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Child Development in Rural China: Children Left Behind by Their Migrant Parents and Children of Nonmigrant Families
Author(s) -
Wen Ming,
Lin Danhua
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01698.x
Subject(s) - disadvantaged , psychosocial , socioeconomic status , psychology , china , rural area , developmental psychology , left behind , demography , mental health , medicine , geography , sociology , population , psychiatry , archaeology , pathology , political science , law
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.