Education and Health Consequences of Parental Migration on Children

世界人口的50%以上居住在城市地区，移民（国内和国际）继续增加，并日益影响到家庭中的更多儿童。据估计，在非洲、亚洲和拉丁美洲，有15%到30%的儿童生活在父母中至少有一方是移民的家庭中。儿童与父母的长期分离可能对儿童的教育和健康产生长期的负面影响。教育是现代社会的引擎，是当今儿童职业向上流动的重要资源和投资。为了加强我们对这一关键问题的理解，研究者将研究流动人口（中国大量留守儿童）的教育和健康结果。在过去的三十年里，中国经历了人类历史上最大规模的人口流动。这一大规模的移民浪潮也导致了一个主要的弱势群体，即大约6100万留守儿童，他们的父母去中国的城市工作。研究人员将对中国农村四年级留守儿童进行主要的数据收集。数据收集包括四年级学生在1-4年级的成绩单，班主任？学生教育和行为结果的书面评估，学生心理健康评估，以及抽样学生的家庭调查。该研究还包括对各种教育成果和学生心理健康的分析。使用新收集的数据和现有的纵向数据，研究者将检查健康和行为结果。利用关于移民的丰富信息，该研究考察了各种与移民相关的变量（移民持续时间、汇款和移民距离）如何影响留守儿童的教育、健康和行为结果。该项目为中国农村留守儿童研究建立了重要的数据和研究基础设施，并允许美国研究人员开展与移民和儿童福祉相关的各种研究课题。随着21世纪国内和国际移民的持续增加，全面了解移民及其对儿童的影响不仅对中国很重要，而且对其他国家的留守儿童（无论是由于国内移民还是父母的国际移民）也有影响。该项目收集了四川省1000名四年级在校生（包括留守儿童和父母未迁移的儿童）的数据。这些数据包括：(a)回顾四年级学生从一年级到四年级的成绩单；(b)四年级学生的数学和语文考试；(c)班主任？评估每个学生的教育表现和行为问题，以及(d)对学生情感发展的调查。研究组还将对1000个学生家庭进行调查，收集家庭基本社会经济条件、父母的迁移、劳动史、父母的家访等家庭信息。这些数据将用于估计教育结果、行为结果和情感发展的统计模型，并检验将这些结果与移民、汇款、学校和社区环境以及同伴群体影响联系起来的各种假设。

Over 50% of the world population resides in urban areas and migration (both internal and international) continues to be on the rise and increasingly affects more children in the household. By some estimates, between 15 to 30% of children in Africa, Asia, and Latin America live in households with at least one migrant parent. The long-term separation of children from their parents may have long term negative education and health consequences for children. Education is the engine of modern society and an important resource and investment for today's children to upward career mobility. To enhance our understanding of this critical issue the investigator will study the education and health outcomes of migrant the large population of children left behind in China. For the past three decades, China has seen the largest internal migration in human history. This massive wave of migration has also resulted in a major vulnerable population, i.e. roughly 61 million of left behind children whose parents went to work in Chinese cities. The researcher will conduct a major data collection on 4th grade left behind children in rural China. The data collection includes 4th grade student transcripts during grades 1-4, homeroom teachers? written evaluations of student education and behavior outcomes, assessment of student mental health, and a household survey of sampled students. The study also consists of analyses of variety of education outcomes and student mental health. Using both newly collected data and existing longitudinal data the investigator will examine health and behavior outcomes. Taking advantage of rich information on migration, the research examines how a variety of migration related variables (duration of migration, remittance, and distance of migration) affect education, health, and behavior outcomes for left behind children. The project builds major data and research infrastructure for the study of left behind children in rural China and allows U.S. based researchers to carry out a variety of research topics related to migration and the well-being of children. As both internal and international migration continues to increase in the 21st century, a comprehensive understanding of migration and outcomes for children is not only important for China but also holds implications for left behind children (either due to internal migration or international migration of parents) in other countries as well. The project collects data on 1,000 current 4th grade students (both left behind children and children whose parents did not migrate) in the migrant-sending province of Sichuan province. These data include: (a) retrospective 4th grade student transcripts from grade 1 to grade 4; (b) Math and Chinese language tests of 4th graders; (c) homeroom teachers? evaluation of education performance and behavior issues of each student, and (d) a survey of student emotional development. The research team will also conduct a survey of 1,000 student households, collecting data on basic socioeconomic conditions of each household, migration and labor history of parents, and information on parental home visits along with other household level information. These data will be used to estimate statistical models of education outcomes, behavior outcomes, and emotional development and test a variety of hypotheses linking these outcomes to migration, remittances, school and community contexts, and peer group influences.