School of Sociology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430079, China.
School of Philosophy, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, Hubei, 430073, China.
Child Abuse Negl. 2020 Nov;109:104707. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104707. Epub 2020 Sep 12.
China's rapid economic development since the late 1970s has resulted in a large-scale migrant population from rural to urban areas, with millions of Chinese children being left behind at home by their parents who migrated to city for work.
The primary objective of this study is to test the effects of family, school and background characteristics on left-behind children's (LBC) and non-left-behind children's (NLBC) physical health, school performance, and delinquent behavior.
A total of 765 LBC and 468 NLBC in elementary and middle schools participated in the study.
Survey data were collected from three middle schools and seven elementary schools in Wuhan, China.
The dependent variables included three measures of child development: physical health, school performance and delinquent behavior. The independent and control variables were divided into four groups: school and community attachment, parental attachment, parental and children commitment, and background characteristics. Mean comparisons and regression analyses were conducted to assess whether LBC and NLBC differ in their physical health, academic performance and delinquent behavior.
LBC's physical health is significantly lower than that of NLBC. Being a LBC decreases the odds of being healthy by 51 percent. LBC and NLBC do not differ in their school performance and delinquent behavior.
Being left behind without proper parental care appears to be detrimental to child physical wellbeing. The damaging impact of left-behind is limited to physical health as LBC and NLBC reported similar levels of educational performance and delinquent acts.
自 20 世纪 70 年代末以来，中国经济的快速发展导致了大规模的农村向城市的移民潮，数以百万计的中国儿童被父母留在家里，父母为了工作而迁移到城市。
本研究的主要目的是检验家庭、学校和背景特征对留守儿童（LBC）和非留守儿童（NLBC）的身体健康、学业成绩和不良行为的影响。
共有 765 名 LBC 和 468 名 NLBC 参加了小学和中学的研究。
调查数据来自中国武汉的三所中学和七所小学。
因变量包括儿童发展的三个衡量标准：身体健康、学业成绩和不良行为。自变量和控制变量分为四组：学校和社区联系、父母联系、父母和孩子的承诺以及背景特征。进行均值比较和回归分析，以评估 LBC 和 NLBC 在身体健康、学业成绩和不良行为方面是否存在差异。
LBC 的身体健康状况明显低于 NLBC。作为一个 LBC，健康的几率降低了 51%。LBC 和 NLBC 在学业成绩和不良行为方面没有差异。
没有适当的父母照顾而被留守似乎对儿童的身体健康有害。留守的破坏性影响仅限于身体健康，因为 LBC 和 NLBC 报告的教育成绩和不良行为水平相似。
