Psychological development and educational problems of left-behind children in rural China

Sun, Xin; Tian, Yuan; Zhang, Yongxin; Xie, Xiaochun; Heath, Melissa Allen; Zhou, Zongkui

doi:10.1177/0143034314566669

Cited by 91 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Moreover, children of migrant parents also have trouble in self-assessment, for example, they are un-self-confident, aloof and isolated in studies of Jingzhong & Lu (2011); Shen & Shen (2014) [4] [6]. They also have low self-assessment according to studies of Xiajun (2015) [7]. Wen & Lin, (2012) found that children of migrant parents were less satisfied with their life and learning than those of non-migrant parents, especially children whose mothers worked away [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Psychological Well-Being among Left-Behind Children of Labor Migrant Parents in Rural Northern Vietnam

Luot¹,

Dat²

2017

JSS

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Background: In Asia, especially in China and ASEAN, it has been an obvious trend that the population in general and parents in particular leave the countryside to bigger cities or more developed countries for employment opportunities. Many migrant workers are forced to leave their children at home with caregivers, particularly in families with both husband and wife working away from home. Studies worldwide have showed that, besides positive economic and social impacts, labor migrant parents also cause negative effects to the well-being of those they leave behind, especially children. However, this study orientation has not generated significant interest in Vietnam. Participants: This paper indicates the results of a survey on 469 left-behind children of labor migrant parents in rural areas by comparing them with a control group of 650 children living with their parents in three rural areas of North Vietnam including Phu Tho, Bac Ninh and Ha Nam provinces. Besides, we also survey 363 caregivers (parent or grandfather/grandmother of left-behind children) about psychological well-being of left-behind children. Method: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was used for this study. SDQ was Vietnamized by author Dang Hoang Minh et al. (2013) and adaptable to Vietnamese teenagers. Results: As reported by the surveyed children, the SDQ mean total difficulties score of those having migrant parents was 12.55 (SD = 5.96) and 18.9% of these children had scores higher than the cut-off score. As rated by caregivers, they were 11.12 (SD = 5.14) and 15.1%, respectively. There is a statistically significant difference in mental health between the LBC and non-LBC group. The general trend is that the LBC reported to have higher scores of total difficulties and specific expressions including hyperactivity/inattention, emotional symptoms, peer relationship problems, conduct problems than that of non-LBC. Self-esteem and self-assessment of

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Psychological Well-Being among Left-Behind Children of Labor Migrant Parents in Rural Northern Vietnam

Luot¹,

Dat²

2017

JSS

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“…According to rough interviews with local coordinators, the reasons why the caregivers with their children did not participate in the surveys probably include being busy with household tasks, lack of interest or being not at home, etc. Second, we failed to measure some important factors that may moderate the effects of parental migration on the health of left-behind children, such as the number of siblings, migration duration, the age of children at the time of the first separation from migrant parents, migrant-caregiver communication, and remittances from migrants [36,48,[56][57][58]. Third, the interventions of the early childhood development program may confound the analysis of the 2016 survey data, but we controlled for related variables in the regression analyses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The association between parental migration and early childhood nutrition of left-behind children in rural China

Shi

Zhang

et al. 2020

BMC Public Health

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Background: More than one-third of children under 3 years old are left behind at home due to parental migration in rural China, and we know very little about early childhood nutrition of left-behind children (LBC) because of the dearth of research. This study examined the association between parental migration and early childhood nutrition of LBC in rural China. Methods: We used repeated cross-sectional data of rural children aged 6-35 months who participated in two surveys in six counties of northern and southern China in 2013 and 2016 respectively. The length, weight, and hemoglobin concentration were measured by trained health-care workers blinded to parental migration status. Stunting, underweight, wasting, and anemia were identified with the standards recommended by WHO. Generalized linear regressions and multivariate logistic regressions were employed to explore the association between parental migration and these nutritional outcomes at each time point. Results: Two thousand three hundred thirty-six and 2210 children aged 6-35 months were enrolled in 2013 and 2016, respectively. The results show a reduction of the risks of stunting, underweight, and wasting from 2013 (16.4, 8.5, and 3.5%, respectively) to 2016 (12.1, 4.0, and 1.5%, respectively) but highlight a constantly and alarmingly high risk of anemia among these children (44.8% in 2013 and 43.8% in 2016). Children with migrant fathers performed as well as or better than those with non-migrants on these indicators. Children with migrant parents performed slightly worse in 2013, but equal or slightly superior in 2016 on these indicators compared with children with nonmigrants and migrant fathers. Children aged 6-17 months with migrant parents had a significantly lower risk of anemia than those living with their mothers or with both parents (43.1% vs. 63.6% and 61.5 in 2013, and 42.5 vs. 60.1 and 66.2% in 2016), even after controlling for children's sociodemographic characteristics. Conclusions: Parental migration may be not detrimental and even beneficial to early childhood nutrition of LBC in rural China. Continued nutritional support is needed for all rural children, especially interventions for preventing micronutrient deficiency. Programs for LBC are recommended to continue to focus on nutrition but pay more attention to other important health issues.

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“…Ye, Wang, Zhang, and Lu () find that arrears for tuition fees are common in impoverished areas, and the arrears for tuition fees and absence of parents seriously affect the self‐esteem of LBC. Additionally, owing to insufficient communication with their parents, LBC are more likely to have poor psychological well‐being and exhibit, for example, depressive symptoms, higher senses of loneliness, higher levels of anxiety, lower levels of self‐confidence, and lower levels of satisfaction (Aguilera‐Guzmán, De Snyder, Romero, & Medina‐Mora, ; Cheng et al, ; Fan & Sang, ; Guo et al, ; He et al, ; Jia & Tian, ; Mazzucato et al, ; Shi, Bai, Shen, Kenny, & Rozelle, ; Su, Li, Lin, Xu, & Zhu, ; Sun, Zhou, Wang, & Fan, ; Sun et al, ; Tan, ; Wang et al, ; Wu, Lu, & Kang, ; Zhao, Liu, & Zhang, ). LBC are also likely to have more psychopathological and less prosocial behaviors (Fan, Su, Gill, & Birmaher, ) than other children, and Gao et al () also find that LBC are more likely to have negative ideas such as leaving home and committing suicide.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exports and left‐behind children: Empirical evidence from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey

Chen

Tao

2019

Rev International Economics

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The opportunity for jobs and high wages induced by exports have attracted rural laborers in China to work in the cities temporarily, and some parents must leave behind their children in rural areas, called left-behind children (LBC).Notably, the cause of LBC has not been investigated carefully. In this study, we combine the 2010 to 2015 Chinese trade data with the data from the 2010 to 2015 China Migrants Dynamic Survey(CMDS) to identify LBC based on the young children of migrants not living with their parents in the cities, and empirically test the effects of exports on LBC. The results show that under the same income level and other circumstances, the increase in export dependency significantly increases the probability of the migrants' young children becoming LBC. We construct an instrumental variable to manage the potential endogeneity problems and conduct many other robustness checks, and all the results are consistent. We also examine the heterogeneous effects of exports on LBC and observe that migrants with low income, low education, rural hukou (area of origin) status, and in manufacturing sectors are more vulnerable to exports.

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Psychological development and educational problems of left-behind children in rural China

Cited by 91 publications

References 28 publications

The Psychological Well-Being among Left-Behind Children of Labor Migrant Parents in Rural Northern Vietnam

The Psychological Well-Being among Left-Behind Children of Labor Migrant Parents in Rural Northern Vietnam

The association between parental migration and early childhood nutrition of left-behind children in rural China

Exports and left‐behind children: Empirical evidence from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey

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