Separation and Reunification: Mental Health of Chinese Children Affected by Parental Migration

Internal and international migration impacts family structure, parent–child relationships, and child care arrangements for the world’s ∼1 billion migrants.1 When parents migrate without their children, this experience of prolonged separation has profound repercussions on children’s development and well-being. Because international migration disrupts family systems globally, internal migration, such as rural-to-urban migration in low- and middle-income countries, also has massive impacts. In China alone, 61 million rural children are living apart from their parents who have migrated to urban areas.2 These so-called “left-behind children” comprise 34% of all rural children and 22% of the total child population in China.2 The well-being of children who are affected by parental migration has raised concerns worldwide. Although labor-related migration tends to improve a family’s socioeconomic circumstances, a prolonged separation from migrant parents can place children at an increased risk for psychosocial disorders.3 Even reunification with parents may lead to additional distress because of an abrupt restructuring of family dynamics.4,5 Despite the many clinical implications of parental migration and family separation, little information is available to help clinicians understand how parental migration may affect mental and behavioral development in children. Migrant parents often leave their children behind in the pursuit of employment even in Asian cultures, in which family connection is emphasized as the major source of identity and protection. Factors that prevent migrant parents from bringing their children along include residence permit policies, a high cost of living, and a lack of access to child care and education. … Address correspondence to Chenyue Zhao, PhD, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, School of Medicine, New York University, 1 Park Ave, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10016. E-mail: chenyue.zhao{at}nyumc.org