Title: Community-based intervention to improve the well-being of left behind children in China
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: In China an estimated 58 million children, or 28% of all rural children, have been left behind in rural areas by parents migrating to cities to work. Six million of these children are thought to live alone. Concerns for their welfare and human capital development are growing and the Chinese government has recently called for local communities to take more responsibility for the welfare needs of left behind children. This makes our study highly timely and policy relevant, as it aims to demonstrate an inexpensive, feasible and evidence-based model to address the effects of migration on children in rural communities. It is well known that migration affects the well-being of children through a trade-off between an increase in family income and the effects of parental absence. A number of studies in China have concluded that left behind children have poorer health indicators, lower educational attainment, and more psychological and behavioural problems than children living with their parents. In addition, an estimated 14 million children accompany their migrant parents to urban destinations. They face challenges of social integration and acculturation, and are reported to be particularly susceptible to mental health problems. The primary aim of this project is to establish whether a community-based intervention, consisting of "clubs" for left behind children can have a positive impact on their health, well-being, behaviour and educational attainment, in two socio-economically and geographically disparate Chinese provinces: Guizhou and Zhejiang. In addition, we aim to: (1) establish with some precision the size and composition of the population of left behind children and urban migrant children in two typical Chinese provinces (2) provide a description of health, well-being, development, behaviour, and educational attainment among groups of children with different parental migration and residence status, that is, left behind children in rural areas, rural children living with parents, urban migrant children and permanent urban dwellers (3) help to inform parents' decisions regarding rural-to-urban migration, investments in children, and support of children from a distance The intervention will be provided under the auspices of the All-China Women's Federation, which has assumed responsibility for the social welfare of vulnerable children thoughout China. It will be carried-out in 40 villages in the two provinces. The clubs will provide support primarily for left behind children aged 6 to 16, and will provide play, mentoring, help with homework and encouragement with communication with parents. Villages will provide an appropriate space and volunteers will be recruited. With a minimum of 25 left behind children in each village, the intervention will be received by at least 1000 children in the two provinces. The effectiveness of the clubs in improving the well-being of the children will be assessed after one year of the intervention, by measuring differences in a range of health, well-being, behavioural and educational measures, before and after the intervention, and by comparing these with those of left behind children in control villages, where the intervention will be delayed. To maximise impact we will disseminate through the nationwide network of the All-China Women's Federation, through policy-makers in social welfare, education and health, through inviting participants in the study to be ambassadors for the programme, and through the media and social networking. The impact of this project should be considerable. It will improve our understanding of the effects of parental migration on the health, well-being and development of children, and will develop a model for communities to take responsibility for the welfare of left behind children. This has implications both for replication within China, and also for other countries where parental migration is common.


Research activity codes: 2.3 PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS;3.1 PRIMARY PREVENTION INTERVENTIONS TO MODIFY BEHAVIOURS OR PROMOTE WELL-BEING
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE