How Is the Left-behind Left behind? Social Capital and the Mental Health of Children in Rural China in the Context of Rural-Urban Migration
Children migrating to the urban cities with their parents and children left behind in the rural counties by their migrant parents are two vulnerable populations accompanying the rural-urban migration in mainland China. Some of these children even have dual experiences of being migrant and left-behind due to their parents’ varying decisions of migration and return. Despite a growing body of literature on the mental health of either migrant or left-behind children, no previous study has attempted to distinguish the various experiences of being migrant or left-behind, or both, that might contribute to children’s well-being. This study aims to investigate how the mixed left-behind/migrant experiences of children living in the rural context of China influences their mental health status, as well as how the effects of left-behind/migrant experiences on mental health might be mediated by the stock of social capital in their family and neighborhood.
Methods:
This study uses data from a survey of 701 children ages 11-18 living in the rural counties of Guizhou province, China. Five statuses were distinguished among these children based on their different left-behind and/or migrant experiences, including: 1) children living with both parents, with previous left-behind experience and no experience of migration with parents; 2) children living with both parents with previous left-behind experience, and experience of migration with parents; 3) children left-behind with no experience of migration with parents; 4) children left-behind with experience migration with parents; and 5) children living with both parents with neither left-behind nor migrant experience. Mental health was assessed by the level of depression, using the 20-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC) (Faulstich et al., 1986). Family social capital was assessed by parent-child interactions and parental monitoring. Community social capital was assessed by social cohesion and trust among neighborhood adults as well as children, sense of belonging to the neighborhood, and informal social control. Structural equation modeling (via Mplus 5.0) was employed to test the hypothesized model of social capital and left-behind/migrant status effects.
Results:
The SEM results suggested that, compared to those rural children who lived with both parents and never experienced migration or being left-behind, children currently left-behind, either with (β = .280, p<.05) or without (β = .184, p<.05) previous experience of being a migrant, appeared to exhibit higher levels of depression. However, children previously left-behind but who lived with both parents at the time of the study tended to experience fewer depressive symptoms (β = -.378, p<.01). The various experiences of parental migration also influenced children’s mental health through the mediating effects of family and community social capital.
Implications:
This study advances our understanding of how migration-related experiences influence child development by differentiating children with various left-behind/migrant statuses in the rural context and examining the unique influence of each. The findings imply employing a social capital- building approach in social service intervention to develop and mobilize social resources in children’s families and neighborhoods in order to promote their mental health status.