The psychological and educational effects of parental migration on the left-behind boys and girls in China Junxia Zeng Renmin University of China.

The psychological and educational effects of parental migration on the left-behind boys and girls in China

Junxia ZengRenmin University of China

China’s rural-to-urban migration:The largest migration wave in human history

• China’s rapid economic growth: nearly 10 percent increase per year in these 30 years (NBS,2011).

• Rural-to-urban people contribute a lot to this economic growth.• 221 million migrates , with more young female migrates( China’s

Census, 2010).• 61 million left-behind children under 18 years old (China’s

Census,2010).

Data source: China Family Panel Studies,2010 Data source: China Census, 2010

Different Parental Migration And The Different Gender Children Development

The effects of parental migration in children’s psychological outcomes

• Most studies are from psychology literature suggested that the lack of close relationships with parents may lead children to suffer more form psychological and behavioral problems(Zhengkui et al.,2009;Fan et al. 2009).

• Fewer studies have measured psychosocial factors using professional questionnaires(Meng Wen,Danhua Lin, 2012).

• Most studies just ignore parents’ migrate status, father-only, mother-only or both? (Leng Lee, Albert Park,2010).

• Little is known about the effects of different gender parent’s migration on the different gender children’s mental health.

The effects of parental migration in children’s educational outcomes

• The records of the effects of parental migration on children’s educational outcomes are mixed, or even though some are contradictory.

Some researchers found positive effects Some found negative effects Some found no effects

• Lack of gender perspective

Boys

Girls

Goal, Data and Method

Descriptive results

Table 1. Mental Health and Math Test Scores by Household Migration Type in 2012

　 Sample All No out Father out only

Mother out only Both out

Mental Health Test Standard Score

All students -0.03 -0.06 -0.02 0.05 0.08

Boys -0.09 -0.13 -0.08 -0.01 0.01

Girls 0.04 0.00 0.04 0.11 0.14

Math Test Standard Sco

re

All students 0.04 0.04 0.09 -0.1 -0.04

Boys 0.04 0.05 0.08 -0.08 -0.02

Girls 0.03 0.04 0.09 -0.13 -0.06

# of Students 16,112 8,324 5,082 781 1,925

% of Students 100 52 31 5 12

Data Source: Author's Survey

Regression results on Psychological outcome

Regression results on Educational outcome

Conclusion

• Parental migration, especially mother’s, has a significantly negative effect of boys’ mental health. The reasons may be:

1. Boys are more “acting out” and mothers play a key role to discipline them. 2. Mothers usually “spoil” them before they migrated.

• Parental migration, regardless of any type, has no significantly effect on boys’ or girls’ math test score.

• Parental migration duration studied in this paper is less than 8 months, so it’s just a short-term migration.

Why do parents leave their children behind when migrating?

Migrant? Left behind?

Private schools or public schools with low quality

Public schools

Higher cost Housing Food schooling

Lower cost

Lack of social network

Social network Grandparents other relatives

Longer work time of mother

Thank you!

Charateristic # average or %Child

Boys (%) 19141 51.8Age (years) 19124 10.5

Living at home in 2012 12,763 66.8Living at home in 2013 11,284 57.1

FamilyPersons at home 19121 5.2

No. siblings 19133 1.5Father's age 19034 38.5Mother's age 18917 35.9

Father's educationIlliteracy 1280 6.7

Primary school 7479 39.2Junior school 7790 40.8High school 1843 9.7

College 683 3.6Mother's education

Illiteracy 4109 21.6Primary school 8246 43.4Junior school 5027 26.4High school 1141 6.0

College 501 2.6The estimate price of house

less than 5000 yuan 6185 32.5Between 5000 to 10000 yuan 4956 26.0Between 10000 to 50000 yuan 4171 21.9

Between 50001 to 100 thousand 1982 10.4More than 100 thousand yuan 1756 9.2

SchoolNumber of students 252 398

Appendix Table 1.Summary Statistics of Household Characteristics