Frontiers in Education (Aug 2017)
Parental Absence Accompanies Worse Academic Achievements: Evidence Based upon a Sample of Left-Behind Children in Rural China
Abstract
In China, with the rapid urbanization and large amount of labor force migrating from rural-to-urban areas, an enormous number of children living in rural China are in the absence of parental care. The objective of the study was to investigate the academic performance of left-behind children under various statuses of parental absence. We investigated 3,076 children (1,761 non-left-behind and 1,315 left-behind) regarding their academic achievement in different subjects. We found that children with different status of parental absence would perform differently on Chinese, mathematics, and English learning. In addition, left-behind children would be significantly more likely to get low scores in academic examinations as compared with non-left-behind children. Strengths and limitations of the study are discussed.
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