Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
J Glob Health. 2020 Jun;10(1):010806. doi: 10.7189/jogh.10.010806.
With great economic development and rapid urbanization in China, left-behind children whose parents migrate to big cities for job has become a large special population which requires more attention. The present study aims to explore the specific influence of migrant mothers on early child development, especially on social-emotional problems.
The data of this study was obtained from a cross-sectional study in 8 counties of central and western rural China. Development status of 1880 children aged <60 months were assessed by Ages & Stages Questionnaire-Chinese Edition (ASQ) and the Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social Emotional-Chinese Edition (ASQ: SE). Multivariate logistic regressions were used to analyze the association between being left behand by migrant mothers and developmental problems in various domains, while adjusting socio-demographic, socio-economic and perinatal co-variates, and effect modification analysis were conducted to explore the effect of age, gender and birth order.
Children left behind by migrant mothers were more likely to have overall suspected developmental delay (odds ratio (OR) = 1.24, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.13-1.35), developmental delay in personal social domain (OR = 1.55, 95% CI = 1.17-2.04) and socio-emotional delay compared with those living with their own mothers (OR = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.11-2.00) after adjusting for potential confounders. Additionally, girls increased the odds of social-emotional problems among children being left behind by migrating mother ( for interaction = 0.037).
The study concluded that children left behind by migrant mothers were more likely to have suspected developmental delay compared with their peers living with mothers, especially on social emotional development. Future intervention is needed for this special population and should pay more attention to girls.
随着中国经济的飞速发展和城市化进程的加快，父母迁移到大城市工作的留守儿童已成为一个庞大的特殊群体，需要更多的关注。本研究旨在探讨流动母亲对幼儿发展的具体影响，特别是对社会情感问题的影响。
本研究的数据来自中国中西部 8 个县的一项横断面研究。采用儿童发育筛查量表中文版（ASQ-C）和儿童发育筛查量表：社会情绪中文版（ASQ: SE）对 1880 名<60 个月的儿童的发育状况进行评估。采用多变量逻辑回归分析留守流动儿童在各领域发育问题与留守流动母亲之间的关系，同时调整社会人口学、社会经济和围产期协变量，并进行效应修饰分析，以探讨年龄、性别和出生顺序的影响。
与留守母亲生活的儿童相比，与母亲生活在一起的儿童更有可能出现整体发育迟缓（比值比（OR）=1.24，95%置信区间（CI）=1.13-1.35）、个人社会领域发育迟缓（OR=1.55，95%CI=1.17-2.04）和社会情感发育迟缓（OR=1.49，95%CI=1.11-2.00），调整潜在混杂因素后。此外，女孩增加了留守母亲子女社会情感问题的发生几率（交互作用=0.037）。
本研究表明，与与母亲生活在一起的同龄人相比，留守流动母亲的孩子更有可能出现发育迟缓，尤其是在社会情感发展方面。需要针对这一特殊群体进行未来干预，并应更加关注女孩。
