How Does Dialect Ability Affect Migrant Children’s Mental Health in China?—Evidence From The China Education Panel Survey

Background: Mental health is a prominent problem faced by migrant children in China and has a profound impact on their academic and social development. Different from previous studies that emphasize the positive and negative effects of the external system, this paper, considering internal aspects of the migrant children themselves, regards language as an important capital and skill and empirically examines the relationship between dialect ability acquired by migrant children in the area of immigration and their mental health. Methods: Data are from the China Education Panel Survey of 2015. One-way ANOVA and multiple linear regression are used to investigate the influence of dialect ability on migrant children's mental health. Mediating effect analysis is used to examine the role of school integration between dialect ability and migrant children’s mental health.Results: Dialect ability is an effective protective factor for migrant children’s mental health. The more proficient they are in local dialects, the higher their mental health level. School is the center of the interaction between migrant children and the place of immigration and the main space in which they use the local dialect. Mediating effect analysis shows that, in this field, migrant children with good dialect ability can achieve social integration by expanding their school communication, enhancing their school identity and winning peer acceptance to maintain and improve their mental health. Conclusions: This shows that migrant children’s mastery of local dialects is conducive to their psychological development, and school integration acts as an important bridge between local dialect and migrant children's mental health, which reveals the importance of advocating language diversity and cultural integration.