A Multiple Regression Analysis of Self-Perceived Social Identity Among Rural-to-Urban Migrant Children in China

Background and Purpose: Due to Household Registration Policy, rural-to-urban migrant children in China are ineligible to receive urban social welfare benefits. These children potentially suffer from the evolving awareness of their “inferior” social identity as well as experience-derived inequalities at an early stage of life. This pilot study examined whether and how self-perceived social identity has shaped the school experience, peer relations, and expected school attainment among rural-to-urban migrant children in Beijing. The acculturation pattern of rural-to-urban migrant children in Beijing was also investigated in order to explore whether policy-created welfare inequality would shape acculturation process.

Methods: Data were collected during 2013-2014 from three migrant children schools in Beijing using a cross-sectional survey design (the original English version had been used to collect data on Asian-American new immigrant families in New York City). Children and parents were paired and interviewed separately. This analysis only utilized data drawn on the children samples who were First to Six Grade at interview. Among the 151 children, more than half had been living in Beijing for more than 5 years (55%), but the number of children who identified themselves as Hometown Person (78.1%) was almost four times of those who self-identified as Beijinger (21.9%).

Four-model multiple regression was used to regress school experience and peer relations on the self-perceived social identity of migrant children with other study variables. Based on acculturation theories, the number of years living in Beijing entered analysis as an interaction term to determine whether the number of years living in Beijing moderated the effect of self-perceived social identity.

Results: Bivariate and multiple regression analyses produced ample results. Notably, identification as a Beijinger, as compared with hometown person, would perceive better school safety and better peer relations. However, above finding was not significant when controlling for certain covariates such as interest in school subjects. Moreover, there was no association between the number of years migrant children lived in Beijing and their self-perceived identity, which is NOT consistent with current understanding of acculturation process based on both theories and existing studies.

Concluaion and Implications: The small sample size and the uniformity of sample frame may have caused measurement error. Factor analysis should be conducted in the future to better understand the interactions of covariates. Also, China's Household Registration Policy may have served as a counteracting force offsetting the effect of acculturation, and the process of acculturation may be suspended. Therefore, while advocating for a reform of Household Registration Policy, School- or Community-based programs should be established to support the psycho-developmental needs of migrant children in urban cities.