Journal Article

Child Development in Rural China: Children Left Behind by Their Migrant Parents and Children of Nonmigrant Families

Lin, Danhua, Wen, Ming

2012

Overview

Using recent cross-sectional data of rural children aged from 8 to 18 in Hunan Province of China, this article examines psychological, behavioral, and educational outcomes and the psychosocial contexts of these outcomes among children left behind by one or both of their rural-to-urban migrant parents compared to those living in nonmigrant families. The results showed that left-behind children were disadvantaged in health behavior and school engagement but not in perceived satisfaction. The child's psychosocial environment, captured by family socioeconomic status, socializing processes, peer and school support, and psychological traits, were associated with, to varying extent, child developmental outcomes in rural China. These influences largely remain constant for the sampled children regardless of their parents' migrant status.

• Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Ltd,Wiley-Blackwell
• Subject: Achievement / Adolescent / Adolescents / Age Factors / Biological and medical sciences / Child / Child Development / Child psychology / Child, Abandoned - education / Child, Abandoned - psychology / Children / Childrens health / China / Comparative Analysis / Cross-Sectional Studies / Data analysis / Data Collection / Developmental psychology / Disadvantaged / Educational Objectives / Educational Status / EMPIRICAL ARTICLES / Families & family life / Family school relationship / Female / Foreign Countries / Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology / Health Behavior / Humans / Learner Engagement / Learning outcomes / Legal Guardians - psychology / Level of education / Male / Mental health / Mental health outcomes / Migrants / Migration / Outcomes of Education / Parent-child relations / Parenting - psychology / Parents / Parents & parenting / Personal Satisfaction / Psychological factors / Psychology / Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry / Psychology. Psychophysiology / Psychosocial factors / Rural Areas / Rural communities / Rural development / Rural Population / Rural urban differences / Rural-urban migration / Satisfaction / School age children / School Support / Sex Factors / Social behaviour / Social Environment / Social interaction / Social psychology / Social Support / Socialization / Socioeconomic status / Student Attitudes / Transients and Migrants - psychology / Vulnerable Populations - ethnology / Vulnerable Populations - psychology / Wellbeing