I am better because of your expectation: Examining how left‐behind status moderates the mediation effect of perceived parental educational expectation on cognitive ability among Chinese rural students

Chinese rural students have been documented to have relatively delayed cognitive development. From an ecological system perspective, empirical studies have identified the significant effect of the proximal environment on Chinese rural students' cognitive development. Yet, little do we know the mechanism behind that. More importantly, how the mechanism differs among rural students with different left-behind characteristics remains obscure.