The Impact of Parental Remote Migration and Parent-Child Relation Types on the Psychological Resilience of Rural Left-Behind Children in China

Abstract

Using survey data of middle school students from Ye county in Henan province and Chenggu and Ningqiang county in Shaanxi province, China, adopting latent class analysis and hierarchical linear regression, this study analyzes the impact of parental remote migration and parent-child relation types on the psychological resilience of rural left-behind children. The results show that: Only mother’s remote migration has a significantly negative impact on the psychological resilience of rural left-behind children, the time of parental first migration, the distance of father’s migration, and children’s migration have no significant impacts; parent-child relation of “alienation connection and weak function” or parent-child relation combination of “parental alienation connection and weak function” is the most unfavorable factor for the psychological resilience of rural left-behind children, while father-child relation of “close connection but lacking function”, mother-child relation of “intimate connection and strong function”, and combination of “paternal close connection but lacking function - maternal intimate connection and strong function” are the most favorable factors. There is gender difference in the impact of father-child relation types and mother-child relation types, the impact of father-child relation types is stronger than that of mother-child relation types; harmonious parental relation, supportive friends, caring teachers, and moderate home-school interaction are favorable for the psychological resilience of rural left-behind children.

Self-esteem, social support and coping strategies of left-behind children in rural China, and the intermediary role of subjective support:a cross-sectional survey

“…Groups vary in coping styles and social support, and these differences are affected by individual characteristics and external environmental factors [23]. Previous literature indicates that LBC are characterized by an unwillingness to express their troubles to their guardians; their social support mainly comes from peers, incomplete parent-child relations, and limited and autonomous social interaction [24,25]. However, our understanding of the subtle, indirect and complex relationship between individual characteristics and external environmental factors and coping styles is still incomplete.…”

Word of Mouth from Left-Behind Children in Rural China: Exploring Their Psychological, Academic and Physical Well-being During COVID-19

“…Rural to internal urban migration in China brought massive changes in migrant family functioning (Jia and Tian, 2010 ; Jingzhong and Lu, 2011 ; Hu, 2016 ; Mu and Hu, 2016 ; Liang et al, 2017 ; Hu, 2019 ; Tian et al, 2017 ; Xiaofeng et al, 2018 ; Chen et al, 2019 ; Lu et al, 2019 ; Zhang et al, 2019 ; Liu et al, 2020 ; Shi et al, 2021 ). Since the early 1980s, China’s urbanization expansion plan and relaxing household registration system ( hukou ) have stimulated economic growth (Su et al, 2017 ), attracting rural peasant workers to urban areas to seek better job opportunities and lifestyles (Jingzhong and Lu, 2011 ; Wen and Lin, 2012 ; Wu and Zhang, 2017 ).…”

“…Since the early 1980s, China’s urbanization expansion plan and relaxing household registration system ( hukou ) have stimulated economic growth (Su et al, 2017 ), attracting rural peasant workers to urban areas to seek better job opportunities and lifestyles (Jingzhong and Lu, 2011 ; Wen and Lin, 2012 ; Wu and Zhang, 2017 ). This dramatic migration decreased the impoverishment of rural areas and encouraged laborers to move from rural to urban areas to satisfy the cities’ need for labor (Jingzhong and Lu, 2011 ; Wen and Lin, 2012 ; Wu and Zhang, 2017 ; Su et al, 2017 ; Liu et al, 2020 ; Shi et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Unfortunately, a large body of evidence affirms that due to abusive caretaking and early age, the separation of LBCs from their parents causes considerable psychological (Jia and Tian, 2010 ; Mu and Hu, 2016 ; Wang et al, 2021 ), academic (Liu et al, 2020 ; Mao et al, 2020 ; Liu et al, 2021 ), and health (Gao et al, 2010 ) issues. Moreover, the intensive working hours and job engagement of migrants make them unable them to visit their children (Tang and Li, 2021 ).…”

The Influence of Discrepancies between Parents’ Educational Aspirations and Children’s Educational Expectations on Depressive Symptoms of Left-Behind Children in Rural China: The Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy

“…Researches on the mental health of left-behind children indicated that factors such as children’s age [ 12 ], gender [ 13 ], personality and self-esteem [ 7 ], self-efficacy [ 14 ], types of family migration [ 15 ], caregivers’ individual factors (such as age, educational attainment, socioeconomic status, etc.) [ 9 , 11 ], duration of separation [ 16 , 17 ], communication duration and frequency [ 18 ], as well as coping strategies in dealing with daily stressors [ 19 ] all had significant influence. In addition, some studies analyzed the effect of parents’ migration on their left-behind children’s academic performance.…”