Applied Research in Quality of Life (2023) 18:2259–2293

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-023-10185-w

Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing

in Adulthood

Lijia Guo1,2

Received: 7 October 2022 / Accepted: 17 May 2023 / Published online: 5 June 2023
© The Author(s) 2023

Abstract
Parental absence due to parental migration has been a prevalent phenomenon in devel-
oping countries, occurring on an exceptionally large scale in China. While previous lit-
erature focused on the concurrent effects of parental migration on children, this study
aims to investigate whether the impact of parental absence during childhood is long-
term and lasts into adulthood. This study examines how individuals with childhood
experience of parental absence differ from their counterparts in their early adulthood, in
terms of their mental wellbeing, physical health, and cognitive ability. This study uses a
sample of 6031 individuals aged from 18 to 30 years old from a nationally representa-
tive dataset China Family Panel Studies. The results show that the childhood experience
of both-parental absence is negatively associated with individual’s mental and physical
health while positively associated with cognitive ability in their early adulthood.

Keywords Parental Absence · Long-Term Effect · Migration · Wellbeing · China

Introduction

From a human development perspective, as childhood is a critical early stage for indi-
vidual development, many scholars in different fields have been stressing the long-term
consequences of childhood circumstances (Case et al., 2005; Hayward & Gorman,
2004; Palloni et al., 2009). Family is supposed to be a nurturing and protective envi-
ronment for children, where parents are the main caregivers and provide children with
nutrition, love, and knowledge that enable children to develop well physically, mentally,
and cognitively. However, a large number of children have experienced the absence of
parents during childhood. Parental absence may be caused by various reasons, includ-
ing parental death, orphanage, single parenthood, parental separation and divorce, and

* Lijia Guo
[email protected]
1
Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1DQ, UK
2
Cambridge Public Health Interdisciplinary Centre, University of Cambridge,
Cambridge CB2 0SZ, UK

13
Vol.:(0123456789)
2260 L. Guo

parental migration. As parents provide the initial environment for the growth of indi-
viduals, it is crucial to understand how the experience of parental absence during child-
hood exerts an impact on individual development outcomes in the long run.
The role of family in children’s development has been a major area of research
(Lee & McLanahan, 2015). Scholars have found that children living with both of
their biological parents generally fare better than those not living with both biologi-
cal parents, in many respects of their lives, such as physical health, mental wellbe-
ing, educational and occupational attainment, as well as their own family lives in
adulthood (Amato, 2000, 2010; Aquilino, 1996; Fomby & Cherlin, 2007; Fursten-
berg et al., 1983; Gaydosh & Harris, 2018; Härkönen et al., 2017; McLanahan et al.,
2013; Osborne & McLanahan, 2007).
In the context of developing countries, parental absence has been prevalent in
recent decades, mainly due to parental migration, as labour migration has been a
constant large trend in developing countries. The situation of children coping with
parental absence due to migration would be very different from that in the case of
divorce and may lead to different results, as parents working away from home are
not divorced and families are still intact though not living together. Meanwhile, par-
ents working away from home may often earn a higher income and thus can provide
more economic resources for the children left behind at home. There is research lit-
erature showing insignificant or positive effects of parental migration and absence
on children’s wellbeing, in terms of physical, mental, and cognitive outcomes. How-
ever, the negative effects of parental absence documented in the context of parental
separation and divorce were also found in the context of parental migration in the
main body of the literature.
As previous studies focus on the effect of parental migration and absence on chil-
dren development, it is worth examining whether the effect is long-term and last-
ing even in their adulthood, leading to their life outcome different from people who
spend more time together with their parents during childhood.
However, research has not discussed the long-term effect of parental migra-
tion and absence on individual development, i.e., whether parental absence dur-
ing childhood influences individual’s outcomes and achievements in later lives
in various aspects including mental and physical health, and cognitive achieve-
ments. As these questions are still under-investigated, this study addresses the
research gap by examining the long-term effect of parental absence on individu-
als’ well-being and life outcomes in terms of mental and physical health, and
cognitive ability.
To study these questions, China is chosen to be the research setting. China,
the biggest and most populous developing country in the world, has witnessed
rapid economic development and tremendous social transformations in the past
decades. With a large scale of urbanisation and industrialisation, there has been
a massive internal migration of labour force in the country, from rural to urban
areas, from smaller cities to bigger cities, and from the less developed hinter-
land to more advanced coastal regions. In 1982, there were only around 6.5 mil-
lion migrants out of the total population of 1 billion, while the size increased

13
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing… 2261

to around 221 million in a country of 1.3 billion people in 2010 (Liang, 2016).
While a large number of migrants try to make a better living by finding jobs
with higher payment in places other than their hometown, their families are
facing the challenges of living separately, especially the children. Due to insti-
tutional and many other obstacles, it has been difficult for migrant workers to
take their children to move and live with them in the town or city in which
they work. Thus, many children have become “left-behind” by their parents and
live with their grandparents, other relatives, caregivers or even by themselves
at home. According to the 2010 Population Census in China, there were over
61 million left-behind children, including those living with one parent (Wang
et al., 2017).
Among the great number of children who have been affected by this large-
scale internal labour migration in China, those left behind by their parents at
home seem to generally fare worse compared with their counterparts who can
migrate and live together with their migrant parents. According to previous
empirical studies, left-behind children tend to have more housework load and less
time for study, sports, or leisure (Chang et al., 2011), unhealthy habits and behav-
iours (Gao et al., 2010; Yang et al., 2016), more mental problems due to the lack
of parental care and communication (Zhao & Guoliang, 2016; Wu et al., 2015;
Hu et al., 2014), higher risk of internet addiction and depression (Su et al., 2013;
Liu et al., 2010; Guo et al., 2015; He et al., 2012; Shi et al., 2016), and poorer
educational outcomes (Hu, 2012, 2013; Li et al., 2017; McKenzie & Rapoport,
2011; Zhao et al., 2014; Zhou et al., 2014). Although most research finds a nega-
tive effect of parental migration and absence on children’s development and well-
being, there are also inconsistent, unobvious, or even positive results (Ren &
Treiman, 2016; Shen et al., 2015; Wen et al., 2015; Xu & Xie, 2015; Zhou et al.,
2015).
While previous studies focus on the concurrent impact of parental absence
on children, no research has investigated the outcomes of left-behind children
in the longer term. Since the migration trend from the 1980s to now, among the
individuals who once had experienced parental migration and absence during
their childhood, some of them have now become adults. How have they been
in their adulthood? Does the childhood experience of parental absence still
have its influence and make this group of people more vulnerable than their
counterparts?
As this is a large-scale phenomenon affecting a great number of people, it
is imperative for researchers, policy-makers, and the general public to address
these issues.
In this study, by identifying the long-term impact of parental absence on
people’s well-being in the general population, we could have better insights
and understanding of the issue, and help formulate better social policies to
improve people’s welfare, for both urban families and rural families who become
disadvantaged due to institutional barriers and rapid social and economic
transformations.

13
2262 L. Guo

Theoretical Background and Research Questions

Family, Parents, and Individual Development

It has also been theorised, emphasised and widely documented in many studies that
individual characteristics, parental education, material resources, social capital,
social support and relationships, positive health behaviours and family environment
are crucially related to individuals’ development and wellbeing. Both family stress
model and family investment model underscore that economic and social resources
are closely linked to the development of both children and wellbeing of adults (Con-
ger et al., 2007), and economic hardship and financial difficulties often exacerbate
family stress, which in turn leads to a higher risk of physical, emotional, behavioural
problems, and lower cognitive development for children (Evans & English, 2002;
McLoyd, 1998; Oakes & Rossi, 2003). In addition, parents with greater educational
achievements would often invest more resources in children’s education, and facili-
tate the development of cognitive functioning and human capital of their offspring
from childhood into the adult years (Hoff, 2003; Mezzacappa, 2004).
In addition, parental acceptance-rejection theory postulates that experiences of
parental rejection, such as neglect, could have negative consequences on children’s
wellbeing that could extend into adulthood and old age (Rohner et al., 2012). In this
sense, the neglect caused by parental absence would have a negative impact on the
left-behind children’s wellbeing, and the effect may extend into their adulthood.

Early Attachment, Separation, and Later Outcomes

According to the attachment theory, an individual has an internal working model

of the world, in which the working models of self and attachment figure are promi-
nent and complementary, acquired through their prior social interactional experi-
ences and patterns (Bowlby, 1973). If the children’s need for both protection and
independent exploration of the environment is respected by their attachment figure,
the children tend to construct an internal working model of valued self; but if their
needs are otherwise frequently neglected by the parents, the children tend to develop
an internal working model of self as unworthy or incapable. The construction of
working models lays a foundation for individuals’ interpersonal behaviour patterns
and interpretation of social interactions, which have important consequences in their
later life. As the interaction experiences with the caregivers in the early years form
the basis of the internal working model, Bowlby indicated the great influence of
family micro-culture on the inheritance of mental health or illness, probably even
greater than genetic inheritance (Bretherton, 1992).
Substantial research evidence over the decades has shown that early secure attach-
ment is associated with better emotion regulation capabilities and social competence
(Cassidy et al., 2013; Cassidy, 1994; Sroufe et al., 2005; Thompson, 2008). A secure
tie with parents throughout childhood is essential for the acquisition of life skills and
the development of confidence, as responsive parents can provide a secure base from
which the children can boldly explore the environment and return for reassurance

13
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing… 2263

(Ainsworth, 1982), which in turn facilitate the development of positive self-percep-

tion (Bowlby, 1973; Hazan & Shaver, 1987; Reis & Shaver, 1988). People who have
an early secure attachment experience with caregivers tend to form working models
of other people as supportive, and this perception of social support availability in
adulthood again provides a safety net that allows more active exploration and experi-
mentation in life and thus facilitates the acquisition of self-confidence, skills, and
coping strategies (Sarason et al., 1990; Cutrona et al., 1994; Sarason et al., 1986).
Whereas, as Bowlby posited that major repeated and continuous threats of rejec-
tion or abandonment by parenting figures and other adverse family experiences may
cause excessive separation anxiety in children and considerable risk for unfavour-
able development, early adversity and disorganised attachment were found to be
markedly predictive of later psychopathology and emotional difficulties (Carlson,
1998; Main et al., 2011; Van Ijzendoorn et al., 1999).
There has been also research on the linkage between early attachment and later
health outcomes. The longitudinal study by Puig et al., (2013) documented that indi-
viduals identified as insecurely attached to mother at 18 months have a higher like-
lihood of reporting physical illnesses 30 years later. Studies also found that early
insecure attachment was linked to higher rates of obesity in later years (Anderson &
Whitaker, 2011; Anderson et al., 2012). A conceptual research model with empiri-
cal support proposes that early psychosocial experiences may become biologically
embedded at the molecular level and impact later immune system functioning
(Miller et al., 2011), and early adverse experiences may lead to neuroendocrine dys-
regulation and chronic inflammation, which is related to a range of ageing-related
illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases, and certain types of
cancer (Chung et al., 2009; Cassidy et al., 2013). Evidence shows that early inter-
actional experiences and attachment with caregivers influence the regulation of the
HPA axis such as cortisol reactivity and diurnal cortisol rhythms, which is a system
central to the body’s stress response, inflammatory response, and immune system
functioning (Gunnar & Quevedo, 2007; Luijk et al., 2010; Spangler & Grossmann,
1993; Adam et al., 2007). Besides, early warm experience of maternal care plays a
protective role in buffering the impact of early adversity on later health (Chen et al.,
2011). Research has also documented that attachment security is associated with
better school readiness and adjustment in school as well as academic performance
(Granot & Mayseless, 2001; Cassidy et al., 2013; Cutrona et al., 1994), as better
coping and prosocial skills are able to enhance the executive functioning and facili-
tate acquisition of cognitive skills and learning (Bernier et al., 2012; Jacobsen et al.,
1994; Sarason et al., 1986).

