood maltreatment and academic outcomes in rural Chinese adolescents

Childhood maltreatment has been evidenced compromising academic outcomes, yet mechanisms remain unclear, particularly in rural populations facing educational inequalities. This study examined whether socioemotional capacities of empathy and prosocial behavior mediate maltreatment's association with academic performance among 547 rural Chinese adolescents (mean age = 14.475; 51.2% male) based on cross-sectional data. Participants completed measures of childhood maltreatment, empathy, prosocial behavior, and academic performance. Structural equation modeling tested a chain mediation model. Results revealed that maltreatment directly associated with poorer academic performance. Prosocial behavior independently mediated this relationship, while empathy alone did not show significant mediation. However, a sequential pathway from empathy through prosocial behavior to academic performance was significant. Findings suggested that maltreatment disrupted academic achievement partially through impaired socioemotional development, with behavioral manifestations (prosocial behavior) more proximally linked to academic outcomes than internal emotional capacities (empathy) alone. This study suggested that interventions for prosocial skills and translation from internal empathetic concern to external prosocial actions, as well as maltreatment prevention were potentially helpful to support educational outcomes in vulnerable rural adolescents. These findings extended Western-based theories to the Chinese rural context and underscored socioemotional pathways as intervention targets for mitigating maltreatment's educational consequences.