Researching long-distance communication during social distancing: implications for a study of left-behind children in China

Abstract

This chapter discusses various ethical and practical issues involved in the modification of the research design of the doctoral project, as a result of COVID-19, which aims to examine the role of social media within separated families in the context of internal migration in China, and find out how left-behind children use social media to communicate with their migrant parents. Chinese left-behind children are those under 16 who are enduring family separation because their parents have migrated to the cities to earn a better living. The chapter employs mixed methods to comprehend family relations in Chinese separated families. The impact of COVID-19 on separated families involved with the research has been factored into the research modification.