Life Course Perspective and Long‑Term Consequences of Early Adversity

As suggested by the life course perspective, it is crucial to take a long-term view

and consider the timing of the life events when studying the developmental pro-
cesses and outcomes, and prior experiences presumably have influences on later life
outcomes (Mayer, 2009; Elder et al., 2003). There has been a range of literature
studying the long-term impact of early life conditions on individual development

13
2264 L. Guo

and life-cycle wellbeing, demonstrating how early adversity and toxic stress can lead
to later impairments in physical and mental well-being, learning, and behaviours
(Currie & Rossin-Slater, 2015; Shonkoff et al., 2012; Mayer, 2009). Previous life
course research has documented that health in adulthood is associated with early
life conditions, and is affected by exposures to health-related stressors and risks for
those disadvantaged populations with enduring economic strain and discrimina-
tory experiences (Halfon & Hochstein, 2002; Pearlin et al., 2005). Poulton et al.,
(2002) use evidence from New Zealand and find that childhood experience of socio-
economic disadvantage is associated with poorer health in adulthood. Another study
based on New Zealand data has shown childhood maltreatment and early life stress
are associated with a higher risk of inflammation and poorer health in adulthood
(Danese et al., 2007). Ferraro et al., (2016) also reveal in their research based on
the US dataset that childhood socioeconomic disadvantage and frequent parents
abuse tend to associate with health problems in childhood, fewer social resources
and lifestyle risks in adulthood, which in turn are related to the development of new
health problems in adulthood. Oshio et al., (2010) draw on nationwide survey data
from Japan and show that individuals with poorer family conditions in childhood
would have lower educational attainment, higher poverty risks, poorer health, and
feel less happy. Researchers have also found child abuse and neglect have long-term
consequences on the economic wellbeing of individuals in their adulthood (Currie
& Widom, 2010).

Resilience and Positive Development

From the perspective of the life course, the experience in childhood could impact
their later life. From the aforementioned literature regarding the important influence
of early childhood experience on later outcomes, adversity could be a factor with
the negative consequence (McDermott et al., 2012; Suor et al., 2015; Tomalski &
Johnson, 2010). Nevertheless, there is still some other literature on early adversity
that suggests evidence in the opposite direction that the adversity may boost positive
development later, resembling the posttraumatic growth and resilience in individual
development (Linley & Joseph, 2004; Butler, 2010; Joseph et al., 2005; Malhotra &
Chebiyan, 2016). For instance, some research has shown that childhood adversity
can actually enhance certain aspects of cognitive performance and executive func-
tioning in adults (Mittal et al., 2015). “Resilience is defined as the capacity of a sys-
tem to adapt successfully to significant challenges that threaten its function, viabil-
ity, or development” (Masten, 2018). Zimmerman et al., (2013) state that resilience
occurs when environmental, social, and individual factors that are promotive factors
which interrupt the trajectory from risk to pathology. In this sense, resilience theory
could help us understand why some youths grow up to be healthy adults despite
adverse circumstances or risk exposure (Zimmerman et al., 2013). Thus, while the
other theories predict that children separated from their parents at a young age will
experience negative consequences, it is not out of the question that we may find that
in some (or even all) aspects of wellbeing, children who have been separated from

13
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing… 2265

their parents will “bounce back” and do even better than children who have never
experienced separation.

Parental Absence and Individual Wellbeing in China

Wellbeing refers to the state of being happy, healthy, or prosperous. More generally,
well-being could include diverse aspects of development outcomes in an individu-
al’s life, such as having good mental health status, good physical health status, and
the ability of cognition (Statham & Chase, 2010). Therefore, this study explores the
research questions about how childhood experience of parental absence will impact
life outcomes in adulthood, including mental health, physical health, and cognitive
ability.
According to the theories of family and wellbeing, family environment and par-
ents play crucial roles in promoting individuals’ wellbeing and development out-
comes. Based on the theoretical background of attachment theory, secure attachment
bonds with parents are essential for one’s wellbeing while separation from parents
may cause insecurity and anxiety, which could have long-term detrimental conse-
quences for individuals. Although early adversity may result in negative later out-
comes, there are also scenarios that individuals may be resilient and have positive
development especially when there are promotive factors that may help buffer the
influence of adversity.
The theoretical background and empirical evidence in the previous literature
about the influence of early attachment and adversity experiences on mental health
condition, physical health condition, and acquisition of cognitive skills provides an
initial empirical basis for us to further pursue this line of research and to provide
evidence about the linkage between early experience with parents and later out-
comes in adulthood, situated in a different cultural context, i.e., migration and fam-
ily separation in China. Against the backdrop of the great migration tide in China,
people migrate to work, live away from home, and in many cases leave their children
behind at home without taking them to move and stay together in the destination
cities. While it is critical for children to stay with parents and to form consistent
secure ties with them, these left-behind children with the experience of separation
from parents during childhood may hardly be able to find this close attachment with
parents as their secure base to satisfy their needs for warmth and comfort as well
as support for bold exploration of the outside world. The lack of this early secure
attachment experience in childhood may well exert a lasting impact on individu-
als’ growth and development and thus have consequences in their later outcomes
in adulthood. On the other hand, however, those migrant parents may earn higher
income and probably invest more in children’s education and development, which
may buffer the negative influence of their absence and may even boost the positive
development of their children.
This controversy relating to the influence of parental absence on induvial deploy-
ment is one of the rationales for this study. As both socioeconomic resources and
close parent–child relationships play important roles in individual development
and wellbeing, the paradox or trade-off exists between parents’ migration for work

13
2266 L. Guo

purposes to obtain better economic resources (money) and children’s lack of com-
panionship due to separation from parents (time).
Thus, taking a long-term view in line with the life course perspective, this study
raises the research question: whether and how does parental absence in childhood
influence individuals’ wellbeing in adulthood, specifically their mental health, phys-
ical health, and cognitive ability?

Data and Methods

Data

The data used in this study is from the China Family Panel Studies. Specifically,
the sample in this study includes 6031 adults aged from 18 to 30 years old from the
2010 CFPS survey, who were born in or after 1980, since China’s reform and the
internal labour migration began. Thus, these adults might have experienced parental
migration and absence during childhood.

Measures

Dependent Variables

Several dimensions of individual development outcomes are employed as the

dependent variables in this study: mental health, physical health, and cognitive abil-
ity. The measures in this study include two subjective indicators, including mental
and physical health, and also one objective indicator, cognitive ability.

Mental Health Status Mental health is a key dependent variable used to measure
individual wellbeing. Mental health is measured by a set of questions relating to
symptoms of depression, based on the Kessler K6 mental distress scale (Prochaska
et al., 2012) which is widely used in the study of psychological health. CFPS 2010
applied a psychological scale consisting of six items to measure the mental state of
adults and children aged above 10 years old. The items ask respondents to evalu-
ate their perception of depressive mood, including whether they “feel depressed and
cannot cheer up no matter what you are doing”, “feel nervous”, “feel upset and can-
not remain calm”, “feel hopeless about the future”, “feel that everything is difficult”,
“think life is meaningless”. The respondent has been asked to report the frequency
of having these feelings in the past month, on a 5-point Likert scale (from “almost
every day” to “never”). The items have high internal consistency, showing that all
six questions relate to a single dimension and meet the needs of general analysis.
The aggregate score of these six items is then used as a measure of the respondent’s
mental health status, ranging from 6 to 30, with the higher score showing a less
depressed and healthier mental health status. Apart from using the aggregate score,
this study further conducts robustness checks using the Cronbach alpha score of the
six indicators to corroborate the results.

13
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing… 2267

Physical Health Status To measure physical health, the respondent’s self-rated

health status is used as the measure of the variable. The item is reflected by a 5-point
Likert scale (healthy to very unhealthy); the options are then reversely recoded as
“1” for “very unhealthy”, “2” for “unhealthy”, “3” for “relatively unhealthy”, “4” for
“fair”, “5” for “healthy”.

Cognitive Ability To measure cognitive ability, the 2010 CFPS baseline survey has
applied the word test and math test to assess and evaluate cognitive ability. The
aggregate score of the word test and the math test is used to represent the cognitive
ability of the individual, ranging from 0 to 58.

Independent Variable

Childhood Experience of Parental Absence This variable is about whether the indi-
vidual had the experience of both parents working away from home and not liv-
ing with them before age 12 during their childhood. In the CFPS 2010, questions
regarding the period of parents were not living together with the child before age 3
and during ages 4 to 12 were asked and thus can be combined to create the variable
“childhood experience of parental absence”, which is coded as a binary variable
with “0” representing “no parental absence during childhood before age 12”, and
“1” indicating “experienced parental absence before age 12”.

Control variables

As many other factors may influence an individual’s wellbeing, including individual

characteristics, socioeconomic status, family environment, and broader social envi-
ronment, this study uses several control variables.
The definitions and descriptive statistics of the explanatory variables in the analyt-
ical sample of adults are presented in Table 1, showing the mean or percentage of the
variable value distribution for the group of individuals who had experienced parental
absence in childhood and the group who did not have the experience, respectively.
There are very few missing values in the sample, as many variables have no missing
values and some variables have only fewer than 1% missing values. For some other
variables that have a higher percentage of missing values, the highest percentage is
6.38% for the variable family income, which is still in a relatively small and accept-
able range. The information is missing randomly due to the unavailable response by
the respondents to the questionnaire, and this would not cause a significant influence
on the results. Thus, the missing cases were omitted from the analysis.

Analytic Strategy

Multiple linear regression is used to examine the effects of independent variables

on an individual’s mental, physical, and cognitive outcomes. The model estimations
are represented by the following equation, with β representing the estimated coef-
ficients, and ε as the error term.

