Dose Parental Migration Interrupt School Progression

• In Event: 3581 - Section on Sociology of Children and Youth Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 08. Health, Migration, Work

Abstract

The massive rural-to-urban migration in China has caused widespread separate living arrangements for rural children and their parents.The current research asks if parental migration interrupts the school progression of left-behind children in rural China.Using longitudinal data from the 2010-2014 China Family Panel Studies, I find that parental migration imposes negative impacts on children's school progression process, especially for girls.Parental migration raises children’s likelihood of dropping out or being held back one or two grades by 28 percent.A further investigation of the three types of parental migration demonstrates 30-40% higher odds of grade retention or dropout for children who experienced father-migration only or both-parents migration.

Author

• Zequn Tang, State University of New York-Albany