Exploring the role of child-friendly communities in alleviating the turbulence of psychological reactance among educationally disadvantaged youth

•Child-friendly community moderates the relationship between psychological reactance and quality of life.•Data from Sanya were analyzed by propensity score matching method.•Educationally disadvantaged youth development deserves more attention. Psychological reactance (PR) is a dynamic personality trait that is closely intertwined with their quality of life (QoL). Identified as a risk group for PR, educationally disadvantaged children and youth face challenges in improving their QoL due to insufficient school resources and helpless parental households atmosphere. It is worthy to be seen whether child-friendly communities can offer a protective and supportive environment to mitigate these challenges, thereby complementing the deficits in school and family environments. This study aims to investigate the correlation between adolescent PR and their QoL across varying levels of community friendliness. Data were collected from 2,347 adolescents in Sanya City, Hainan Province, China, renowned as the pioneer location for implementing child-friendly policies. Using propensity score matching, we verified that adolescents’ PR is negatively correlated with their QoL levels. The moderating effect of child-friendly communities shows that the more supportive the communities are, the less significant the role of PR in decreasing their QoL. We underscore the significance role of community in addition to other environments with the focus of community education, entertainment and personal life, and emphasize the urgency of enhancing adolescents’ QoL, particularly among educationally disadvantaged youth.