13
 Table 1  Definitions and descriptive statistics of the explanatory variables
2268

Variables Definition Mean (S.D.) or percentage

(Range / Category) Total sample Parental absence Parental presence

13
Childhood experience of parental Yes = 1 19.58% 100% -
absence No = 0 76.04% - 100%
Male Male = 1 47.01% 46.99% 47.03%
Female = 0 52.99% 53.01% 52.97%
Age Urban residence 18–30 years old 23.95 (3.70) 23.69 (3.70) 24.06 (3.69)
Urban = 1 47.52% 44.37% 48.98%
Rural = 0 52.48% 55.63% 51.02%
Father’s education (1–7) Illiterate / semi-illiterate = 1 2.61 (1.12) 2.64 (1.12) 2.62 (1.12)
Mother’s education Primary school = 2 2.13 (1.11) 2.10 (1.12) 2.16 (1.11)
(1–8) Junior high school = 3 3.29 (1.24) 3.25 (1.19) 3.34 (1.25)
Education (1–8) Senior high school = 4
2- or 3-year college = 5
4-year college/bachelor’s degree = 6
Master’s degree = 7
Doctoral degree = 8
Number of siblings 0–8 1.38 (1.19) 1.40 (1.10) 1.36 (1.21)
Family income In Chinese Yuan (5–2042105) 44311.68 (71943.97) 45903.19 (100169.8) 44472.41 (64430.19)
Log family income (1.61–14.53) 10.27 (0.92) 10.26 (0.93) 10.29 (0.91)
Having a job Yes = 1 49.21% 50.21% 48.74%
No = 0 46.06% 44.62% 46.84%
L. Guo
 Table 1  (continued)
Variables Definition Mean (S.D.) or percentage
(Range / Category) Total sample Parental absence Parental presence

Marital status Never married = 1 48.40% 48.18% 48.52%

Married = 2 50.21% 50.80% 49.93%
Cohabitation = 3 0.66% 0.59% 0.70%
Divorced = 4 0.60% 0.34% 0.70%
Widowed = 5 0.08% - 0.11%

In the analytical sample of adults, the age range is 18–30 years old. N=6031. Data are from the CFPS 2010. Family income refers to the total calculation of the five parts
of income of the household, i.e., wage income, total business income, property income, transfer income, and other income from all the family members who are economi-
cally connected
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing…
2269

13
2270 L. Guo

Y = α + β1 x1 + β2 x2 + β3 x3 + β4 x4 + ε

Y refers to individual’s mental, physical, and cognitive outcomes; x­ 1 represents

“parental absence” (“no parental absence before age 12” as reference category);
­x2 represents individual characteristics, i.e., gender and age; x­ 3 represents the fam-
ily environment and parents’ characteristics (i.e., parents’ education level, urban
or rural residence, and the number of siblings); and ­x4 represents individual’s edu-
cation level and family income at the current stage. This study first uses Ordinary
Least Square (OLS) regression to examine the effects; specifically, nested regression
models are utilized to estimate the effects of independent variables on dependent
variables.
To corroborate the validity of the results and deal with the endogeneity issue due
to unobserved or confounding variables, this study uses the propensity score match-
ing (PSM) approach (Abadie & Imbens, 2016; Heckman et al., 1998; Rosenbaum
& Rubin, 1983) to further estimate the linkage between early parental absence and
later outcomes, which could help reduce the bias by 58 to 96 per cent (Shadish et al.,
2008). As the differences between individuals who had early parental absence expe-
rience and those who did not may result from factors that influenced the parents’
decision to migrate other than the parental migration and absence per se, such as
parental education level, it is important to extract and distinguish the influence of
the parental migration and absence from other factors. The PSM method is therefore
used to achieve this purpose, by matching the individuals in the treatment group
(who had the parental absence experience) with the individuals in the control group
(who did not) based on selected individual and family characteristics and then com-
paring the outcome differences between the two matched samples. To do so, the
probability or propensity of the individual receiving the treatment, i.e., experienc-
ing parental absence, is first estimated by regressing the treatment variable (paren-
tal absence) on other covariates (individual and family characteristics), and the esti-
mated results are propensity scores, which are then used to match each individual in
the treatment group to the nearest neighbour in the control group, i.e., the individual
having the closest propensity score. In this sense, as the individuals in both groups
are almost identical in all aspects except for whether or not having received the treat-
ment itself, the differences in the outcomes between the two groups can be attrib-
uted to the effect of the treatment, i.e., parental absence experience (Lu & Treiman,
2011; Xu & Xie, 2015; Zhou et al., 2014). The mean of the differences between the
matched nearest neighbours, termed as the average effect of the treatment on the
treated, is thus estimated, and the estimated value is considered as the effect of the
parental absence experience on individuals’ outcomes in this study.

OLS Results

Parental Absence and Individuals’ Mental Health

This section first examines the linkage between parental absence during child-
hood and individuals’ mental health in adulthood. Table 2 demonstrates the OLS

13
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing… 2271

Table 2  Regression estimates Dependent variable: Mental health

of parental absence on mental
health status Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

Parental absence -0.844*** -0.842*** -0.834***

(-8.28) (-8.06) (-7.61)
Gender (ref = female) 0.119 0.095 0.229**
(1.45) (1.12) (2.51)
Age 0.558*** 0.531*** 0.311*
(3.46) (3.25) (1.75)
Age2 -0.011*** -0.011*** -0.007**
(-3.38) (-3.15) (-2.05)
Father’s education 0.032 0.015
(0.74) (0.31)
Mother’s education 0.011 -0.002
(0.23) (-0.04)
Urban residence 0.018 0.012
(0.20) (0.12)
No. of siblings -0.048 -0.037
(-1.22) (-0.87)
Education 0.076
(1.64)
Log family income 0.084
(1.56)
Having a job 0.018
(0.19)
Marital status
(ref = never married)
Married 0.595***
(4.89)
Cohabitation 0.110
(0.20)
Divorced -0.962
(-1.61)
Widowed -1.749
(-1.28)
Constant 20.629*** 20.886*** 22.885***
(10.82) (10.79) (10.55)
N 5738 5375 4809
R2 0.015 0.015 0.022
Adjusted ­R2 0.014 0.014 0.019
F 21.245 10.540 7.140

T statistics in parentheses. * p<0.10. ** p<0.05. *** p<0.01

13
2272 L. Guo

regression results of the experience of parental absence during childhood on indi-

viduals’ current mental health condition in their young adulthood. The independent
variable of interest is parental absence, and the dependent variable is mental health,
and different control variables are included in Model 1 – Model 3. Model 1 only
controls for individual characteristics, i.e., gender and age (Model 1: β = -0.844,
p < 0.01). Model 2 not only controls for individual characteristics, but also the fam-
ily environment and wider social environment, i.e., parents’ education, rural–urban
residency, and the number of siblings (Model 2: β = -0.842, p < 0.01). Based on
Model 2, Model 3 further controls for individuals’ own education level, log of fam-
ily income, employment status, and marital status (Model 3: β = -0.834, p < 0.01).
The coefficients of parental absence in Model 1-Model 3 consistently show that indi-
viduals’ mental health status is significantly and negatively associated with paren-
tal absence during childhood. Robustness check using the Cronbach alpha score of
the six indicators for mental health status has also been conducted, and consistent
results are presented in Table 13 in the Appendix.

Parental Absence and Individuals’ Physical Health

To examine the association between parental absence during childhood and indi-
viduals’ physical health in adulthood, this section estimates this linkage and presents
the OLS regression results in Table 3 below. Model 1 only controls for individual
characteristics, including gender and age (Model 1: β = -0.103, p < 0.01). Model 2
adds in family background and wider social environment, including parental educa-
tion, living residence in urban or rural areas, and the number of siblings (Model 2:
β = -0.098, p < 0.01). On the basis of Model 2, Model 3 further adds in individuals’
own education level, log of family income, employment status, and marital status
(Model 3: β = -0.083, p < 0.01). In all of three models, individuals’ physical health
status is significantly and negatively associated with parental absence during child-
hood. It could also be noted in Model 3 that education and family income positively
contribute to physical health. As suggested by previous research, more educa-
tion may contribute to more health knowledge and better health habits, and higher
income may contribute to better nutrition, living conditions, and healthier lifestyles
(Conger et al., 2007). This result also implies that with higher educational levels
and higher family income, that is better socioeconomic resources, individuals tend
to have better health conditions.

Parental Absence and Individuals’ Cognitive Ability

Table 4 presents regression results of the impact of parental absence on individuals’

cognitive ability during childhood. Model 1 only controls for individual character-
istics (Model 1: β = 0.003); Model 2 adds in family background and wider social
environment (Model 2: β = 0.725, p < 0.10); and Model 3 further controls for indi-
viduals’ own educational level, log of family income, employment status, and mari-
tal status (Model 3: β = 1.056, p < 0.01). Interestingly, an individual’s cognitive abil-
ity appears to be positively associated with parental absence during childhood. In

13
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing… 2273

Table 3  Regression estimates Dependent variable: Physical health

of parental absence on physical
health status Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

Parental absence -0.103*** -0.098*** -0.083***

(-5.15) (-4.66) (-3.80)
Gender (ref = female) 0.033** 0.031* 0.022
(2.05) (1.81) (1.20)
Age 0.082*** 0.090*** 0.059*
(2.59) (2.73) (1.67)
Age2 -0.002*** -0.002*** -0.002**
(-3.18) (-3.32) (-2.28)
Father’s education 0.007 0.002
(0.85) (0.16)
Mother’s education 0.004 -0.009
(0.40) (-0.87)
Urban residence 0.017 -0.006
(0.92) (-0.30)
No. of siblings 0.010 0.011
(1.30) (1.25)
Education 0.022**
(2.37)
Log family income 0.023**
(2.15)
Having a job 0.021
(1.12)
Marital status
(ref = never married)
Married -0.010
(-0.41)
Cohabitation 0.072
(0.65)
Divorced -0.081
(-0.68)
Widowed -0.353
(-1.29)
Constant 3.904*** 3.778*** 3.899***
(10.39) (9.74) (9.00)
N 5764 5399 4832
R2 0.018 0.019 0.023
Adjusted ­R2 0.018 0.018 0.020
F 26.707 13.198 7.416

T statistics in parentheses. * p<0.10. ** p< 0.05. *** p<0.01

13
2274 L. Guo

Table 4  Regression estimates Dependent variable: Cognitive ability

of parental absence on cognitive
ability Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

