留守儿童更信任他人吗?来自实验经济学的证据

文章采用经典的信任博弈框架,用实验经济学方法比较城市儿童、农村留守儿童和农村非留守儿童的信任行为。实验结果发现,农村留守儿童对他人的信任水平显著高于城市儿童,而农村留守儿童和非留守儿童的信任水平没有显著差异。在控制了性别、民族、兄弟姐妹数量等人口学特征后,农村身份对儿童的信任水平有显著正向影响,父母双方外出务工、一方外出务工对信任水平均无显著影响。从被信任度来看,三组儿童中,城市儿童被信任度最低,农村留守儿童被信任度最高,但考虑人口学特征后,农村身份、留守身份均不影响被信任度。结合儿童在利他实验中的表现,文章还发现在利他行为中表现为无私型的儿童比平等型和恶意型有更高的信任水平。研究结果表明与同年龄城市儿童相比,农村儿童而不仅是农村留守儿童更信任他人。     

留守儿童的竞争偏好:基于自我竞争的视角

儿童的竞争偏好是一种重要的非认知能力,对儿童早期人力资本形成至关重要。已有研究发现,在社会竞争（与他人竞争）情境中,留守儿童和非留守儿童存在竞争偏好差异。文章基于实地实验,从自我竞争的视角进一步探讨留守儿童的竞争偏好。结果表明：在自我竞争情境中,留守儿童和非留守儿童之间无论是在竞争偏好方面,还是在为自己设定任务目标方面,都没有显著差异。这意味着,父母缺席主要影响儿童的社会竞争态度,对儿童挑战自我或自我提升的意愿影响并不显著。在不涉及社会交往的竞争时,留守儿童和非留守儿童一样具有较高的进取心。     

父母外出打工对留守儿童的学业成绩的影响-基于性别差异的视角

伴随着大规模的“打工潮”而来的农村“留守儿童”群体数量迅速增长,已成为严重制约我国巩固提高义务教育水平,推进义务教育均衡发展的瓶颈之一。针对面临的“留守儿童”严峻的现实问题,本研究基于“中国西部地区基础教育发展项目”监测与评价调查数据,运用倍差估计方法,分析了父母外出打工及返乡对农村留守儿童学习成绩的影响。研究发现,（父母）外出打工者的性别对子女成绩的影响存在明显的差异。父亲外出打工对留守儿童学习成绩并无显著影响,而母亲外出打工会对留守儿童学习成绩产生显著的负效应。对于留守儿童而言,相对于父亲监护类型,母亲监护更有利于儿童的学业成绩。此外,父母外出打工之后是否遐乡并不会显著的提高留守子女的成绩,这是因为父母外出打工对留守子女学习成绩的影响同时存在“收入效应”和“教养缺失效应”的双重作用,打工带来的家庭经济状况好转在很大程度上弥补了父母养育角色缺失所导致的社会化过程不完整的不利影响。     

父母外出务工对农村留守儿童身心健康的影响研究

基于2015-2016年五个国定贫困县137所农村小学两期追踪调查数据,文章利用倾向得分匹配与差分模型相结合的方法实证分析了农村劳动力外出务工对留守儿童身心健康的影响及其作用机制。研究发现,父母外出总体上并不会影响儿童的身体健康,但对儿童的心理健康有显著的消极影响。进一步的检验发现,父母外出务工的"分离效应"会显著降低儿童的身心健康水平,而"收入效应"会显著改善儿童的身心健康,抵消"分离效应"的负面影响。在留守儿童规模不断扩大的背景下,充分发挥父母外出的"收入效应",减少"分离效应"是缓解农村留守儿童身心健康问题的基本思路。     

亲子沟通对农村留守儿童安全感的影响研究

文章利用马斯洛的安全感-不安全感问卷(S-1)及自编问卷对留守儿童的安全感进行测试,旨在研究亲子沟通对农村留守儿童安全感的影响,得出以下结果:留守儿童的安全感在性别、年龄、留守时间等变量差异不显著;留守儿童的安全感与亲子沟通频率上存在显著性差异(P<0.001),亲子沟通越频繁,留守儿童的安全感就越好;农村留守儿童的安全感在亲子沟通方式上存在显著性的差别(P<0.05),正面积极的亲子沟通有利于留守儿童安全感的发展.因此认为亲子分离后,亲子沟通的频率与方式显著影响着留守儿童安全感的发展.     

