What Matters on Rural Left-Behind Children's Problem Behavior: Family Socioeconomic Status or Perceived Discrimination

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 11;20(2):1334. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20021334.

Abstract

With the acceleration of China's industrialization and urbanization, there is a large number of left-behind children in China who are reported with more challenges in development. The study aims to analyze the differences in family socioeconomic status (SES) and discrimination perception between left-behind children and non-left-behind children and further explore whether SES or discrimination perception has a greater impact on the problem behaviors of left-behind children. We found the family SES of left-behind children was significantly lower than that of non-left-behind children; left-behind children's perceived discrimination was significantly higher than that of non-left-behind children; perceived discrimination of left-behind children had a greater impact on their problem behavior than the family SES.

Keywords: family socioeconomic status; left-behind children; perceived discrimination; problem behavior.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Child
  • China
  • Humans
  • Perceived Discrimination
  • Problem Behavior*
  • Rural Population
  • Social Class

Grants and funding

This research is funded by Grant No. 20YJC880015 from the Department of Social Sciences, Ministry of Education, of China.