Parental absence 0.003 0.725* 1.056***

(0.01) (1.94) (3.58)
Gender (ref = female) 1.226*** 0.385 0.462*
(3.64) (1.27) (1.89)
Age -2.434*** -2.964*** -5.613***
(-3.69) (-5.08) (-11.75)
Age2 0.036*** 0.050*** 0.104***
(2.64) (4.09) (10.60)
Father’s education 2.407*** 0.549***
(15.48) (4.33)
Mother’s education 1.677*** 0.041
(10.05) (0.30)
Urban residence 3.685*** 0.448*
(11.18) (1.68)
No. of siblings -2.041*** -0.653***
(-14.48) (-5.72)
Education 7.111***
(57.10)
Log family income 0.424***
(2.96)
Having a job -2.594***
(-10.11)
Marital status
(ref = never married)
Married -0.521
(-1.59)
Cohabitation -2.023
(-1.37)
Divorced 0.706
(0.44)
Widowed -8.158**
(-2.22)
Constant 75.445*** 71.778*** 84.789***
(9.67) (10.40) (14.55)
N 5761 5396 4829
R2 0.043 0.277 0.595
Adjusted ­R2 0.042 0.276 0.594
F 64.613 258.259 472.183

T statistics in parentheses. * p<0.10. ** p<0.05. *** p<0.01

13
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing… 2275

Model 1, the coefficient of parental absence is insignificant. The coefficient becomes

significant at the 10% level in Model 2 with controlling factors of the family envi-
ronment. In Model 3, the coefficient becomes even larger and more significant at the
1% level when adding control variables of individuals’ own socioeconomic condi-
tions. This increased level of effect is particularly due to the adding of the variable
of individuals’ educational level. Although the coefficient of parental absence is less
significant in the model with fewer control variables, adding more control variables
makes the estimated coefficient of parental absence more significant and stronger.
This could imply that the influence of parental absence on cognitive ability is associ-
ated with the influence of other variables, and its effect could be confounded when
the essential covariates are omitted in the model. To further test this result, the next
section conducts propensity score matching.

PSM Results

First‑Stage Regression

This section conducts propensity score matching to test the robustness of the OLS
results, and starts with the first stage logistic regression. Table 5 shows the results
of the first stage logistic regression of parental absence on the relevant covariates.
In PSM models, the covariates determining the propensity score are those inde-
pendently influencing both the treatment variable (whether or not had the paren-
tal absence experience) and the outcome variable (current mental health, physical
health, or cognitive ability). Thus, both individual characteristics (individuals’ gen-
der and age) and family background (parental educational level, number of siblings,
and living residence in urban or rural areas) are controlled for in Model 1 in Table 5.
However, the individual’s current education, family income, employment status, and
marital status are not included in the models, because these variables represent the
current conditions in adulthood that happen after childhood experiences.
With the intention to improve the first stage regression in Model 1, Model 2 fur-
ther includes another four covariates that may determine the propensity of parental
absence, i.e., hardwork_m, famrich_f, talent_f, and network_m. These four covari-
ates reflect the attitudes and perspectives of the individual’s parents towards life and
society. Hardwork_m represents the mother’s attitude toward hard work, measured by
a 5-point Likert scale on the extent of agreement with the following statement: “In
today’s society, hard work is rewarded”. Famrich_f represents the father’s perception
of the role of family wealth in a child’s success, measured by a 5-point Likert scale
on the extent of agreement with the following statement: “A child from a rich fam-
ily has a better chance of succeeding in the future; a child from a poor family has
a worse chance of succeeding in the future.” Talent_f represents the father’s attitude
towards the role of talent in one’s success, measured by a 5-point Likert scale on the
extent of agreement with the following statement: “The most important factor affect-
ing one’s future success is his/her talent.” Network_m represents the mother’s percep-
tion about the role of the social network in one’s success, measured by a 5-point Likert
scale on the extent of agreement with the following statement: “The most important

13
2276 L. Guo

Table 5  First stage logistic Parental absence

regression of parental absence
on the relevant covariates Model 1 Model 2

Gender (ref = female) -0.011 0.027

(-0.16) (0.23)
Age -0.025*** -0.022
(-2.69) (-1.31)
Father’s education 0.056 0.064
(1.57) (1.11)
Mother’s education -0.052 -0.109*
(-1.36) (-1.77)
Urban residence -0.121 -0.183
(-1.61) (-1.46)
No. of siblings 0.021 -0.013
(0.67) (-0.23)
Hardwork_m 0.160**
(2.03)
Famrich_f -0.155***
(-2.94)
Talent_f 0.162***
(2.80)
Network_m 0.140**
(2.12)
Constant -0.788*** -2.149***
(-3.06) (-3.54)
N 5401 2345
Pseudo ­R2 0.0030 0.0172

T statistics in parentheses. * p<0.10. ** p<0.05. *** p<0.01

factor affecting one’s future success is whether his/her family has ‘connections’”. The
answers to these questions are coded as “1” for “strongly disagree”, “2” for “disagree”,
“3” for “neither agree nor disagree”, “4” for “agree”, and “5” for “strongly agree”. The
availability of information on the individuals’ parents depends on whether their par-
ents live together with the individuals in the same household and whether their parents
have valid questionnaires. In the dataset, the information of the parents’ attitudes is
available for about half of the individuals in our analytical sample. Although it is not
ideal that the data is only available for about half of the analytical sample, using the
available information could still provide us with an idea of how the attitudes of parents
may influence their propensity to migrate away from home for work purposes.
As shown in Table 5, adding the four attitudinal covariates does improve the
model, and these variables are significantly related to parental absence. Mother’s
acknowledgement of the role of hard work and social network, and father’s acknowl-
edgement of the importance of talent in one’s success are associated with a higher
probability of parental migration and absence. This indicates their aspiration for a

13
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing… 2277

Table 6  PSM estimates of parental absence on mental health status

ATET Coef AI Robust Std. Err z P>z [95% Conf. Interval] N

(1) PSM -0.9081951 .1318406 -6.89 0.000 -1.166598 -.6497923 5375

(2) PSM with -0.5678392 .2323521 -2.44 0.015 -1.023241 -.1124374 2329
extra vari-
ables

After including covariates of parental attitudes in the (2) PSM with extra variables, as some samples
include missing values, the number of samples was reduced

better life outcome, and aim for a better future by investing in more effort, which
could increase their propensity of migration to look for better opportunities. How-
ever, father’s acknowledgement of the role of family wealth is associated with a lower
likelihood of parental migration. This may indicate that if the father believes family
wealth can be a determinant factor for one’s success, then he tends to belittle the role
of personal effort, which may reduce his motivation for migrating away. These atti-
tudes not only influence the likelihood of their own migration decisions, but may also
be associated with their offspring’s growth and developmental outcomes.

PSM Results

By matching people in families with similar characteristics, we could reduce the

selection bias and compare those individuals with a similar probability of experienc-
ing parental absence. In doing so, we could better detect the effect of the parental
absence per se, rather than being confounded by the family characteristics that may
have an influence on both parental absence and individuals’ outcomes.
Table 6 presents the PSM estimates of parental absence on mental health status.
The first row reports the result of the PSM model that only includes the covariates
of individuals’ characteristics and family background. The second row reports the
result of the PSM model that includes the covariates of individuals’ characteristics,
family background, as well as parents’ attitudes. The results of the two models are
consistent in demonstrating the significant negative effect of parental absence during
childhood on individuals’ current mental health status in their adulthood, although
the second model shows a relatively smaller effect.
Table 7 presents the PSM estimates of parental absence on physical health sta-
tus. Likewise, the first row reports the result of the PSM model that only includes

Table 7  PSM estimates of parental absence on physical health status

ATET Coef AI Robust Std. Err z P>z [95% Conf. Interval] N

(1) PSM -0.1272906 .0260196 -4.89 0.000 -.1782881 -.0762931 5399

(2) PSM with 0.004397 .0409818 0.11 0.915 -.0759258 .0847198 2344
extra vari-
ables

13
2278 L. Guo

Table 8  PSM estimates of parental absence on cognitive ability

ATET Coef AI Robust Std. Err z P>z [95% Conf. Interval] N

(1) PSM 0.9924633 .4880675 2.03 0.042 .0358686 1.949058 5396

(2) PSM with 1.376574 .8725449 1.58 0.115 -.3335823 3.086731 2342
extra vari-
ables

the covariates of individuals’ characteristics and family background, which shows

a significant and negative effect of parental absence on physical health. The second
row reports the result of the PSM model that includes the covariates of individuals’
characteristics, family background, as well as parents’ attitudes, but the coefficient
becomes insignificant.
Table 8 presents the PSM estimates of parental absence on cognitive ability. The
first row reports the result of the PSM model that only includes the covariates of
individuals’ characteristics and family background, which shows a significant and
positive effect of parental absence on cognitive ability. The second row reports the
result of the PSM model that includes the covariates of individuals’ characteris-
tics, family background, as well as parents’ attitudes, but the coefficient becomes
insignificant.

Comparison of the OLS and PSM Results

After examining the relationship between parental absence and individuals’ out-
comes with both OLS and PSM methods, this section compares the results from
different models, as shown in Table 9. These comparisons provide insights into the
estimates of the effects of parental absence and helped us to draw more robust and
nuanced conclusions.
The first row shows the results from the OLS models that have been presented
in the previous section demonstrating that parental absence in childhood has a sig-
nificantly negative influence on individuals’ mental and physical health in adulthood
but a significantly positive effect on cognitive ability. The second row shows the
results from the OLS models where the four parental attitudinal variables have been
further controlled for (please refer to the full table of these OLS models that are
presented in Table 13 in the Appendix). The results are generally consistent with
those in the first row, but the coefficient for physical health is insignificant. The third

Table 9  Comparison of the coefficients in different models

Mental health Physical health Cognitive ability

(1) OLS -0.834*** -0.083*** 1.056***

(2) OLS with extra variables -0.709*** -0.018 1.222***
(3) PSM -0.908*** -0.127*** 0.992**
(4) PSM with extra variables -0.568** 0.004 1.377

* p<0.10. ** p<0.05. *** p<0.01

13
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing… 2279

and fourth rows collate the results of the PSM estimates presented in the previous
section. The results from the third row remain consistent with the OLS results in
the first row. However, in the fourth row, only the effect on mental health remains
significantly negative, despite a smaller effect. The effects on physical health and
cognitive ability become insignificant.

Robustness Checks

The Absence of Father/Mother and the Timing

On the basis of the previous main results, this section conducts robustness checks
and further disentangles the effects of parental absence on individuals’ outcomes. In
the main results, the independent variable is whether the individual had experienced
any parental absence during childhood before 12 years old. This section intends to
examine whether the absence of father or mother and the timing of their absence
would have any different effects on individuals’ outcomes. As shown in Table 10,
mother-only absence before age 3 has a negative association with individuals’ men-
tal health, but both-parental absence before age 3 tends to be positively associated
with later mental and physical health. Although parental absence before age 3 shows
a mixed result, parental absence between 4 and 12 years old tends to show consistent
results with the main results demonstrated in previous sections. Specifically, father-
only absence during ages 4–12 has a significantly negative association with men-
tal and physical health but a significantly positive association with cognitive ability.
The effects of both-parental absence during ages 4–12 follow the same pattern but
are relatively larger than the effects of father-only absence. The results suggest that
father’s absence is particularly important in affecting individuals’ outcomes, which
could be due to the fact that more fathers migrate than mothers.