微天下

正世界上最贵的咖啡——猫屎咖啡的完整制作过程(主角是麝香猫)。看完你还想喝吗?他们没有星二代的娇贵幸福,他们也不奢求像星二代一样娇滴滴地问"爸爸去哪儿",他们最卑微的愿望就是"爸妈回家吧"!他们享受不到完整的父母亲情,感受不到公平的教育,呼吸不到自由和尊严的空气。在关注"爸爸去哪儿"的同时,我们更应该关注的是5800万的留守儿童。     

关爱救助贵州省农村留守儿童的对策建议

文章介绍了贵州省农村留守儿童的概况,论述了关爱救助农村留守儿童的必要性,提出关爱救助农村留守儿童的对策建议:推进户籍制度改革,为留守儿童随父母流动提供制度保障;贯彻执行"雁归兴贵"计划,促进留守儿童父母返乡创业就业;着力"去标签化"管理,建立隐性关爱机制;实施儿童福利主任模式,创新留守儿童关爱机制。     

为“留守儿童”撑起爱的蓝天——金溪县“留守儿童”教育管理的尝试与成效

＂留守儿童＂是伴随我国经济发展产生的一个社会问题。他们正处于成长发育的关键时期,无法享受到父母的引导和帮助,成长中缺少父母情感上的关注和呵护,极易走入误区。本文通过对金溪县＂留守儿童＂生存现状的调查研究,分析了＂留守儿童＂中存在的一些主要问题及其产生原因,着重阐述了金溪县政府针对这些问题及其产生原因,采取多种有效措施创新教育管理,从政府、家庭、社会、教育界各方面集思广益,加强对＂留守儿童＂的人文关爱,形成全社会关爱＂留守儿童＂的良好风貌。     

农村地区留守儿童心理健康问题的现状及对策

儿童是国家发展壮大的潜在力量,是教育工作者不可忽视的重要教育对象,而留守儿童作为该群体中的特殊因子,其产生的根本原因源于经济社会的发展。他们父母离土离乡的这种营生模式,为我国的经济发展贡献了巨大力量,但遗憾的是,缺少父母的陪伴使得他们的心理得不到父母的守护,一定程度上,可以说留守儿童是经济发展的"牺牲品"。留守儿童的心理问题不仅关乎儿童自身的成长变化,也关乎我国农村教育发展的成效,更关乎我国教育大业的发展成果。要利用我们的综合国力扭转当下留守儿童的不利局面,密切关注留守儿童的心理状况,解决留守儿童的心理问题,做好留守儿童的心理建设,用经济实力照亮每一位留守儿童的心理历程。     

农村留守儿童的亲情饥渴——以广西兴业县高峰镇新李村为例

随着农村剩余劳动力大规模流入城市，出现了一个特殊的弱势群体——留守儿童，并衍生出日益突出的留守儿童教育问题。调查研究发现，父母外出打工后，留守儿童与父母在情感上产生了距离，而父母和监护人又往往忽略了他们的内心世界和情感需求，在相互沟通时，很少有情感上的交流，不能满足留守儿童的情感需要，因而导致留守儿童存在严重的亲情渴望。基于研究结论，从家庭、学校和社会（社区）的角度提出了具有理论价值和现实意义的改善留守儿童情感状况的建议。     

The health of left-behind children in rural China

Child health is not only a key indicator of overall quality of public health, but also vital for the future economic development of a country. In recent years, with unprecedented urbanization of China, many children in rural areas have been left behind while their parents migrate to urban areas to seek employment opportunities. Thus, it is considerably important for us to understand the effects of lack of parental care on the health status of left-behind children. Using data from China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), we find that the left-behind children in rural areas are significantly 20.0% more likely to get sick or develop chronic conditions than those living with their parents. We also find that girls are more vulnerable than boys and younger children are more vulnerable than older children to lack of parental care.     

No longer left-behind: The impact of return migrant parents on children's performance

Using data from a rural household survey in China in 2009, we examine the impact of parental migration on children's educational outcomes. Consistent with the findings of a large empirical literature, we find that parental migration has a significantly negative impact on left-behind children's educational outcomes as measured by test scores in Chinese and math. But unlike much of the existing studies on the subject, we focus on the remediation effect of return migrant parents on once left-behind children's performance. This empirical strategy allows us to avoid the endogeneity issue concerning the migration decision that may have contaminated previous studies. We find evidence that return migrant parents help alleviate the harms caused by parental migration, and the remediation effect is stronger for children attending middle schools, and stronger for daughters. We also find suggestive evidence that return migrant parents improve children's performance through increases in after-school study time and education-related expenditures, following the return of migrant parents.     

