Substance use and subjective health in Chinese Left-behind adolescents in rural areas: The moderating role of cognitive reappraisal

Background/Objective: This study investigated the relationship between substance use (i.e., smoking, drinking, and using illicit drugs), subjective health, and cognitive reappraisal in Chinese left-behind adolescents in rural areas. Methods: A total of 1,375 Chinese adolescents aged 15-19 years with left-behind experience in rural areas participated in this study. Substance use, substance use risk profile, subjective health complaints, and cognitive reappraisal were assessed. Results: Substance use was negatively correlated with subjective health, and cognitive reappraisal was positively correlated with both substance use and subjective health. The regression analysis showed that substance use (negative) and cognitive reappraisal (positive) significantly predicted subjective health. The interaction between drinking frequency and cognitive reappraisal was also a significant predictor of subjective health. Furthermore, the simple slope analysis showed that for the group with low cognitive reappraisal, drinking frequency was negatively associated with subjective health, whereas there was no significant effect of drinking frequency on subjective health in the group with high cognitive reappraisal. These results indicated that cognitive reappraisal was a significant moderator in the relationship between drinking frequency and subjective health. Conclusions: Our results suggest that while substance use has an adverse effect on subjective health, cognitive reappraisal can reduce this adverse effect.