Effects of parents' migration on the education of children left behind in rural China

This essay draws on an original cross‐sectional survey of 1,010 children and their guardians in highly migratory regions of Anhui and Jiangxi provinces located in China's interior. It uses propensity score matching, a technique that mitigates endogenity, to examine the impact of parental migrat...

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Main Authors: Zhou, M, Murphy, R, Tao, R
Format: Journal article
Published: Wiley 2014
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author Zhou, M
Murphy, R
Tao, R
author_facet Zhou, M
Murphy, R
Tao, R
author_sort Zhou, M
collection OXFORD
description This essay draws on an original cross‐sectional survey of 1,010 children and their guardians in highly migratory regions of Anhui and Jiangxi provinces located in China's interior. It uses propensity score matching, a technique that mitigates endogenity, to examine the impact of parental migration and post‐migration guardianship arrangements on the children's educational performance as measured by test scores for Chinese and mathematics. One core finding is that the educational performance of children is adversely affected by parental migration only when both parents migrate or when a non‐parent guardian is the principal carer. Additionally, longer durations of parental absence are associated with poorer educational performance. The migration of two parents only significantly adversely affects the educational performance of boys. There is no significant effect on the educational performance of girls. On the basis of our findings we argue that rather than support left‐behind children within the countryside, the long‐term policy response should be to remove the institutional obstacles that prevent family resettlement in the cities.
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spelling oxford-uuid:3eff71f6-f551-451b-9746-76b538f09cd32022-03-26T14:29:13ZEffects of parents' migration on the education of children left behind in rural ChinaJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:3eff71f6-f551-451b-9746-76b538f09cd3Symplectic Elements at OxfordWiley2014Zhou, MMurphy, RTao, RThis essay draws on an original cross‐sectional survey of 1,010 children and their guardians in highly migratory regions of Anhui and Jiangxi provinces located in China's interior. It uses propensity score matching, a technique that mitigates endogenity, to examine the impact of parental migration and post‐migration guardianship arrangements on the children's educational performance as measured by test scores for Chinese and mathematics. One core finding is that the educational performance of children is adversely affected by parental migration only when both parents migrate or when a non‐parent guardian is the principal carer. Additionally, longer durations of parental absence are associated with poorer educational performance. The migration of two parents only significantly adversely affects the educational performance of boys. There is no significant effect on the educational performance of girls. On the basis of our findings we argue that rather than support left‐behind children within the countryside, the long‐term policy response should be to remove the institutional obstacles that prevent family resettlement in the cities.
spellingShingle Zhou, M
Murphy, R
Tao, R
Effects of parents' migration on the education of children left behind in rural China
title Effects of parents' migration on the education of children left behind in rural China
title_full Effects of parents' migration on the education of children left behind in rural China
title_fullStr Effects of parents' migration on the education of children left behind in rural China
title_full_unstemmed Effects of parents' migration on the education of children left behind in rural China
title_short Effects of parents' migration on the education of children left behind in rural China
title_sort effects of parents migration on the education of children left behind in rural china
work_keys_str_mv AT zhoum effectsofparentsmigrationontheeducationofchildrenleftbehindinruralchina
AT murphyr effectsofparentsmigrationontheeducationofchildrenleftbehindinruralchina
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