The Effect of Parental Migration on the Educational Attainment of Their Left-Behind Children in Rural China

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 1037-1080 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Xuefei Wang

Abstract About 60 million children under the age of 18 are left behind by their parents in rural China. This paper studies the effect of migrant parents on the educational attainment of their left-behind children in rural China. A theoretical model of optimal schooling in the context of parental migration is proposed. Then, reduced-form equations are estimated using probit model, instrumental variables probit model, and linear instrumental variables model. Results show that parental migration has a negative effect on children’s school enrollment. This negative effect is significant and sizable on the school enrollment of boys, but insignificant on the school enrollment of girls. The most important source of this robust negative effect on boys is the absence of fathers. Results suggest that left-behind mothers or relatives cannot fulfill fathers’ role successfully in disciplining boys and help with their educational needs.

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Che

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relative impacts of full-scale land reallocation (FLR) and partial-scale land reallocation (PLR) on household land rental behavior in rural China. Design/methodology/approach – Probit model, Tobit model and Semi-parametric model are used to provide empirical evidences. Findings – Drawing upon an unique farm survey in 2003, the authors find that in rural China, FLR is more likely to follow egalitarian rule and PLR takes productivity of households into consideration. Econometric analysis provides two main findings. First, FLR has positive effect on household land rental behavior, possibly because egalitarian FLR creates a mismatch between household agricultural ability and land size and after FLR households have to participate in land rental market to adjust the mismatch. Second, PLR has negative effect on household land rental behavior which supports that land reallocation and land rental market are substitutes (Brandt et al., 2004). Originality/value – The main contribution of this study is to show that FLR and PLR in rural China are motivated by two different rationales (i.e. FLR by egalitarian concerns and PLR by efficiency concerns).


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (10) ◽  
pp. 2806-2835
Author(s):  
Camron S. Devor ◽  
Susan D. Stewart ◽  
Cassandra Dorius

Educational attainment is lower among children with divorced parents than those with continuously married parents. Most research has focused on the educational outcomes of children and little research has examined the effect of parental divorce on educational attainment beyond a bachelor’s degree. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, we investigated how parental divorce affects young adult postbaccalaureate educational attainment, measured by graduate/professional school enrollment and attainment of a graduate/professional degree. We also examined the role of social capital, measured by parental educational expectations. Parental divorce was negatively associated with enrolling in a graduate/professional program and obtaining a degree. Parental educational expectations were positively related to children’s postbaccalaureate educational attainment, but the expectations of divorced and continuously married parents were similar and did not explain the negative effect of parental divorce. More work is needed to investigate explanations for lower postbaccalaureate educational attainment among children of divorce.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huifeng Shi ◽  
Jingxu Zhang ◽  
Yufeng Du ◽  
Chunxia Zhao ◽  
Xiaona Huang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: More than one-third of children under 3 years old are left behind at home due to parental migration in rural China, and we know very little about early childhood nutrition of left-behind children (LBC) because of the dearth of research. This study examined the impact of parental migration on early childhood nutrition of LBC in rural China. Methods: We used repeat cross-sectional data of rural children aged 6–35 months in six counties of northern and southern China, who participated in two surveys in 2013 and 2016 respectively. The length, weight, and hemoglobin concentration were measured by trained health‑care workers blinded to parental migration status. Generalized linear regressions and multivariate logistic regressions were employed to explore the association between parental migration and child nutritional outcomes at each time point. Results: 2,336 and 2,210 children aged 6–35 months were enrolled in 2013 and 2016 surveys, respectively. The risk of stunting, underweight, and wasting among the children decreased from 2013 to 2016. Children of migrant fathers performed as well as or better than children of non-migrants on these indicators. Children of migrant parents performed slightly worse in 2013, but equal or slightly better in 2016 on these indicators compared with children of non-migrants and migrant fathers. Children aged 6–17 months of migrant parents had a significantly lower risk of anemia than those living with their mothers or with both parents. Conclusions: Parental migration is not detrimental and even beneficial to early childhood nutrition of LBC in rural China. Programs for LBC are recommended to continue to focus on nutrition but pay more attention to other important health issues.


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