Duration of Parental Absence

This section examines whether the duration of parental absence makes a difference
in affecting individuals’ outcomes. As shown in Table 11, the duration of parental
absence is negatively associated with mental and physical health conditions, but not
with cognitive ability. This indicates that a longer duration of parental absence in
childhood could lead to a lower level of mental wellbeing and physical health in
adulthood.

Interaction of Parental Absence and Age

This section examines whether individuals’ age has an interaction effect with paren-
tal absence. Table 12 shows that the coefficients of the interaction term Parental
absence# Age are significant and negative for mental health conditions. This indicates
that the ageing process may intensify the adverse effect of parental absence in child-
hood on mental health in adulthood, but not on physical health and cognitive ability.

13
2280 L. Guo

Table 10  Regression estimates of the absence of father/mother and the timing

Mental health Physical health Cognitive ability

Parental absence before age 3 (ref = father and mother present)

Father absent, mother present -0.348 -0.004 -0.308
(-1.48) (-0.09) (-0.48)
Father present, mother absent -1.993* -0.298 -0.675
(-1.94) (-1.45) (-0.24)
Father absent, mother absent 0.520** 0.124*** -0.260
(2.17) (2.58) (-0.40)
Parental absence between 4 to 12 (ref = father and mother present)
Father absent, mother present -0.789*** -0.090** 1.152**
(-4.15) (-2.37) (2.24)
Father present, mother absent -0.668 -0.087 -0.464
(-1.22) (-0.79) (-0.31)
Father absent, mother absent -1.040*** -0.136*** 1.234**
(-5.41) (-3.54) (2.38)
Gender (ref = female) 0.232** 0.023 0.448*
(2.54) (1.24) (1.83)
Age 0.292 0.057 -5.605***
(1.64) (1.59) (-11.72)
Age2 -0.007* -0.002** 0.104***
(-1.96) (-2.22) (10.57)
Father’s education 0.018 0.002 0.553***
(0.39) (0.22) (4.36)
Mother’s education 0.003 -0.008 0.041
(0.07) (-0.76) (0.30)
Urban residence 0.014 -0.005 0.447*
(0.14) (-0.25) (1.67)
No. of siblings -0.035 0.011 -0.655***
(-0.81) (1.27) (-5.73)
Education 0.076 0.022** 7.112***
(1.63) (2.34) (57.03)
Log family income 0.082 0.023** 0.424***
(1.53) (2.13) (2.96)
Having a job 0.019 0.021 -2.593***
(0.20) (1.10) (-10.10)
Marital status (ref = never married)
Married 0.626*** -0.006 -0.518
(5.14) (-0.23) (-1.58)
Cohabitation 0.115 0.073 -2.071
(0.21) (0.66) (-1.40)
Divorced -0.948 -0.079 0.678
(-1.59) (-0.66) (0.42)

Widowed -1.706 -0.346 -8.190**

(-1.25) (-1.27) (-2.23)

13
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing… 2281

Table 10  (continued)
Mental health Physical health Cognitive ability
Constant 23.110*** 3.930*** 84.725***
(10.66) (9.07) (14.53)
N 4809 4832 4829
R2 0.024 0.024 0.595
Adjusted ­R2 0.020 0.020 0.594
F 5.855 5.973 353.695

T statistics in parentheses. * p<0.10. ** p<0.05. *** p<0.01

Discussion and Conclusion

This study draws on a nationally representative dataset in China and examines the
long-term effect of parental absence during childhood on individual’s welling in
their early adulthood, including mental health, physical health, and cognitive ability.
The life course perspective conceptualises the evolution of individuals’ lives as being
embedded in a macro social–historical context, which may exert influence on individuals
through the microenvironment of their networks of shared relationships (Elder, Johnson,
and Crosnoe 2003). The rapid economic transformations and the great internal migra-
tion tide since the reform and opening up in China provide the macro social–historical
context for studying the life events considered in this paper. Under this context, the insti-
tutional and policy restrictions on migration-related issues caused many migrants to set
apart from their families and leave behind their children at home. The social and insti-
tutional factors on the macro level led to a large number of family separations, which in
turn transmitted the influences to individual family members. Based on the life course
perspective, this research studies the transmission of the influence of the macro trends
within a particular socio-historical context (i.e., the migration tide in China in the past
decades) onto the lives of the individuals through the changes in their networks of rela-
tionships (i.e., the separation of family members). Hence, this study examines the impact
of family separation on the wellbeing of the left-behind population facing the prolonged
processes of separation from their migrant family members, i.e., the left-behind children.
More specifically, the study contributes to the existing literature by providing new
findings to further our understanding of this area. In terms of the effects of paren-
tal absence on children’s development and wellbeing, most previous research usually
focuses on the concurrent effects of parent migration. The present empirical study
looks more closely at the long-term impact of parental absence during childhood on
later development in adulthood using a representative dataset from China.
The main OLS results indicate that the childhood experience of both-parental
absence is negatively associated with an individual’s mental wellbeing and physical
health in adulthood, while positively associated with an individual’s cognitive ability.
A study by Xu & Xie, (2015) found little impact of parents’ migration on left behind
children, while our research has shown different conclusions regarding the outcomes
of left behind children in their adulthood. In this sense, our research contributes to
the literature by providing new evidence and perspectives on the topic. While Xu &
Xie, (2015) focused on the concurrent influence of parental migration on children’s

13
2282 L. Guo

Table 11  Regression estimates of the duration of parental absence on individuals’ outcomes

Mental health Physical health Cognitive ability

Duration of parental absence -0.079*** -0.016*** 0.068

(years) (-2.97) (-3.06) (0.96)
Gender (ref = female) 0.226** 0.021 0.465*
(2.47) (1.16) (1.90)
Age 0.317* 0.060* -5.621***
(1.77) (1.69) (-11.75)
Age2 -0.008** -0.002** 0.104***
(-2.04) (-2.29) (10.59)
Father’s education 0.009 0.001 0.557***
(0.18) (0.13) (4.39)
Mother’s education 0.003 -0.008 0.034
(0.06) (-0.82) (0.25)
Urban residence 0.042 -0.003 0.414
(0.42) (-0.14) (1.55)
No. of siblings -0.036 0.011 -0.653***
(-0.85) (1.27) (-5.72)
Education 0.075 0.022** 7.111***
(1.61) (2.34) (57.03)
Log family income 0.083 0.023** 0.424***
(1.55) (2.15) (2.96)
Having a job -0.010 0.018 -2.563***
(-0.10) (0.92) (-9.98)
Marital status
(ref = never married)
Married 0.566*** -0.012 -0.481
(4.63) (-0.50) (-1.47)
Cohabitation 0.101 0.074 -1.997
(0.18) (0.67) (-1.35)
Divorced -0.905 -0.072 0.645
(-1.51) (-0.60) (0.40)
Widowed -1.657 -0.346 -8.283**
(-1.21) (-1.27) (-2.26)
Constant 22.632*** 3.875*** 85.114***
(10.38) (8.94) (14.59)
N 4809 4832 4829
R2 0.012 0.022 0.594
Adjusted ­R2 0.009 0.019 0.593
F 3.839 7.073 470.231

T statistics in parentheses. * p<0.10. ** p<0.05. *** p<0.01

13
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing… 2283

Table 12  The interaction effect of age on parental absence experience

Mental health Physical health Cognitive ability

Parental absence -0.378* -0.045 1.474***

(-1.82) (-1.08) (2.60)
Gender (ref = female) 0.235*** 0.022 0.430*
(2.58) (1.19) (1.73)
Age (ref = 18–22)
Age 23–26 -0.065 -0.072*** -3.725***
(-0.49) (-2.74) (-10.34)
Age 27–30 -0.583*** -0.189*** -4.015***
(-3.92) (-6.35) (-9.92)
Father’s education 0.012 0.001 0.576***
(0.24) (0.16) (4.48)
Mother’s education 0.001 -0.008 0.082
(0.02) (-0.77) (0.60)
Urban residence 0.011 -0.008 0.390
(0.11) (-0.42) (1.45)
No. of siblings -0.039 0.010 -0.680***
(-0.91) (1.19) (-5.87)
Education 0.080* 0.022** 6.912***
(1.74) (2.38) (55.23)
Log family income 0.082 0.023** 0.453***
(1.55) (2.14) (3.12)
Having a job 0.019 0.019 -2.912***
(0.20) (1.01) (-11.24)
Marital status
(ref = never married)
Married 0.610*** -0.017 -1.416***
(5.16) (-0.74) (-4.40)
Cohabitation 0.079 0.062 -2.781*
(0.14) (0.56) (-1.86)
Divorced -0.952 -0.098 -0.212
(-1.60) (-0.82) (-0.13)
Widowed -1.743 -0.370 -9.275**
(-1.28) (-1.35) (-2.50)
Parental absence #Age
PA# age 18–22 -0.548** -0.070 -0.529
(-2.03) (-1.29) (-0.72)
PA# age 23–26 -0.751*** -0.033 -0.543
(-2.64) (-0.58) (-0.70)
Constant 26.123*** 4.426*** 14.615***
(49.33) (41.81) (10.13)
N 4809 4832 4829
R2 0.023 0.022 0.584
Adjusted ­R2 0.020 0.018 0.583
F 6.731 6.226 397.714

