Victimization of Children Left Behind in Rural China

• Author: Xiaojin Chen,Ningxin Liang,Stephen F. Ostertag
• DOI: 10.1177/0022427816660145
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• Date: 01 July 2017
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Victimization of

Children Left Behind

in Rural China

Xiaojin Chen

1

, Ningxin Liang

2

,

and Stephen F. Ostertag

1

Abstract

Objectives: Examine the relationship between parental rural-to-urban migra-

tion, caretaking arrangement, and left-behind children’s self-reported victi-

mization in rural China. The direct effect of parental migration on children’s

victimization as well as the indirect effect through positive caretaking and

children’s delinquent/problem behavior involvement is explored. Methods:

The study uses data from the Parental Migration and Children’s Well-being

Survey, which collected information on parental migration and children’s

experience of victimization from a probability sample of 800 middle school

students in southern China. Structural equation modeling is used to evalu-

ate hypothesized models by simultaneously assessing direct and indirect

effects. Results: Compared with children living with both parents in rural

China, children left behind by their fathers have an elevated level of victi-

mization. In addition, the chronic absence of fathers leads to a higher level of

delinquent and problem behavior among left-behind children, which in turn

leads to further victimization. Conclusion: Left-behind children living with

1

Department of Sociology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA

2

Academy of Guangzhou Development, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, Guangdong,

China

Corresponding Author:

Xiaojin Chen, Department of Sociology, Tulane University, 220 Newcomb Hall, New Orleans,

LA 70118, USA.

Email: xchen1@tulane.edu

Journal of Research in Crime and

Delinquency

2017, Vol. 54(4) 515-543

ªThe Author(s) 2016

Reprints and permission:

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DOI: 10.1177/0022427816660145

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mothers, grandparents, or other relatives are an ‘‘at-risk’’ population for

victimization. Local programs such as parenting lessons for left-behind par-

ents and grandparents are needed. In addition, the importance of father’s

chronic absence on left-behind children’s healthy physical and mental devel-

opment needs to be further examined.

Keywords

victimization, left-behind children, China, parental migration

In the last three decades, China has witnessed a rapid increase in the move-

ment of labor from rural primary industry to secondary and tertiary indus-

tries in urban areas. Between 1980 and 1985, an estimated 12 million rural

migrants worked in Chinese cities (Y. H. Zhao 2000). The size of this

population has increased exponentially since the late 1990s, growing from

37 million in 1994 (Du 2000) to 130 million in 2005 (World Bank 2009),

and an estimated 220 million in 2011 (National Bureau of Statistics [of

China] 2011). The sheer size and speed of rural-to-urban migration in

China have made this the largest migration in human history. It has had

significant economic, social, and psychological ramifications (Meng and

Manning 2010).

One of the social costs of this massive migration is the increasing amount

of children left behind in rural migrant-sending communities. The house-

hold registration (hukou) system, a long-standing bifurcated social institu-

tion implemented in the 1950s, defines each family as either an agricultural

household or urban resident household, with the la tter entitled to state-

sponsored social welfare programs such as social insurance, medical care,

and primary education (Mallee 1995). Although the system has been subject

to much reform in recent years, rural migrants and their children are still

institutionally excluded from the urban hukou system and have great diffi-

culty in fully incorporating themselves into host cities of their own country

(Wu 2010). As a result, many children are forced to be left behind in rural

area, staying with one parent, grandparents, extended family members, or

even by themselves. Although reliable statistics on the number of this

population are difficult to come by, the figure of 20 million children is

often cited in previous literature (Ye and Murray 2005). Recent surveys,

however, suggest that as high as 61.03 million children are left behind,

accounting for more than one fifth of the Chinese child population today

(All-China Women’s Federation 2013). As multiple news media have

516 Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 54(4)