The Consequences of Migration for Child Well-being in Sending Areas

描述(申请人提供)：不断增加的国内和国际移徙影响了发展中国家越来越多的儿童。当父母中的一方或双方离开去别处找工作时，这些孩子中的大多数都被留了下来。移徙是父母缺席的一种不同形式，可能会以复杂的方式影响这些儿童，由于父母缺席而产生相当大的社会成本，但通过汇款带来经济利益。然而，越来越多的文献没有在一个单一的框架内审查移徙的这些多重影响及其调解机制。拟议的项目将在两个发展中环境中审查父母外迁对儿童福祉的影响。本项目利用墨西哥和印度尼西亚的高质量纵向数据集，具有良好的可比性和丰富的微观和宏观信息(墨西哥家庭生活调查和印度尼西亚家庭生活调查)，并建立在国际家庭生活调查的概念框架上，试图：(1)考察移民对墨西哥和印度尼西亚留守儿童幸福感关键方面(教育状况、认知发展和健康)的有利和不利影响；(2)探索各种社会经济、心理社会和行为因素如何中介移民对儿童福祉的影响；(3)评估结果在两种移民流(国内移民和跨国外出移民)上的概括性；以及(4)检查结果在两种研究环境中的概括性。将使用纵向数据分析方法(固定和随机效应建模)来加强因果关系主张。这项研究将是对发展中环境中移民留守儿童的第一次全面研究。它概述并测试了一个复杂的概念框架，考察了迁出移民对一系列儿童结果的有益和破坏性影响。这些发现将有助于关于移民是否以及如何影响发展中社会儿童福祉的辩论。比较分析的结果将产生一个更充分的框架，能够更好、更广泛地解释外迁对儿童的影响。在这项研究中开发和改进的概念框架和分析方法都可以适用于其他环境，并有助于为未来的工作提供信息。 公共卫生相关性：这项研究将提供全面和有力的信息，说明迁出对儿童健康、教育和认知发展的影响。这些信息可以为地方政府和全球发展组织(如美国国际开发署和联合国儿童基金会)制定干预计划提供参考，以加强好处，同时降低迁出移民对儿童健康和福祉的成本。1

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Rising internal and international migration has affected a growing number of children in developing countries. Most of these children are left behind as one or both parents leave to seek work elsewhere. Migration represents a distinct form of parental absence, and is likely to affect these children in complex ways, generating sizeable social costs as a result of parental absence, but bringing economic benefits through remittances. However, the growing body of literature has not examined these multiple influences of migration and their mediating mechanisms within a single framework. The proposed project will examine the effects of parental out-migration on child well-being in two developing settings. Using high-quality longitudinal datasets from Mexico and Indonesia with excellent comparability and rich micro- and macro-level information (the Mexican Family Life Survey and the Indonesia Family Life Survey), and building on a conceptual framework developed in the PI's previous work, this project seeks to: (1) examine both the beneficial and detrimental impacts of migration on key aspects of well-being (educational status, cognitive development, and health) of children left behind in Mexico and Indonesia; (2) explore how various socioeconomic, psychosocial, and behavioral factors mediate the effects of migration on child well-being; (3) assess the generalizability of results across two streams of migration (within-country and cross-country out- migration); and (4) examine the generalizability of results across the two research settings. Longitudinal data analysis methods (fixed- and random-effect modeling) will be used to strengthen causal claims. This research will be the first comprehensive study of children left behind by migrants in developing settings. It outlines and tests a complex conceptual framework, examining both beneficial and disruptive effects of out- migration on a wide array of child outcomes. Findings will contribute to the debate on whether and how migration shapes child well-being in developing societies. Results from the comparative analysis will lead to a more adequate framework that can better and more broadly interpret the consequences of out-migration for children. Both the conceptual framework and the analytic approach developed and refined in this research can be adapted in other settings and help inform future work. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This research will provide comprehensive and robust information on the effects of out-migration on children's health, education, and cognitive development. Such information can inform the design of intervention programs by local governments and global development organizations such as USAID and UNICEF, to reinforce the benefits while mitigating the costs of out-migration for children's health and well-being. 1