The self-esteem of students may be significantly associated with their academic performance. However, past research in developing contexts on this issue is limited, particularly among early adolescents. Using a sample of 3101 students from rural primary and junior high schools in China, this study measured their self-esteem by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and explored its association with academic performance. Our findings indicate that students in rural China had both significantly lower self-esteem and a higher prevalence of low self-esteem when compared to past studies of similarly aged students both from urban China and internationally. Furthermore, there was a strong positive correlation between a student’s self-esteem and academic performance. A one-SD increase in RSES score (indicating better self-esteem) was associated with an increase of 0.12 SD in standardized math scores (p < 0.001), and students with low self-esteem (RSES score < 25) scored lower on math tests by 0.14 SD (p < 0.001), which were robust and consistent when employing the propensity score matching method. Our study expands the growing body of empirical evidence on the link between self-esteem and academic performance among rural youth in developing countries and emphasizes the need to improve their self-esteem with the aim of helping them achieve academically.

As digital devices like computers become more widely available in developing countries, there is a growing need to understand how the time that adolescents spend using these devices for recreational purposes such as playing video games is linked with their mental health outcomes. We measured the amount of time that adolescents in rural China spent playing video games and the association of video game time with their mental health. We collected data from primary and junior high schools in a poor, rural province in northwest China (n = 1603 students) and used the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS-21) to measure mental health symptoms. The results indicated that the average video game time was about 0.69 h per week. There was a significant association between adolescent video game time and poorer mental health. Each additional hour of playing video games also increased the chance of having moderate or above symptoms. Moreover, boys and non-left-behind children had worse mental health if they played more video games. Our study contributes to literature on the links between recreational screen time and mental health, and it sheds light on an issue addressed by recent government legislation to limit the video game time of minors in China.

Epidermal morphogenesis is controlled by p63, a transcription factor that can be expressed as multiple isoforms. Of these, ΔNp63 isoforms are the predominantly expressed isoforms in late embryonic and postnatal epidermis. To determine the role of ΔNp63 proteins, we generated an epidermal‐specific inducible ΔNp63 knockdown mouse model. We found that downregulating ΔNp63 expression caused severe epidermal defects, including aberrant keratinocyte differentiation and impaired basement membrane formation, culminating in the development of severe skin erosions. Interestingly, these lesions were indistinguishable from lesions that develop in patients with AEC, a skin fragility disorder caused by mutations in ΔNp63α. We found that, during epidermal morphogenesis, ΔNp63α initially induces expression of Fras1, which is required for maintaining the integrity of the epidermal‐dermal interface at the basement membrane. Subsequently, ΔNp63α initiates epidermal terminal differentiation by inducing IKKα. Together, our data provide novel insights into the role of ΔNp63α in epidermal morphogenesis and homeostasis, and may contribute to our understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms underlying disorders caused by p63 mutations. This work was supported by grants from the NIH and the National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasias.