Using recent cross-sectional data of rural children aged from 8 to 18 in Hunan Province of China, this article examines psychological, behavioral, and educational outcomes and the psychosocial contexts of these outcomes among children left behind by one or both of their rural-to-urban migrant parents compared to those living in nonmigrant families. The results showed that left-behind children were disadvantaged in health behavior and school engagement but not in perceived satisfaction. The child's psychosocial environment, captured by family socioeconomic status, socializing processes, peer and school support, and psychological traits, were associated with, to varying extent, child developmental outcomes in rural China. These influences largely remain constant for the sampled children regardless of their parents' migrant status. © 2011 The Authors. Child Development © 2011 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

[No Keywords available]

Child, Abandoned Vulnerable Populations vulnerable population education information processing educational status psychological aspect human Health Behavior sex difference rural population custody socialization social support ethnology achievement Cross-Sectional Studies cross-sectional study Humans Adolescent male female Child Welfare Parenting Article Social Environment migration age Sex Factors Age Factors Transients and Migrants Child Development Personal Satisfaction satisfaction Data Collection child parent relation Legal Guardians Child