Parental Migration, Parental Emotional Support, and Adolescent Children’s Life Satisfaction in Rural China: The Roles of Parent and Child Gender

Abstract

Previous literature on transnational families has raised concerns about the subjective well-being of left-behind children affected by different parental migration arrangements. From a gender perspective that considers both the parent’s gender and the child’s gender, this study reexamines the associations between parental migration arrangements and adolescent children’s life satisfaction, and then investigates how such associations vary by parental emotional support. Drawing on data gathered from 1,741 adolescent students in rural areas of Hunan province, China, the study shows that maternal migration and both-parent migration pose emotional challenges to adolescent children, although the former is only negatively associated with girls’ life satisfaction. In addition, emotional support from staying-behind fathers is found able to moderate the emotional costs of being separated from migrant mothers, but then only for boys. Findings reveal the roles of parent and child gender in the “migration–left behind nexus.”