Abstract
Existing research has found that parental migration may negatively impact the psychological adjustment of left-behind children. However, limited longitudinal research has examined if and how future orientation (individual protective factor) and social support (contextual protective factor) are associated with the indicators of psychological adjustment (i.e., life satisfaction, school satisfaction, happiness, and loneliness) of left-behind children. In the current longitudinal study, we examined the differences in psychological adjustment between left-behind children and non-left behind children (comparison children) in rural areas, and explored the protective roles of future orientation and social support on the immediate (cross-sectional effects) and subsequent (lagged effects) status of psychological adjustment for both groups of children, respectively. The sample included 897 rural children (Mage = 14.09, SD = 1.40) who participated in two waves of surveys across six months. Among the participants, 227 were left-behind children with two parents migrating, 176 were with one parent migrating, and 485 were comparison children. Results showed that, (1) left-behind children reported lower levels of life satisfaction, school satisfaction, and happiness, as well as a higher level of loneliness in both waves; (2) After controlling for several demographics and characteristics of parental migration among left-behind children, future orientation significantly predicted life satisfaction, school satisfaction, and happiness in both cross-sectional and longitudinal regression models, as well as loneliness in the longitudinal regression analysis. Social support predicted immediate life satisfaction, school satisfaction, and happiness, as well as subsequent school satisfaction. Similar to left-behind children, comparison children who reported higher scores in future orientation, especially future expectation, were likely to have higher scores in most indicators of psychological adjustment measured at the same time and subsequently. However, social support seemed not exhibit as important in the immediate status of psychological adjustment of comparison children as that of left-behind children. Findings, implications, and limitations of the present study were discussed.
Highlights
The rapid urbanization in China has led to an unprecedented growth of economically driven rural-to-urban migration, with millions of rural residents migrating and seeking employment in cities (Wen et al, 2015)
In the current longitudinal study, we examined the following research questions: (1) Does the psychological adjustment of rural children differ by the characteristics and patterns of parental migration? (2) After controlling for key demographics and parental migration characteristics, how are future orientation and social support associated with the immediate and subsequent status of psychological adjustment among left-behind children? Do future orientation and social support play different roles in the psychological adjustment of left-behind children compared to non-left-behind children?
The current study presented both cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence to suggest that, left-behind children are disadvantaged in terms of unfavorable status of psychological adjustment compared with children living with both of their parents in the same rural communities in Guangxi province
Summary
The rapid urbanization in China has led to an unprecedented growth of economically driven rural-to-urban migration, with millions of rural residents migrating and seeking employment in cities (Wen et al, 2015). A recent national survey showed that by the end of 2010, over 61 million children in China were left behind due to parental migration, accounting for 21.88% of the child population in China (China Women’s Federation, 2013). This figure was almost three times of the number (20 million) estimated in 2000 (China Women’s Federation, 2008; Stocktaking Report, 2011), and has increased about 2.42 million from 2008 to 2013 (China Women’s Federation, 2013). Some studies showed that comparison children had better psychological outcomes than left-behind children (Gao et al, 2010; Su et al, 2013), whereas other studies found no differences in certain mental health outcomes (e.g., school satisfaction and happiness) between left-behind and comparison children (Zhang et al, 2006; Hu et al, 2008; Yi and Wu, 2010)
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