Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
Volume 56, Issue 4, 2015, Pages 384-390

The mental health of children of migrant workers in Beijing: The protective role of public school attendance (Article)

Gao Q. , Li H. , Zou H. , Cross W. , Bian R.* , Liu Y.
  • a School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
  • b University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
  • c School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
  • d Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Centre, Rochester, NY, United States
  • e Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
  • f School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

Abstract

The present study aims to understand the mental health status of an understudied group of migrant children - children of migrant workers in China. A total of 1,466 children from Beijing participated in the study that compared migrant children (n = 1,019) to their local peers (n = 447) in public and private school settings. Results showed that overall, migrant children reported more internalizing and externalizing mental health problems and lower life satisfaction than local peers. However, public school attendance served as a protective factor for migrant children's mental health. The mental health status of migrant children attending public schools, including externalizing problems as well as friend and school satisfaction, was not different from local children. In addition, our data indicates that the protective effect of public school attendance for migrant children may be even more salient among girls than boys, and for younger children than older children. © 2015 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Author Keywords

Life satisfaction School settings externalizing problems Children of migrant workers in China internalizing problems

Index Keywords

China mental health human Schools protection Surveys and Questionnaires Humans psychology Adolescent male female Socioeconomic Factors Beijing socioeconomics questionnaire school Protective Factors migration Transients and Migrants Personal Satisfaction satisfaction Child
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84949102948&doi=10.1111%2fsjop.12232&partnerID=40&md5=fa722dcd36a32e0b3c89be07912bb8f0
DOI: 10.1111/sjop.12232
ISSN: 00365564
Cited by: 12
Original Language: English