A study of Child Neglect, Social- Emotional Development, and School Relationships Among Left Behind Children in Rural China

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand the status of neglect of children in China's rural areas, especially left-behind children, and the relationship with social-emotional development. With the background of the school environment in which most children live, this study assumes that peer relationship and teacher-student relationship in the school can serve as a protective moderating factor that child neglect impact on the social-emotional development. Explore whether peer relationships and teacher-student relationships play a moderating role in the relationship between child neglect and social-emotional development. This will provide a scientific basis for systematically constructing a theoretical and practical system for preventing rural neglected children from neglecting and improving social-emotional development.

This study used a Chinese children's neglect scale developed by Chinese scholars (e.g. physical neglect, emotional neglect, medical neglect, education neglect, and safety neglect), and the social-emotional development scale (e.g. self-esteem, resistance and life satisfaction), and in-school relations scale (e.g. peer relationship, teacher-student relationship) in the survey on "Korea Child and Youth Panel Survey 2010" . A total of 550 children from grade 4 to grade 8 in seven schools in rural Juye County, Shandong Province were surveyed. A total of 479 valid questionnaires were retrieved, including 113 non-left-behind children. After excluding the missing values of the relevant control variables, 293 left-behind children were analyzed. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 20.0 statistical software and t-test and linear regression analysis were used when analyzing differences in the level of child neglect. When analyzing the overall level of child neglect, sub-scales of child neglect and social emotional development, and verifying moderating effects of peer relationship and teacher-student relationship, hierarchical regression analysis was used separately.

The result shows, firstly, there was no significant difference in the level of neglect among left-behind and non-left-behind children. However, when the type of children was based on the non-left-behind children, only one parent migrated to work and parents both migrated to work as dummy variables and found that there is a significant difference in the level of neglect between non-left-behind children and children their parents both migrated. Secondly, after controlling relevant variables, the level of neglect of all children and left-behind children both have significant effect on social-emotional development. However, from the perspective of sub-scales of child neglect, of which five neglect types, only emotional neglect has a significant effect on social-emotional development.Thirdly, for left-behind children, peer relationship has a significant moderating effect in the relationship between child neglect and social-emotional development, however, the moderating effect of teacher-student relationship on the relationship between child neglect and social-emotional development was not statistically significant. Moreover, whether peer realationship or teacher-student relationship as a moderator factor, in the relationship between sub-scales of child neglect and social-emotional development, no statistically significance has been found.

The limitations of this study include the following points. Firstly, this study only selected children in a rural area of Shandong Province, China. It could not represent the situation of left-behind children in China. The age range was from grade 4 to grade 8 and did not include younger children. Secondly, the reliability of self-esteem in social-emotional development was low, which may be related to the characteristics of children in this age group. Thirdly, this study used cross-sectional surveys for analysis. Further studies utilizing panel data and longitudinal data for analysis on the time-based interaction will be required.

Keyword : Left behind children, Child neglect, Social-emotional development, Peer relationship, Teacher-student relationship, Rural China