Parental Migration, Social Support, and Positive Child Development in Rural China

This study describes constructs and patterns of positive child development in several important respects of child developmental outcomes, compares children of non-migrant families with left-behind children with one or both parents working in the cities, and explores the role of social support in predicting positive child development and mediating or moderating the parental migration effects. Data used in this study were from a longitudinal study on rural children conducted in Yulin City, Guangxi Province in 2010 with social support variables measured in wave 1 and child developmental outcomes measured in wave 2; the two waves were six months apart. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression analyses were conducted to examine associations of parental migration and social support with the outcome variables controlling for demographic characteristics. Preliminary results show that among the four aspects of positive development, only mental well-being exhibits significant group differences with children without parental migration the most advantaged and children with two-parent migration most disadvantaged. Teacher support and family support are significant and beneficial for some outcomes in some subgroups of children but peer support is never significant in the presence of teacher and family support.