T statistics in parentheses. * p<0.10. ** p<0.05. *** p<0.01

13
2284 L. Guo

wellbeing, our research has taken a life-course perspective and examined the long-term
impact of parental migration, taking advantage of the historical and retrospective data
in CFPS 2010 that recorded the information on parental absence in the past childhood
as well as the present information on the left-behind generation’s adulthood.
The study consolidates that the family environment is closely linked to children’s
development (Conger et al., 2007). Theories suggest the importance of family bonds and
the downside of separation. The evidence found in the study is in line with the attach-
ment theory and parental acceptance-rejection theory that parental presence and positive
engagement in children’s early childhood is crucial to individuals’ growth and wellness
(Bowlby, 2005; Rohner et al., 2012). The findings are also in line with the prior research
that suggests stress and adverse influence on wellbeing and health resulting from family
separation. The absence of the primary caretaker could cause separation anxiety to the
child who cannot seek comfort and a sense of safety from their attachment figure. In
particular, when the separation lasts for a relatively long period, the child tends to have a
significantly strong sense of anxiety (Bowlby, 2005). Moreover, the findings in the study
also support the life course perspective that the timing of events and early experiences
could have impacts on later outcomes (Mayer, 2009; Elder et al., 2003).
Drawing on the relevant theories and previous literature on parental absence and
children’s outcomes, the negative outcome in mental and physical health conditions
are to be expected and have been confirmed in the results of this study, indicating
that early childhood experience of parental absence exerts a lasting impact on indi-
viduals. However, this study also finds evidence that parental absence would not
always bring negative impact; parental absence could also have some positive influ-
ence, as the findings also document positive outcome in cognitive ability.
In particular, we would often expect that children without parents’ company
might have worse cognitive ability, so this unexpected outcome in this study is fur-
ther discussed. The positive cognitive outcomes in adulthood found in this study
could be explained in the context of parental migration in China for several reasons.
One reason could be resilience and positive development for individuals who experi-
ence adversity earlier while bouncing back better in later stages of development as they
grow to be more independent and acquire more life skills along the way when their par-
ents are away. The prior literature on resilience suggests a positive development for indi-
viduals who had adversity experiences, and there has also been previous evidence about
positive outcomes such as in school grades of youth who have migrant parents (Wen
et al., 2015). Parents who migrate to work tend to earn a higher income and also have a
higher expectation for their children’s future, especially about their educational achieve-
ment that may help bring better opportunities for their lives in future, and thus they may
invest particularly more in their children’s education and development, which may also
buffer the negative influence of their absence and even boost positive development of
their children. Children growing up in this circumstance may have the drive to live up to
the expectation of their parents, and without much direct parental care, they may grow to
be more self-reliant, and acquire more life skills and stronger cognitive ability.
Another reason is that this seemingly positive influence could be due to the con-
founding influences of factors that propelled the migration of the individuals’ parents,
which is further tested by PSM models. To test the robustness of the results, PSM
approach has been adopted. When the parental attitudinal variables are not included

13
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing… 2285

in the models, the PSM results are consistent with the main OLS results. However,
after adding the parental attitudinal variables to the models, the effects of the parental
absence on physical health and cognitive ability become insignificant. This indicates
that PSM methods help to reduce the selection bias and better distinguish the effects
of parental absence per se. Although the effects of parental absence are not that sig-
nificant for physical health and cognitive ability, the experience of parental absence
in childhood has a negative association with physical health and a positive associa-
tion with cognitive ability. These associations could be due to the family character-
istics and factors that propelled the migration of individuals’ parents. That is, those
parents who intended to migrate could at the same time be those who have higher
level of cognition and higher pursuit for life, which would influence their children in
the meantime, particularly in the aspect of education and cognitive development.
Thus, with the childhood experience of growing up in the family where parents
migrated and being left-behind, individuals tend to have a lower level of mental well-
being and physical health in adulthood, yet a slightly better cognitive ability, com-
pared to their counterparts who had never experienced any parental absence in child-
hood. Although the depiction of the negative effects found in this study should not be
overstated, we still need to be cautious about the possible subtle and nuanced adverse
impact, which should not be deemed negligible. Parents’ pursuing economic betterment
for the family and stressing cognitive achievement cannot offset the negative outcome
in terms of mental and physical health. The rapid social and economic transformations
to some extent cause disadvantages to children growing up without adequate parental
presence and care during childhood. Migrants have made contributions to the economic
progress of society while they were also confronted with the dilemma between eco-
nomic betterment and sacrifices for their companionship to children’s growth.
Therefore, it is still critical to enact effective policy changes and sufficient social
support and intervention programmes to ameliorate the parental absence issues, and
mitigate the adverse impacts. First, a necessary step for the government is to foster an
environment that could strengthen parental involvement in children’ life courses, ensur-
ing that more parents could live with their children during their childhood. It is vital
to create better job opportunities in the migrants’ hometowns to reduce family separa-
tion as well as reduce barriers for migrants in the destination cities so that these fami-
lies could live together and could make freer choices of where to live and work. As the
results also show that a longer duration of parental absence in childhood could lead to a
lower level of mental wellbeing and physical health in adulthood, policies could be set
up policies that increase the opportunity for migrant workers to visit their families at a
higher frequency and reduce the cost of travelling such as providing special discounts to
the migrants returning home. Second, for the children who are suffering from parental
absence, the government should extend more assistance, and encourage social organisa-
tions to participate in launching compensatory projects and setting up a social supporting
system. As the negative effects of both-parental absence between ages 4–12 on men-
tal health on mental and physical health in adulthood are the most significant, policies
could pay more attention to families where both parents migrated in children’s middle
childhood. Third, as the results show that the childhood experience of parental absence
has a lasting impact on individuals, especially on their mental health condition, young
adults who had the experience could also be given more assistance in terms of wellbeing

13
2286 L. Guo

and mental health. For instance, they could be provided with better welfare access and
compensatory benefits, further education training and employment opportunities, more
medical care provisions and mental health counselling support.
This study has made contributions in its area, but there are several limitations and
implications for future research. Many of these limitations relate to the available data and
the way by which the variables of interest are measured. First, the depressive symptoms
tested by CFPS2010 are not long-term depressive symptoms, but short-term depressive
symptoms before questioning. However, most of the existing literature used this kind
of psychological scale to measure individuals’ general mental health status, as the cur-
rently available datasets mainly cover depressive symptom indicators that can capture the
psychological status at the time of the survey, which could be used as a reliable refer-
ence indicator in empirical social sciences studies. It could be better for future studies
to examine long-term depressive symptoms if better data become available. Second, in
the retrospective data, information regarding the geographical distance is not available. It
would have been useful to have available a measure of how far the absent parent was liv-
ing from other household members, because it could give an indication of how frequently
the migrant was able to visit. The data set could, alternatively, have asked a direct ques-
tion on how frequently the migrant could visit, which would have been even more use-
ful. However, this has not been possible with the currently available data, while we hope
future research could dig further in terms of the geographical boundaries the migrants are
crossing, such as inter-provincial, intra-provincial, or international. Third, there might be
different types of migration, while as well known in the case of China, most of the paren-
tal absence was labour migration during the examined period, and we intend to examine
how parental absence, in general, would influence individuals’ outcomes. Nevertheless,
as the data is retrospective and the information regarding the types of parental migration
and absence is not available, it indeed could be better if future studies have more specific
data in this regard. Another limitation is that for the propensity score matching analysis,
although the additional parental attitudinal variables did help with the model identifica-
tion, that data was available for only about half the sample, and it was measured after
migration had occurred, not prior to migration. To present the picture based on the actual
data and ensure accuracy, we did not use data replacement methods which would be hard
to justify as appropriate. Nevertheless, it could have been better if we had a full sample of
these additional variables. Again, this could be addressed in the future with better data.
Furthermore, for future studies, when more and better data with a longer span
become available, we could use longitudinal analysis to help tease out the causality
of the relationships in a better way, and in addition help with issues of confounding,
if families with migrants and left-behinds have certain characteristics associated with
wellbeing. It would be helpful to be able to observe families before migration takes
place, as well as once it has already taken place. Finally, this research could be comple-
mented by qualitative analysis such as in-depth interviews, which could be used in the
future to help reveal more detailed nuances of the underlying mechanisms and enrich
the findings unveiled in the study. This study has focused on China. The results will
be relevant to other developing countries facing issues of migration and family sepa-
ration, but this could benefit from being tested. Future research could move beyond
single-society analysis and construct an empirical framework for comparative studies
across various research contexts that have both commonality and heterogeneity.

13
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing… 2287

Appendix Table 13 Table 14

Table 13  Regression estimates Dependent variable: Mental health

of mental health status
(Cronbach alpha) Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

Parental absence -0.141*** -0.140*** -0.139***

(-8.28) (-8.06) (-7.61)
Gender (ref = female) 0.020 0.016 0.038**
(1.45) (1.12) (2.51)
Age 0.093*** 0.089*** 0.052*
(3.46) (3.25) (1.75)
Age2 -0.002*** -0.002*** -0.001**
(-3.38) (-3.15) (-2.05)
Father’s education 0.005 0.002
(0.74) (0.31)
Mother’s education 0.002 -0.000
(0.23) (-0.04)
Urban residence 0.003 0.002
(0.20) (0.12)
No. of siblings -0.008 -0.006
(-1.22) (-0.87)
Education 0.013
(1.64)
Log family income 0.014
(1.56)
Having a job 0.003
(0.19)
Marital status
(ref = never married)
Married 0.099***
(4.89)
Cohabitation 0.018
(0.20)
Divorced -0.160
(-1.61)
Widowed -0.291
(-1.28)
Constant 3.438*** 3.481*** 3.814***
(10.82) (10.79) (10.55)
N 5738 5375 4809
R2 0.015 0.015 0.022
Adjusted ­R2 0.014 0.014 0.019
F 21.245 10.540 7.140

Notes T statistics in parentheses. * p<0.10. ** p<0.05. *** p<0.01

13
2288 L. Guo

Table 14  The OLS estimates in previous models and models with extra variables
Mental Physical Cognitive Mental Physical Cognitive

Parental absence -0.834*** -0.083*** 1.056*** -0.709*** -0.018 1.222***

(-7.61) (-3.80) (3.58) (-3.95) (-0.55) (2.70)
Gender (ref=female) 0.229** 0.022 0.462* 0.439*** 0.016 -0.501
(2.51) (1.20) (1.89) (3.07) (0.62) (-1.40)
Age 0.311* 0.059* -5.613*** 0.635** 0.049 -4.474***
(1.75) (1.67) (-11.75) (2.28) (0.99) (-6.41)
Age2 -0.007** -0.002** 0.104*** -0.014** -0.002 0.078***
(-2.05) (-2.28) (10.60) (-2.43) (-1.46) (5.31)
Father’s education 0.015 0.002 0.549*** -0.070 0.012 0.565***
(0.31) (0.16) (4.33) (-0.97) (0.94) (3.11)
Mother’s education -0.002 -0.009 0.041 -0.009 -0.008 0.263
(-0.04) (-0.87) (0.30) (-0.12) (-0.63) (1.40)
Urban residence 0.012 -0.006 0.448* -0.033 -0.011 0.129
(0.12) (-0.30) (1.68) (-0.21) (-0.40) (0.33)
No. of siblings -0.037 0.011 -0.653*** -0.035 0.030** -0.887***
(-0.87) (1.25) (-5.72) (-0.49) (2.27) (-4.86)
Education 0.076 0.022** 7.111*** 0.103 0.036*** 6.274***
(1.64) (2.37) (57.10) (1.42) (2.73) (34.51)
Log family income 0.084 0.023** 0.424*** 0.001 -0.015 0.176
(1.56) (2.15) (2.96) (0.01) (-0.97) (0.83)
Having a job 0.018 0.021 -2.594*** -0.002 0.039 -3.202***
(0.19) (1.12) (-10.11) (-0.01) (1.42) (-8.46)
Marital status (ref=never married)
Married 0.595*** -0.010 -0.521 0.477** 0.047 0.686
(4.89) (-0.41) (-1.59) (2.36) (1.28) (1.35)
Cohabitation 0.110 0.072 -2.023 -1.513 -0.075 0.761
(0.20) (0.65) (-1.37) (-1.30) (-0.35) (0.26)
Divorced -0.962 -0.081 0.706 -3.181*** -0.153 1.744
(-1.61) (-0.68) (0.44) (-3.64) (-0.97) (0.79)
Widowed -1.749 -0.353 -8.158**
(-1.28) (-1.29) (-2.22)
Hardwork_m 0.116 0.037** 0.304
(1.30) (2.30) (1.36)
Famrich_f -0.149** 0.014 -0.316**
(-2.32) (1.18) (-1.97)
Talent_f 0.020 -0.005 -0.038
(0.29) (-0.38) (-0.22)
Network_m 0.031 -0.006 0.116
(0.41) (-0.44) (0.60)
Constant 22.885*** 3.899*** 84.789*** 19.794*** 4.194*** 78.175***
(10.55) (9.00) (14.55) (5.95) (6.98) (9.35)
N 4809 4832 4829 2091 2105 2103
R2 0.022 0.023 0.595 0.031 0.024 0.551
Adjusted ­R2 0.019 0.020 0.594 0.022 0.016 0.547
F 7.140 7.416 472.183 3.650 2.908 142.239

Notes T statistics in parentheses. * p<0.10. ** p<0.05. *** p<0.01

13
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing… 2289

Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge Prof. Maria Iacovou, Prof. Jacqueline Scott, Dr. Mark
Ramsden, Prof. Yaojun Li, the anonymous reviewers, and the editors for their helpful comments and advice.

