Psychological adjustment among left‐behind children in rural <scp>C</scp>hina: the role of parental migration and parent–child communication

Su, Shaobing; Li, X.; Lin, Danhua; Xu, Xinpei; Zhu, Ming–Sheng

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2214.2012.01400.x

Cited by 209 publications

(166 citation statements)

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“…Ye and Pan also suggested that abnormal and sometimes bizarre behavior was common among LBC as a means of attracting their parents' or caregivers' attention and suppressing their loneliness. Su, Li, Lin, Xu, and Zhu (2013) compared LBC with one migrating parent, LBC with two migrating parents, and non-LBC, and found that both groups of LBC experienced a higher degree of loneliness than did non-LBC. In addition, Gao et al (2010) found that, compared to non-LBC, a higher percentage of LBC reported feeling sad or hopeless and had ideations of suicide or leaving home.…”

Section: Emotional and Behavior Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because the individual factors that play a role in this process are not yet clear, researchers have compared only the difference characteristics between LBC and non-LBC. However, parent-child separation refers not only to a single event, but also involves multiple levels of conceptualization, such as the form of the separation (i.e., father migrating, mother migrating, or both parents migrating; Wen & Lin, 2012), the duration of the separation, as well as separation distance and location (González-Ferrer, Baizán, & Beauchemin, 2012), parent-child relationship (Jia & Tian, 2010), and frequency of parental home visits (Su et al, 2013). For example, children with two migrating parents reported a longer separation time and less frequent parental visits compared to children with one migrating parent (Su et al, 2013).…”

Section: Emotional and Behavior Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, parent-child separation refers not only to a single event, but also involves multiple levels of conceptualization, such as the form of the separation (i.e., father migrating, mother migrating, or both parents migrating; Wen & Lin, 2012), the duration of the separation, as well as separation distance and location (González-Ferrer, Baizán, & Beauchemin, 2012), parent-child relationship (Jia & Tian, 2010), and frequency of parental home visits (Su et al, 2013). For example, children with two migrating parents reported a longer separation time and less frequent parental visits compared to children with one migrating parent (Su et al, 2013). Tao, Guan, Zhao, and Fan (2014) compared preschoolers with one migrating parent, two migrating parents, and no migrating parents, and found no significant differences between the three groups in terms of the mental health variables (e.g., emotional symptoms, negative characteristics, social maladjustment, peer problems, behavior problems, dietary and sleep disorders, and hyperactivity), after adjusting for demographic indicators.…”

Section: Emotional and Behavior Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of Separation Age and Separation Duration Among Left-behind Children in China

Hui

Zhang

2015

soc behav pers

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Left-behind children (LBC) are those who continue to live in their hometown after one or both parents have left for occupational opportunities elsewhere. In this study, we examined the relationship between the age of the children at separation from parents (age), the duration of separation (time), and the behavioral and emotional status of the children. Participants (268 LBC and 228 non-LBC) in China completed the Youth Self Report (YSR), Depression Self-rating Scale for Children, and Children's Loneliness Scale. The results showed that LBC scored higher than the non-LBC on loneliness, behavior problems, and several YSR subscales. There was no main effect of age and time on loneliness or behavior problems, but there was an interaction effect of age and time on several YSR subscales. Our findings extend those of existing studies on the effects of parent-child separation in the LBC scenario.Keywords: left-behind children, parent-child separation, behavior problems, depression in children, loneliness in children, rural-to-urban migration in China.Left-behind children (LBC) are those who continue to live in their hometown after one or both of their parents have left for occupational opportunities (Ye & Murray, 2005). This definition reveals the essence of the LBC phenomenon as a type of prolonged parent-child separation, which results in a single parent or grandparent becoming the primary caregiver, and has been found to be SOCIAL

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Section: Emotional and Behavior Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Emotional and Behavior Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Emotional and Behavior Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of Separation Age and Separation Duration Among Left-behind Children in China

Hui

Zhang

2015

soc behav pers

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“…Lacking parental monitoring is also a risk factor of adolescent malfunctioning (Matjasko et al, 2007) and has been cited as a key explanation for higher prevalence of problem behaviors of adolescents in single-parent families in the U.S. (McLanahan and Sandefur, 1994). Supportive evidence also emerged for rural children in China showing protective effects of parental presence against loneliness and beneficial effects of parent–child communication on levels of life and school satisfaction and happiness (Su et al, 2013). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Positive youth development in rural China: The role of parental migration

Wen

et al. 2015

Social Science & Medicine

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This study examined how parental rural-to-urban migration may affect left-behind children' development in rural China. We used two-wave data collected on 864 rural youth age 10–17 years in the Guangxi Province, China in 2010. We tested psychometric properties of a positive youth development (PYD) model theorized and corroborated in the US, compared a range of developmental outcomes among rural youth by their parental migration status, and explored the mediating role of family economic and social resources in observed associations between developmental outcomes and parental migration. The results showed the PYD model had some international validity although modifications would be needed to make it more suitable to Chinese settings. Little difference in the PYD outcomes was detected by parental migration status. On other outcomes (i.e., self-rated health, school grades, educational aspirations, problem behavior), positive influences of parental migration were observed. Increased income but not social resources in migrant families helped explain some of these patterns. The take-home message from this study is that parental migration is not necessarily an injurious situation for youth development. To advance our knowledge about the developmental significance of parental migration for rural Chinese youth, we urgently need large-scale representative surveys to collect comprehensive and longitudinal information about rural children’s developmental trajectories and their multilevel social contexts to identify key resources of PYD in order to better help migrant and non-migrant families nurture thriving youth in rural China.

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“…Previous studies have shown that as compared with their non-left-behind peers, left-behind children were more likely to suffer from a high level of loneliness, life dissatisfaction, and unhappiness (Jia and Tian, 2010;Jordan and Graham, 2012;Su et al, 2013). However, there has been a lack of study exploring the influence of parental absence on children's academic performance among the left-behind children.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental Absence Accompanies Worse Academic Achievements: Evidence Based upon a Sample of Left-Behind Children in Rural China

Xue

et al. 2017

Front. Educ.

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In China, with the rapid urbanization and large amount of labor force migrating from rural-to-urban areas, an enormous number of children living in rural China are in the absence of parental care. The objective of the study was to investigate the academic performance of left-behind children under various statuses of parental absence. We investigated 3,076 children (1,761 non-left-behind and 1,315 left-behind) regarding their academic achievement in different subjects. We found that children with different status of parental absence would perform differently on Chinese, mathematics, and English learning. In addition, left-behind children would be significantly more likely to get low scores in academic examinations as compared with non-left-behind children. Strengths and limitations of the study are discussed.

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Psychological adjustment among left‐behind children in rural China: the role of parental migration and parent–child communication

Abstract: Background Left-behind children refer to those rural children who are under 18 years of age and

Cited by 209 publications

References 9 publications

Effects of Separation Age and Separation Duration Among Left-behind Children in China

Effects of Separation Age and Separation Duration Among Left-behind Children in China

Positive youth development in rural China: The role of parental migration

Parental Absence Accompanies Worse Academic Achievements: Evidence Based upon a Sample of Left-Behind Children in Rural China

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