When left-behind children become adults and parents: The long-term human capital consequences of parental absence in China

This study examines the long-term effects of childhood left-behind experience on human capital outcomes across two generations in China. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we find evidence that adults with left-behind experience in early life have fewer schooling years, lower cognitive test scores, a lower Big Five personality traits index, but a higher internal locus of control. Meanwhile, they are more likely to report underweight, chronic diseases, depression, and lower levels of perceived health and happiness. Our findings of the negative consequences on personality traits and health outcomes are robust to a battery of specification and validity tests. These effects also differ markedly by adults' gender, birth cohort, hukou status, and the characteristics of left-behind experience (i.e., type, timing, and duration). Further, our results also suggest a potential intergenerational transmission mechanism in which human capital loss is induced by one's early-life exposure to parental absence. Specifically, one's childhood left-behind experience is also inversely associated with their offspring's outcomes such as Big Five noncognitive skills, birth weight, and height-for-age z-score. Although adults with left-behind experience are inclined to spend more time with offspring compared with their non-left-behind counterparts, they also tend to have significantly poorer household socioeconomic outcomes and less offspring educational investment.     

社会主义新农村建设中“留守子女”教育问题的思考

近几年,农村剩余劳动力的大规模转移,导致了一大批享受不到父母关爱、得不到学校良好教育的农民工“留守子女”这一特殊群体的出现,并逐步引起社会越来越多的关注。     

Parental migration,educational achievement,and mental health of junior high school students in rural China

China's rapid development has led to an unprecedented increase in migration rates as an ever-growing number of rural residents migrate to urban areas to seek better job opportunities and help alleviate family poverty. Economic pressures and structural restrictions force many of these migrant workers to leave their children behind in their rural homes, which has led to the emergence and expansion of a new subpopulation in China: left-behind children (LBCs). This study examines the impacts of parental migration on the educational outcomes (specifically math achievement) and mental health (specifically anxiety) of LBCs using data covering 7495 children in a prefecture of Shaanxi Province (from three surveys conducted between 2012 and 2014). We distinguish between “both parents migrating,” “one parent migrating,” “only a father migrating,” and “only a mother migrating.” We also explore the impacts on male versus female LBCs. We find no significant impact of parental migration on the math achievement of LBCs. In terms of mental health, however, our results indicate that left-behind girls were negatively affected by one parent migrating, especially if the migrating parent was the father. The findings suggest that it may not be necessary for policy makers to design special programs to improve educational outcomes of LBCs in general. However, local committees, schools, and parents should pay particular attention to left-behind girls living with only one parent, as they may be more vulnerable to mental health problems than their peers.     

Leave behind or migrate? Evidence from a field experiment in China concerning the impact of being left behind/migrating status on children's behaviour and preferences

With the great economic and social development achieved in China in the past 40 years of reform and opening up has come the extensive flow of China's very large rural labour force between urban and rural areas and among regions, as well as populations of left-behind children and migrant children who cannot be ignored. In this paper, four populations—non-left-behind children in rural areas, left-behind children in rural areas, migrant children in urban areas, and local children in urban areas—were recruited in a large-scale field experiment that included the dictator game, ultimatum game, trust game, public goods game, coin-tossing task, intertemporal choice task, a calculation contest task, and a gambling task. Both being left behind and migrating had a negative effect on the children's prosocial behaviour (including fairness, trust, trustworthiness, cooperation, and honesty) and economic decision-making (including time and competition preferences). Moreover, the effect on migrant children was relatively greater, but this effect dissipated progressively as time since migration increased. Additionally, shorter migration distances were associated with a decreased effect of migration on migrant children, and having access to one parent had a positive effect on left-behind children.     

Parental socioeconomic status and children’s cognitive ability in China

It is widely recognized that intergenerational transmission is one of the primary causes of persistent social inequality. Using nationally representative data, the China Family Panel Studies, this paper is one of the first to comprehensively investigate parental SES and children’s cognitive outcomes in China and moves beyond existing work by accounting for the direct intergenerational transmission of cognitive ability and by examining various novel mechanisms. Our results show that parents’ education rather than income is positively associated with their children’s cognitive abilities. The analysis of mechanisms shows that educational disparity widens the gap in parental investment, as well as parental beliefs regarding education and expectations for their children. Nevertheless, we do not find differences in parenting productivity. In addition, we find that the impact is more prominent in rural areas where education resources are much more limited. Various tests have been performed to prove the robustness of our findings.