Volume 43 - Article 9 | Pages 217–244  

The lasting impact of parental migration on children's education and health outcomes: The case of China

By Zai Liang, Feinuo Sun

This article is part of the Special Collection 28 „Life-Course Decisions of Families in China“

Abstract

Background: Recent years have witnessed a surge in studies that examine the education and health consequences of parental migration on children. Most studies focus on the short-term consequences and there is an urgent need to study the long-term consequences.

Objective: Capitalizing on a unique survey in China, we aim to study the lasting educational and health consequences of parental migration on children.

Methods: We measure respondents' experiences of being left behind during different stages of life, namely prior to elementary school, during elementary school, and during middle school. Among people who have experienced being left behind, we further classify the experience into several categories such as left behind with grandparents and left behind with others. We estimate a variety of regression models taking into account respondents’ different living arrangements when growing up.

Results: We find that being left behind with grandparents during the elementary school stage compromises educational attainment. Individuals who were left behind with others during primary school were more likely to have poor self-rated and mental health at the time of the survey. The long-term educational and health consequences of parental migration raise new concerns for today’s left-behind children.

Conclusions: We show that parental migration, especially during elementary school years, is likely to have long term consequences for children's educational and health outcomes.

Contribution: We show that parental migration has long-term consequences for children's educational and health outcomes.

Author’s Affiliation

• Zai Liang - State University of New York at Albany, United States of America EMAIL
• Feinuo Sun - State University of New York at Albany, United States of America EMAIL

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Examining the relationships between education, coresidential unions, and the fertility gap by simulating the reproductive life courses of Dutch women
Volume 52 - Article 24    | Keywords: contraception, education, fertility, GGS, life course, LISS, microsimulation, Netherlands, physiology, unions

Demographic convergence in marriage timing: Intersecting gender and educational expansion
Volume 52 - Article 14    | Keywords: age at marriage, convergence, cross-country, education, gender, union formation

Left behind single in the partnering market? Entry into cohabiting unions by women and men with low educational attainment across regions of Europe, cohorts 1960 to 1985
Volume 51 - Article 43    | Keywords: cohabitation, education, Europe, European Social Survey, event history analysis, logistic regression, marginalization, partner selection, singlehood, union formation

Is single parenthood increasingly an experience of less-educated mothers? A European comparison over five decades
Volume 51 - Article 34    | Keywords: age, children, cross-national comparison, education, Europe, family life course, inequality, single motherhood

A multidimensional global migration model for use in cohort-component population projections
Volume 51 - Article 11    | Keywords: age dependency, education, international migration, migration, modelling, population projection, projections