Funding This study was funded by China Scholarship Council.

Data Availability Data are available upon request from the following platform. Institute of Social Science
Survey, Peking University, 2015, "China Family Panel Studies (CFPS)", https://​doi.​org/​10.​18170/​DVN/​
45LCSO, Peking University Open Research Data Platform, V42.

Declarations
Competing Interests The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,
which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as
you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Com-
mons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article
are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the
material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is
not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission
directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://​creat​iveco​mmons.​org/​licen​
ses/​by/4.​0/.

References
Abadie, A., & Imbens, G. W. (2016). Matching on the estimated propensity score. Econometrica, 84(2),
781–807.
Adam, E. K., Klimes-Dougan, B., & Gunnar, M. R. (2007). Social regulation of the adrenocortical
response to stress in infants, children, and adolescents: Implications for psychopathology and edu-
cation. In D. Coch, G. Dawson, & K. W Fischer (Eds.), Human behavior, learning, and the devel-
oping brain: Atypical development (pp. 264–304). New York: The Guilford Press.
Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1982). Attachment: Retrospect and prospect. In C. M. Parkes, & J. Stevenson-Hinde
(Eds.), The place of attachment in human behavior (pp. 3–30). New York: Basic Books.
Amato, P. R. (2000). The consequences of divorce for adults and children. Journal of Marriage and Fam-
ily, 62(4), 1269–1287.
Amato, P. R. (2010). Research on divorce: Continuing trends and new developments. Journal of Mar-
riage and Family, 72(3), 650–666.
Anderson, S. E., & Whitaker, R. C. (2011). Attachment security and obesity in US preschool-aged chil-
dren. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 165(3), 235–242.
Anderson, S. E., Gooze, R. A., Lemeshow, S., & Whitaker, R. C. (2012). Quality of early maternal–child
relationship and risk of adolescent obesity. Pediatrics, 129(1), 132–140.
Aquilino, W. S. (1996). The life course of children born to unmarried mothers: Childhood living
arrangements and young adult outcomes. Journal of Marriage and Family, 58(2), 293–310.
https://​doi.​org/​10.​2307/​353496
Bernier, A., Carlson, S. M., Deschênes, M., & Matte-Gagné, C. (2012). Social factors in the development of
early executive functioning: A closer look at the caregiving environment. Developmental Science, 15(1),
12–24.
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss, Vol. 2: Separation. New York: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (2005). A secure base (1st ed.). London: Routledge. https://​doi.​org/​10.​4324/​97802​03440​841
Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Developmen-
tal Psychology, 28(5), 759.
Butler, L. D. (2010). Positive changes following adversity. Research Quarterly, 21(3), 1–8.
Carlson, E. A. (1998). A prospective longitudinal study of attachment disorganization/disorientation.
Child Development, 69(4), 1107–1128.

13
2290 L. Guo

Case, A., Fertig, A., & Paxson, C. (2005). The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance.
Journal of Health Economics, 24(2), 365–389.
Cassidy, J. (1994). Emotion regulation: Influences of attachment relationships. Monographs of the Society
for Research in Child Development, 59(2–3), 228–249.
Cassidy, J., Jones, J. D., & Shaver, P. R. (2013). Contributions of attachment theory and research: A
framework for future research, translation, and policy. Development and psychopathology,
25(4pt2), 1415–1434.
Chang, H., Dong, X.-Y., & MacPhail, F. (2011). Labor migration and time use patterns of the left-behind
children and elderly in rural China. World Development, 39(12), 2199–2210.
Chen, E., Miller, G. E., Kobor, M. S., & Cole, S. W. (2011). Maternal warmth buffers the effects of low early-
life socioeconomic status on pro-inflammatory signaling in adulthood. Molecular Psychiatry, 16(7),
729–737.
Chung, H. Y., Cesari, M., Anton, S., Marzetti, E., Giovannini, S., Seo, A. Y., Carter, C., Byung Pal, Yu.,
& Leeuwenburgh, C. (2009). Molecular inflammation: Underpinnings of aging and age-related dis-
eases. Ageing Research Reviews, 8(1), 18–30.
Conger, R. D., Brent, M., & Donnellan. (2007). An interactionist perspective on the socioeconomic con-
text of human development. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 175–199.
Currie, J., & Rossin-Slater, M. (2015). Early-life origins of life-cycle well-being: Research and policy
implications. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 34(1), 208–242.
Currie, J., & Widom, C. S. (2010). Long-term consequences of child abuse and neglect on adult eco-
nomic well-being. Child Maltreatment, 15(2), 111–120.
Cutrona, C. E., Cole, V., Colangelo, N., Assouline, S. G., & Russell, D. W. (1994). Perceived parental
social support and academic achievement: An attachment theory perspective. Journal of Personal-
ity and Social Psychology, 66(2), 369.
Danese, A., Pariante, C. M., Caspi, A., Taylor, A., & Poulton, R. (2007). Childhood maltreatment pre-
dicts adult inflammation in a life-course study. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
104(4), 1319–1324.
Elder, GH., Kirkpatrick, JM., & Crosnoe, R. (2003). "The emergence and development of life course
theory." In Handbook of the life course, 3–19. Springer.
Evans, G. W., & English, K. (2002). The environment of poverty: Multiple stressor exposure, psycho-
physiological stress, and socioemotional adjustment. Child Development, 73(4), 1238–1248.
Ferraro, K. F., Schafer, M. H., & Wilkinson, L. R. (2016). Childhood disadvantage and health problems
in middle and later life: Early imprints on physical health? American Sociological Review, 81(1),
107–133.
Fomby, P., & Cherlin, A. J. (2007). Family instability and child well-being. American Sociological
Review, 72(2), 181–204.
Furstenberg, F. F., Nord, C. W., Peterson, J. L., & Zill, N. (1983). The life course of children of divorce:
Marital disruption and parental contact. American Sociological Review, 48(5), 656–668.
Gao, Y., Li, L. P., Kim, J. H., Congdon, N., Lau, J., & Griffiths, S. (2010). The impact of parental migra-
tion on health status and health behaviours among left behind adolescent school children in China.
BMC Public Health, 10(1), 56.
Gaydosh, L., & Harris, K. M. (2018). Childhood family instability and young adult health. Journal of
Health and Social Behavior, 59(3), 371–390.
Granot, D., & Mayseless, O. (2001). Attachment security and adjustment to school in middle childhood.
International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25(6), 530–541.
Gunnar, M., & Quevedo, K. (2007). The neurobiology of stress and development. Annual Review of Psy-
chology, 58, 145–173.
Guo, J., Ren, X., Wang, X., Qu, Z., Zhou, Q., Ran, C., …, & Hu, J. (2015). Depression among migrant
and left-behind children in China in relation to the quality of parent-child and teacher-child rela-
tionships. PLoS One, 10(12), e0145606.
Halfon, N., & Hochstein, M. (2002). Life course health development: An integrated framework for devel-
oping health, policy, and research. The Milbank Quarterly, 80(3), 433–479.
Härkönen, J., Bernardi, F., & Boertien, D. (2017). Family dynamics and child outcomes: An overview of
research and open questions. European Journal of Population, 33(2), 163–184.
Hayward, M. D., & Gorman, B. K. (2004). The long arm of childhood: The influence of early-life social
conditions on men’s mortality. Demography, 41(1), 87–107.
Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Per-
sonality and Social Psychology, 52(3), 511.

