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Parental Migration and Rural Left-Behind Children’s Mental Health in China: A Meta-Analysis Based on Mental Health Test

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Abstract

Parental migration has been an important predictor of left-behind children’s developmental outcomes. Based on the ecological model of rural left-behind children’s development, we systematically reviewed studies related to rural left-behind children’s mental health in China and investigated left-behind children’s mental health and its influencing factors. Thirty-two studies involving 28,629 participants met the inclusion criteria were included in our meta-analysis to compare mental health of left-behind children and non-left-behind children. Twenty-two studies involving 8,634 participants were included in gender difference meta-analysis. The results indicated that left-behind children report more mental health problems than non-left-behind children, left-behind girls were confronted with higher level of mental health problems than left-behind boys, left-behind children in primary school and junior high school reported more mental health problems than those in senior high school, and self-guardian children have more serious mental health problems than children guarded by grandparents, former generation, and single parent. Implications for future practice were analyzed from family, school, and government perspectives.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank National Natural Science Foundation of China (81571337) for funding this research.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, No. 59 Zhongguancun Street, Beijing, Haidian District, 100872, China

    Fengqing Zhao

  2. Institute of Psychology, Renmin University of China, No. 59 Zhongguancun Street, Beijing, Haidian District, 100872, China

    Guoliang Yu

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Zhao, F., Yu, G. Parental Migration and Rural Left-Behind Children’s Mental Health in China: A Meta-Analysis Based on Mental Health Test. J Child Fam Stud 25, 3462–3472 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-016-0517-3

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