Parental migration, sibling migration, and the educational outcomes of children left behind in rural China

Abstract

In the appearance of massive rural–urban migration in China, there is an increasing number of left-behind children in rural areas. Extensive literature has examined the impacts of parental migration on the educational and cognitive development of rural left-behind children and had mixed findings. However, the influence of sibling migration and the potential channels have been mostly omitted in previous research. This study aims to evaluate the associations between parental and sibling migration experience and rural left-behind children’s educational outcomes through the channels of remittances and children’s time allocation, and explores gender differences in the overall association and particular channels. We utilize data from the 2014 and 2018 waves of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) and include 2,313 children aged 10–15 in rural China. We propose a conceptual framework and apply structural equation models to identify the overall effects and channels through which parental and sibling migration experience might affect rural left-behind children’s educational expectations and cognitive test scores. Our results show that sibling migration experience harms rural left-behind children more than parental migration experience, and the negative effects are especially pronounced to girls. Remittance sent back home partially offset the negative effects of parental and sibling migration experience on rural children's educational expectations.