Word of Mouth from Left-Behind Children in Rural China: Exploring Their Psychological, Academic and Physical Well-being During COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 has had considerable effects on people’s lives worldwide, particularly left-behind children in China as they tragically witnessed the outbreak. From the outset, millions of left-behind children in rural areas experienced extensive physical and psychological disturbances because their migrant parents who lived in the city or another province could not be with them. This study explored the psychological, academic, and physical well-being of rural left-behind children during COVID-19. We captured the experiences of 10- to 15-year-old children and adolescents who were left behind by their migrant parents before the COVID-19 outbreak. The results of the present study suggest that left-behind children have exhibited severe psychological illnesses since the pandemic has limited their social interactions with peers and increased improper caretaking from grandparents.

Family socioeconomic status and the parent–child relationship in Chinese adolescents: the multiple serial mediating roles of visual art activities

“…Due to swift economic development and growth, since the 1980s, China has experienced social and economic inequality and disparities that shadow its national achievement [ 1 , 40 , 58 ]. Unlike other countries, China has gone through a one-child policy and has a Confucian ideology that has led parents to be overprotective or practice rigid or authoritarian parenting styles, which has attracted the attention of scholars to study the interaction between children and parents [ 1 , 6 , 11 , 29 , 44 , 58 ]. A preceding comparative study between American and Chinese parents underlined that US parents show a level of nonverbal, verbal, and supportive behavior to their children that surpasses that of their Chinese counterparts [ 11 ].…”

“…Li et al added that Confucianism caused parents to have low emotional and physical affection for their children, resulting in poor communication and parent–child relationships [ 1 ]. Thus, based on the above theoretical analyses and the existing literature, we put forward the following hypotheses [ 58 ]:…”

Loneliness status and associated factors among rural left-behind children in China: a cross-sectional study

“…Secondly, The number of people separated from their parents for 13~24 months accounted for the largest proportion, which may be due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the special environment that prevented long-distance parents from returning home often. It's easy to imagine that the longer these children are separated from their parents, the more they miss them and therefore had more frequent contact with them [ 34] . Thirdly, China has made remarkable achievements in the process of implementing urbanization, which has signi cantly increased the income of migrant workers and improved their living standards [ 35] .…”

COVID-19 and Vulnerable Children Well-Being: Interview with Left-Behind Children in Rural China

“…Therefore, we adopted a qualitative research method consisting of interviews with LBC (face-to-face) to collect the evidence for the study [ 4 , 24 ]. The study primarily targeted an anonymous rural province in southwestern China, where many migrant workers originate, as it is less developed and offers fewer job opportunities than other provinces [ 4 , 48 ]. The research ethics committee of Shenzhen University approved the research protocol and study guidelines (LL2020002).…”

“…Explicitly, although the Chinese government has implemented several strategies to help the most vulnerable children to ensure their health, welfare and education, children’s mental health has suffered due to inequality of access and resource utilization [ 14 , 20 , 45 , 47 ]. Meanwhile, COVID-19 could force LBCs to lose the chance to play outside with their peers or to attend school, with consequences such as severe mental stress, anxiety, and depression [ 14 , 20 , 23 , 43 , 45 , 46 , 48 ]. In addition, migrant workers in China face particularly severe problems and challenges under the pandemic restrictions, and their unstable employment, income, and life security circumstances have worsened [ 24 ].…”