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The influence of being left behind on fear acquisition and academic performance—a study of left-behind children

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Abstract

Left-behind children (LBC) are defined as children (< 18 years old) whose parent(s) (one or both) migrate to work for at least six months per year. Separation from parents has been shown to negatively influence fear acquisition and academic performance. However, it remains unclear whether LBC exhibit impaired fear acquisition, and if so, whether it is associated with poor academic performance. This study recruited 72 children (LBC and non-LBC [NLBC]) using Pavlovian conditioned fear acquisition and generalization. In this task, the conditioned stimuli (CS+ or CS−) are two neutral female faces, and the unconditioned stimulus (US) is white noise. The second phase of the study included a generalization stimulus (GS), which was a 20% blend of the CS ± faces. US expectancy was used to indicate fear learning. Differences between groups were analyzed separately for each phase (acquisition or generalization) using a linear mixed model with the Group, CS-type, and Trial as factors. Relationships between fear acquisition and (i) the duration of parental absence and (ii) academic performance were analyzed based on Pearson correlations. Academic performance was evaluated from each child’s most recent final examination. The results showed that the NLBC group gradually learned to associate the CS+ with the US and to disassociate the CS− from the US during fear-acquisition trials; however, the LBC group did not. The degree of fear acquisition was negatively correlated with the duration of parental absence and positively correlated with current levels of academic performance. Thus, the results indicate that children who were separated from their parents in early childhood tend to (i) lack the ability to discriminate safety from threats and (ii) exhibit poor academic performance.

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Funding

This research was supported by the following: National Natural Science Foundation of China [NSFC32271142 and NSFC31871130]; Guangdong Key Project in “Development of new tools for diagnosis and treatment of Autism” [2018B030335001]; Ministry of Education Key Projects of Philosophy and Social Sciences Research [21JZD063]; Shenzhen Science and Technology Research Funding Program [JCYJ20200109144801736].

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  1. Yiwen Qiu and Haoran Dou these authors contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Psychology and Sociology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    Yiwen Qiu, Haoran Dou, Yuqian Dai, Hong Li & Yi Lei

  2. Institution for Brain and Psychological Science, Sichuan Normal University, No. 5, Jing’an Road, Jinjiang District, Chengdu, 610068, China

    Haoran Dou, Hong Li & Yi Lei

  3. Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, 40014, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Haoran Dou

  4. Center for Studies of Psychological Applications Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science Key Laboratory of Brain Cognition and Educational Science, Ministry of Education School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510000, China

    Hong Li

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Contributions

Y. Lei: supervised the experiment and assisted in paper revision.

Email: leiyi821@vip.sina.com

Y.W. Qiu: conducted the experiments and wrote and revised the paper.

Email: EvenQiu0708@163.com

H.R. Dou: provided the idea and assisted in paper revision.

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Y.Q. Dai: assisted in paper revision.

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H. Li: assisted in paper revision.

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Qiu, Y., Dou, H., Dai, Y. et al. The influence of being left behind on fear acquisition and academic performance—a study of left-behind children. Curr Psychol 42, 28095–28106 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03914-1

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