13
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing… 2291

He, B., Fan, J., Liu, Ni., Li, H., Wang, Y., Williams, J., & Wong, K. (2012). Depression risk of ‘left-
behind children’in rural China. Psychiatry Research, 200(2), 306–312.
Heckman, J. J., Ichimura, H., & Todd, P. (1998). Matching as an econometric evaluation estimator. The
Review of Economic Studies, 65(2), 261–294.
Hoff, E. (2003). The specificity of environmental influence: Socioeconomic status affects early vocabu-
lary development via maternal speech. Child Development, 74(5), 1368–1378.
Hu, F. (2012). Migration, remittances, and children’s high school attendance: The case of rural China.
International Journal of Educational Development, 32(3), 401–411.
Hu, F. (2013). Does migration benefit the schooling of children left behind?: Evidence from rural north-
west China. Demographic Research, 29, 33–70.
Hu, H., Shuang, Lu., & Huang, C.-C. (2014). The psychological and behavioral outcomes of migrant and
left-behind children in China. Children and Youth Services Review, 46, 1–10.
Jacobsen, T., Edelstein, W., & Hofmann, V. (1994). A longitudinal study of the relation between rep-
resentations of attachment in childhood and cognitive functioning in childhood and adolescence.
Developmental Psychology, 30(1), 112.
Joseph, S., Alex, P., & Linley. (2005). Positive adjustment to threatening events: An organismic valuing
theory of growth through adversity. Review of General Psychology, 9(3), 262–280.
Lee, D., & McLanahan, S. (2015). Family structure transitions and child development: Instability, selec-
tion, and population heterogeneity. American Sociological Review, 80(4), 738–763.
Li, L., Wang, L., & Nie, J. (2017). Effect of Parental Migration on the Academic Performance of Left-
behind Middle School Students in Rural China. China & World Economy, 25(2), 45–59.
Liang, Z. (2016). China’s Great Migration and the Prospects of a More Integrated Society. Annual Review
of Sociology, 42, 451–471.
Linley, P. A., & Joseph, S. (2004). Positive change following trauma and adversity: A review. Journal
of Traumatic Stress: Official Publication of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies,
17(1), 11–21.
Liu, L.-J., Sun, X., Zhang, C.-L., Wang, Y., & Guo, Q. (2010). A survey in rural China of parent-absence
through migrant working: The impact on their children’s self-concept and loneliness. BMC Public
Health, 10(1), 32.
Lu, Y., & Treiman, D. J. (2011). Migration, remittances and educational stratification among blacks in
apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. Social Forces, 89(4), 1119–1143.
Luijk, M. P. C. M., Saridjan, N., Tharner, A., Van Ijzendoorn, M. H., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., Jaddoe,
V. W. V., Hofman, A., Verhulst, F. C., & Tiemeier, H. (2010). Attachment, depression, and cortisol:
Deviant patterns in insecure-resistant and disorganized infants. Developmental Psychobiology, 52(5),
441–452.
Main, M., Hesse, E., & Hesse, S. (2011). Attachment theory and research: Overview with suggested applica-
tions to child custody. Family Court Review, 49(3), 426–463.
Malhotra, M., & Chebiyan, S. (2016). Posttraumatic growth: Positive changes following adversity-an over-
view. International Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 6(3), 109–118.
Masten, A. S. (2018). Resilience theory and research on children and families: Past, present, and promise.
Journal of Family Theory & Review, 10(1), 12–31.
Mayer, K. U. (2009). New directions in life course research. Annual Review of Sociology, 35, 413–433.
McDermott, J. M., Westerlund, A., Zeanah, C. H., Nelson, C. A., & Fox, N. A. (2012). Early adversity and
neural correlates of executive function: Implications for academic adjustment. Developmental Cogni-
tive Neuroscience, 2, S59–S66.
McKenzie, D., & Rapoport, H. (2011). Can migration reduce educational attainment? Evidence from Mex-
ico. Journal of Population Economics, 24(4), 1331–1358.
McLanahan, S., Tach, L., & Schneider, D. (2013). The causal effects of father absence. Annual Review of
Sociology, 39, 399–427.
McLoyd, V. C. (1998). Socioeconomic disadvantage and child development. American Psychologist, 53(2),
185.
Mezzacappa, E. (2004). Alerting, orienting, and executive attention: Developmental properties and soci-
odemographic correlates in an epidemiological sample of young, urban children. Child Development,
75(5), 1373–1386.
Miller, G. E., Chen, E., & Parker, K. J. (2011). Psychological stress in childhood and susceptibility to the
chronic diseases of aging: Moving toward a model of behavioral and biological mechanisms. Psycho-
logical Bulletin, 137(6), 959.

13
2292 L. Guo

Mittal, C., Griskevicius, V., Simpson, J. A., Sung, S., & Young, E. S. (2015). Cognitive adaptations to stress-
ful environments: When childhood adversity enhances adult executive function. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 109(4), 604.
Oakes, J. M., & Rossi, P. H. (2003). The measurement of SES in health research: Current practice and steps
toward a new approach. Social Science & Medicine, 56(4), 769–784.
Osborne, C., & McLanahan, S. (2007). Partnership instability and child well-being. Journal of Marriage and
Family, 69(4), 1065–1083.
Oshio, T., Sano, S., & Kobayashi, M. (2010). Child poverty as a determinant of life outcomes: Evidence from
nationwide surveys in Japan. Social Indicators Research, 99(1), 81–99.
Palloni, A., Milesi, C., White, R. G., & Turner, A. (2009). Early childhood health, reproduction of economic
inequalities and the persistence of health and mortality differentials. Social Science & Medicine, 68(9),
1574–1582.
Pearlin, L. I., Schieman, S., Fazio, E. M., & Meersman, S. C. (2005). Stress, health, and the life course: Some
conceptual perspectives. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 46(2), 205–219.
Poulton, R., Caspi, A., Milne, B. J., Murray Thomson, W., Taylor, A., Sears, M. R., & Moffitt, T. E. (2002).
Association between children’s experience of socioeconomic disadvantage and adult health: A life-
course study. The Lancet, 360(9346), 1640–1645.
Prochaska, J. J., Sung, H. Y., Max, W., Shi, Y., & Ong, M. (2012). Validity study of the K6 scale as a measure
of moderate mental distress based on mental health treatment need and utilization. International Jour-
nal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 21(2), 88–97.
Puig, J., Englund, M. M., Simpson, J. A., Andrew, W., & Collins. (2013). Predicting adult physical illness
from infant attachment: A prospective longitudinal study. Health Psychology, 32(4), 409.
Reis, H. T., & Shaver, P. (1988). Intimacy as an interpersonal process. In S. Duck, D. F. Hay, S. E. Hobfoll,
W. Ickes, & B. M. Montgomery (Eds.), Handbook of personal relationships: Theory, research and
interventions (pp. 367–389). Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons.
Ren, Q., & Treiman, D. J. (2016). The consequences of parental labor migration in China for children’s emo-
tional wellbeing. Social Science Research, 58, 46–67.
Rohner, R. P., Khaleque, A., & Cournoyer, D. E. (2012). Introduction to parental acceptance-rejection theory,
methods, evidence, and implications. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 2(1), 73–87.
Rosenbaum, P. R., & Rubin, D. B. (1983). The central role of the propensity score in observational studies for
causal effects. Biometrika, 70(1), 41–55.
Sarason, I. G., Sarason, B. R., Keefe, D. E., Hayes, B. E., & Shearin, E. N. (1986). Cognitive interference:
Situational determinants and traitlike characteristics. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
51(1), 215.
Sarason, B. R., Pierce, G. R., & Sarason, I. G. (1990). Social support: The sense of acceptance and the role of
relationships. In B. R. Sarason, I. G. Sarason, & G. R. Pierce (Eds.), Social support: An interactional
view. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Shadish, W. R., Clark, M. H., & Steiner, P. M. (2008). Can nonrandomized experiments yield accurate
answers? A randomized experiment comparing random and nonrandom assignments. Journal of the
American Statistical Association, 103(484), 1334–1344.
Shen, M., Gao, J., Liang, Z., Wang, Y., Yukai, Du., & Stallones, L. (2015). Parental migration patterns and
risk of depression and anxiety disorder among rural children aged 10–18 years in China: A cross-
sectional study. British Medical Journal Open, 5(12), e007802.
Shi, Y., Bai, Yu., Shen, Y., Kenny, K., & Rozelle, S. (2016). Effects of Parental Migration on Mental Health
of Left-behind Children: Evidence from Northwestern China. China & World Economy, 24(3),
105–122.
Shonkoff, J. P., Garner, A. S., Siegel, B. S., Dobbins, M. I., Earls, M. F., McGuinn, L., Pascoe, J., Wood, D.
L., Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child, Family Health, Adoption Committee on Early Child-
hood, and Dependent Care. (2012). The lifelong effects of early childhood adversity and toxic stress.
Pediatrics, 129(1), e232–e246.
Spangler, G., & Grossmann, K. E. (1993). Biobehavioral organization in securely and insecurely attached
infants. Child Development, 64(5), 1439–1450.
Sroufe, L. A., Egeland, B., Carlson, E. A., & Collins, W. A. (2005). The development of the person: The Min-
nesota study of risk and adaptation from birth to adulthood. New York: The Guilford Press.
Statham, J., & Chase, E. (2010). Childhood wellbeing: A brief overview. Loughborough: Childhood Wellbe-
ing Research Centre.

13
Parental Migration in Childhood and Individual Wellbeing… 2293

Su, S., Li, X., Lin, D., Xu, X., & Zhu, M. (2013). Psychological adjustment among left-behind children in
rural China: the role of parental migration and parent–child communication. Child: care, health and
development, 39(2), 162–170.
Suor, J. H., Sturge-Apple, M. L., Davies, P. T., Cicchetti, D., & Manning, L. G. (2015). Tracing differential
pathways of risk: Associations among family adversity, cortisol, and cognitive functioning in child-
hood. Child Development, 86(4), 1142–1158.
Thompson, R. A. (2008). Early attachment and later development: Familiar questions, new answers. In J.
Cassidy, & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications
(pp. 348–365). New York: The Guilford Press.
Tomalski, P., & Johnson, M. H. (2010). The effects of early adversity on the adult and developing brain. Cur-
rent Opinion in Psychiatry, 23(3), 233–238.
Van Ijzendoorn, M. H., Schuengel, C., & Bakersman-Kranenburg, M. J. (1999). Disorganized attachment in
early childhood: Meta-analysis of precursors, concomitants, and sequelae. Development and psycho-
pathology, 11(2), 225–250.
Wang, X., Bai, Yu., Zhang, L., & Rozelle, S. (2017). Migration, Schooling Choice, and Student Outcomes in
China. Population and Development Review, 43(4), 625–643.
Wen, M., Shaobing, Su., Li, X., & Lin, D. (2015). Positive youth development in rural China: The role of
parental migration. Social Science & Medicine, 132, 261–269.
Wu, Q., Deping, Lu., & Kang, Mi. (2015). Social capital and the mental health of children in rural China
with different experiences of parental migration. Social Science & Medicine, 132, 270–277.
Xu, H., & Xie, Yu. (2015). The causal effects of rural-to-urban migration on children’s well-being in China.
European Sociological Review, 31(4), 502–519.
Yang, T., Li, C., Zhou, C., Jiang, S., Chu, J., Medina, A., & Rozelle, S. (2016). Parental migration and smok-
ing behavior of left-behind children: Evidence from a survey in rural Anhui, China. International
Journal for Equity in Health, 15(1), 127.
Zhao, F., & Guoliang, Yu. (2016). Parental Migration and Rural Left-Behind Children’s Mental Health in
China: A Meta-Analysis Based on Mental Health Test. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25(12),
3462–3472.
Zhao, Q., Xiaohua, Yu., Wang, X., & Glauben, T. (2014). The impact of parental migration on children’s
school performance in rural China. China Economic Review, 31, 43–54.
Zhou, M., Murphy, R., & Tao, R. (2014). Effects of parents’ migration on the education of children left
behind in rural China. Population and Development Review, 40(2), 273–292.
Zhou, C., Sylvia, S., Zhang, L., Luo, R., Yi, H., Liu, C., Shi, Y., Loyalka, P., Chu, J., & Medina, A. (2015).
China’s left-behind children: Impact of parental migration on health, nutrition, and educational out-
comes. Health Affairs, 34(11), 1964–1971.
Zimmerman, M. A., Stoddard, S. A., Eisman, A. B., Caldwell, C. H., Aiyer, S. M., & Miller, A. (2013).
Adolescent resilience: Promotive factors that inform prevention. Child Development Perspectives,
7(4), 215–220.

Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.

13