ABSTRACT
Adolescence is a critical period for formulating and developing value orientations. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically restricted people's lives, potentially leading adolescents to reevaluate what they prioritize in life (i.e., their values) and affecting their mental health. Previous studies suggest that Chinese early adolescents' group orientation is negatively associated with mental health more strongly in rural than in urban, whereas this rural–urban differs may vary after the outbreak of the pandemic. To examine potential changes in group orientation, mental health, and their associations during the pandemic, two cross-sectional surveys of ninth-grade students in the same three school were conducted in rural and urban China in 2019 and 2021. The results showed that compared with students before the pandemic (2019, N = 516, 48.8% girls, Mage = 14.87 years), students during the pandemic (2021, N = 655, 48.1% girls, Mage = 14.80 years) displayed lower group orientation such as group responsibility and rule abiding of rural students, and higher loneliness and depressive symptoms. Social equality, group responsibility and rule abiding were all significantly negatively associated with loneliness and depressive symptoms. Those negative associations were stronger in the urban regions than in the rural region. Follow-up invariance analysis revealed that this rural–urban difference in the relations between social equality, group responsibility, and rule abiding and mental health problems was only significant during (and not before) the pandemic. The protective effect of group orientation on mental health seems to be weakened only in rural contexts. The results suggest that significant changes in macrolevel contexts may play an important role in shaping adolescents' value orientation and mental health.
ABSTRACT
With the trade network analysis method and bilateral country-product level trade data of 2017-2020, this paper reveals the overall characteristics and intrinsic vulnerabilities of China S global supply chains. Our research finds that first, most global supply-chain-vulnerable products are from technology-intensive sectors. For advanced economies, their supply chain vulnerabilities are primarily exposed to political and economic alliances. In comparison, developing economies are more dependent on regional communities. Second, China has a significant export advantage with over 80% of highly vulnerable intermediate inputs relying on imports of high-end electrical, mechanical and chemical products from advanced economies or their multinational companies. China also relies on developing economies for the import of some resource products. Third, during the trade frictions from 2018 to 2019 and the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic, there was a significant reduction in the supply chain vulnerabilities of China and the US for critical products compared with other products, which reflects a shift in the layout of critical product supply chains to ensure not just efficiency but security. China should address supply chain vulnerabilities by bolstering supply-side weaknesses, diversifying import sources, and promoting international coordination and cooperation.