Abstract
While scholars note that rural-to-urban migrant children in China tend to have worse mental health than urban-born children, insufficient attention has been paid to understanding this mechanism beyond the Hukou system and the urban-rural dual structure. Using data from China’s Nine-City Survey of Migrant Children, this study reveals that perceptions of being a temporary visitor and an outsider in the city have strong negative effects on migrant children’s self-esteem. Regression analysis shows that migrant children sharing a kitchen with other families, studying in migrant-sponsored schools instead of regular schools for local children and perceiving discrimination from local peers tend to have lower self-esteem.
Highlights
According to China’s census data, the size of the floating population, or temporary migrants working or residing in a city or county different from their household registration (Hukou), has increased from 221 million in 2010 to 376 million in 2020 [1] of which mostly are rural-to-urban migrant workers and their family members
Results of model 1 show that compared to migrant children living with both parents, those living with their father and not with their mother would have a 1.38 points lower self-esteem score (Table 2)
In line with many prior studies on this issue, our study finds that migrant children tend to have lower self-esteem because of their dwellings, neighborhoods and schools are in worse conditions than those of local children
Summary
According to China’s census data, the size of the floating population, or temporary migrants working or residing in a city or county different from their household registration (Hukou), has increased from 221 million in 2010 to 376 million in 2020 [1] of which mostly are rural-to-urban migrant workers and their family members. Studies involving rural-to-urban migrant children in China found that these young people floating in cities are more likely to become child laborers [4], face many problems in adapting to city life [5,6], and are more vulnerable to physical and mental health issues [7,8]. One of these important issues that deserves further study is the low self-esteem problem of migrant children. Even though one’s sense as an outsider in the world is an inevitable thing in one’s life, outsiderness can have mental health consequences if not dealt with properly [17], especially for these migrant children in an unfamiliar place
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