Parental Migration, Self-control, and Children’s Delinquency in Rural China

• In Event: ACCCJ China, Young People and the State

Abstract

This study investigates the associations between parental rural-to-urban migration, self-control, and left-behind children’s self-reported delinquency in rural China. In particular, we explored the interaction between children’s self-control and parental migration status in predicting children’s delinquent behavior. The study uses data from the Parental Migration and Children’s Well-being Survey, which collected information on parental migration and adolescents’ delinquency from a probability sample of 600 middle school students in southern China. Regression models are used to evaluate hypotheses generated from mainstream criminology theories and the literature of internal migration in rural China. Parental migration and caretaking arrangements, as well as children’s self-control, have significant effects on children’s delinquency in rural China. Also, results indicate that the effect of self-control on delinquency is conditional on types of parental migration and caregiving arrangement. In particular, self-control has the strongest protective effect when children are in the care of one parent (either a father or a mother), but it is significantly reduced when children live with both parents or with grandparents. These findings, however, only apply for boys but not for girls.

Authors

• Xiaojin Chen, Tulane University

• Xin Jiang, Slippery Rock University