Effect of Parental Migration on the Academic Performance of Left‐behind Middle School Students in Rural China

Abstract

China's rapid development and urbanization over the past 30 years have caused large numbers of rural residents to migrate to urban areas in search of work. This has created a generation of children who remain behind in rural areas when their parents migrate for work. Previous research has found mixed impacts of parental migration on the educational achievement of left-behind children (LBC), perhaps because of methodological deficiencies and lack of recognition of the heterogeneity of this population of children. Our study attempts to examine the impact of six types of parental migration on the academic achievement of a rural junior high school sample. Our study uses a panel of 7148 junior high school students to implement a difference-in-difference analysis and finds that parental migration has a negative and significant impact on the academic achievement of junior high school students. Our study suggests that the Chinese Government should implement measures to dismantle barriers to the human capital accumulation of LBC to ensure sustainable economic growth and human capital development in China.

Timing and duration of paternal migration and the educational attainment of left‐behind children: Evidence from rural China

“…The relationships between parental migration and left-behind children's educational outcomes are complicated by the different mechanisms through which migration can exert effects on those relationships. One the one hand, parental migration entails parental absence, which results in the lack of parental care and supervision, and therefore, leads to lower school attainment and poor academic performance (Lee, 2011;Li et al, 2017;Lu & Treiman, 2007;Meng & Yamauchi, 2017;Song et al, 2018;Wu & Zhang, 2017;Zhang et al, 2014;Zhou, Murphy, & Tao, 2014). On the other hand, parental migration increases household income, which reduces child labor and also enables more resources to be invested in a child's human capital (Bai et al, 2018;Bryant, 2005;Chen et al, 2009;Dimova, Epstein, & Gang, 2015;Edwards & Ureta, 2003;Hanson & Woodruff, 2003;Kandel & Kao, 2001;Kuhn, 2006;Lu & Treiman, 2007;Mansuri, 2006).…”

“…Because of the different roles fathers and mothers play in a household, paternal and maternal migration exerts different total effects on a child's educational outcomes. Yet only a few empirical studies considered separately the two types of migration while using Chinese data (Bai et al, 2018;Chen et al, 2009;Li et al, 2017;Meng & Yamauchi, 2017;Wang, 2014;Zhao et al, 2014). Of those studies, their estimates are often infected by having small sample sizes in each category of household migration status, especially in the category of households with migrant mother and nonmigrant father, and thus are prone to lack statistical power and stability.…”

“…They are more susceptible to being victims of crimes, psychological problems, accidents, and injuries, and they are also prone to conduct asocial and criminal activities, compared with rural children in nonmigrant households (Chen, Liang, & Ostertag, 2017;Fu, Xue, & Zhou, 2017;Lee & Park, 2010;Liu, Li, & Ge, 2009;Wu, Li, & Chen, 2016;Zhan, Li, Liu, & Zhang, 2014). However, there is no consensus on how paternal migration affects left-behind children's education in rural China (Bai et al, 2018;Chen, Huang, Rozelle, Shi, & Zhang, 2009;Lee & Park, 2010;Li, Wang, & Nie, 2017;Meng & Yamauchi, 2017;Wang, 2014;Zhao, Yu, Wang, & Glauben, 2014). For example, Bai et al (2018) and Chen et al (2009) found that paternal migration had significant and positive impacts on the academic performance of left-behind children.…”

“…Conversely, Meng and Yamauchi (2017) and Zhao et al (2014) found that paternal migration had significantly negative effects on the academic performance of left-behind children. There also exist studies that found no significant effect of paternal migration on left-behind children's education (Li et al, 2017).…”

The formation and influence mechanism of mathematics self-concept of left-behind children in mainland China

“…Owing to long-term parent-child separation, parental migration has a negative impact on children's academic achievements (Wang and Mesman 2015;Zhao and Yu 2016). Academic problems of left-behind children have become a research focus over the past decade (Roy et al 2015;Li et al 2017;Bai et al 2018). McKenzie and Rapoport (2011) found that family migration reduces the educational attainments of the rural Mexican children.…”