A Research On The Relationship Between Family Adaptability And Cohesion And Mental Health Of Rural Left-behind Children

With the rapid development of urbanization and large-scalelabor force changes in China, a great number of rural left-behindchildren were brought about because of being subjected to theurban and rural system. Primary and secondary school stage is acritical period for children to develop their body and mind rapidly,wehther the parent-child separation and absence of family educationof rural left-behind children will affect their living codition,mentalhealth or behavior development require more intensive research.Therefore, the issue of rural left-behind children requires theconcern of the whole society.Objective: The status of rural left-behind children’s familyadaptability and cohesion and mental health, along with theirrelationship were analyzed to appropriately provide strategies forpsychological consultation. Method: 611 secondary school studentsin Hebei province were investigated using questionnaire of FACESII-CV and MHT.Results: 1. The mental health level of both rural left-behind children and non-left-behind children were basically in the normalrange, the average scores on mental health were lower than 65marks, and both of their average scores on the dimension of studyanxiety were higher than 8 marks. A higher level of anxiety wasimposed to junior middle school students by bearing the pressure ofentering a higher school and heavy school work.2. Differences were significant between rural left-behind girlsand boys on study anxiety and self-accusation (p<0.05), the totalscore and anxiety about people (p<0.01), phobia tendency (p<0.001),the boys caught higher scores than the girls in general, whiledifferences on other dimensions were not obvious enough to reachsignificant level (p＞0.05).3. Significant differences (p＜0.05) on family adaptability existedamong rural left-behind children raised by supporters with variouseducational levels. Those children raised by supporters at or abovethe junior middle school level caught higher scores than thoseraised by supporters having only primary education, which got thelowest scores. On other dimensions, differences among ruralleft-behind children raised by supporters with various educationallevels were not obvious enough to reach significant level (p＞0.05).4. Different frequencies for rural left-behind children to contactwith their out-of-town parents led to significant differences onfamily adaptability and cohesion. Significant differences on familycohesion existed between those children contacting with theirparents everyday and contacting weekly (p<0.05), as well asbetween contacting everyday and more than one month (p<0.01).Moreover, the scores on family adaptability, those children contacting with their parents everyday remained significantlyhigher than those contacting with their parents every month (p<0.05)and more than one month (p<0.01), as well as between contactingevery week and more than one month (p<0.05). However,frequencies for rural left-behind children to contact with theirparents did not raise their differences to the significant level (p＞0.05) on other dimensions.5. Significant differences on family adaptability and cohesionalso come from distinct attitudes of rural left-behind children aboutthat their parents choose to work in another city. Specificallyspeaking, the scores on family cohesion, children in favor remainedsignificantly higher than those having an indifferent attitude(p<0.01), children who is noncommittal remained significantdifference from those having an indifferent attitude (p<0.05) as well.In addition, the scores on family adaptability, children holding anindifferent attitude, which got the worst family adaptability,remained obviously lower than those in favor (p<0.01), and remainedsignificant differences from those in disfavor and those withnoncommittal attitude (p<0.05).6. Significant negative correlations were found between familycohesion and the five dimensions (p<0.01): the total score of mentalhealth, anxiety about people, solitude tendency, physical symptom,and phobia tendency of rural left-behind children, as well as thehypersusceptibility(p<0.01). Therefore, the higher the score offamily cohesion, the lower the MHT, and the better the mental healthof rural left-behind children. Besides, significant negativecorrelations were found between family adaptability and the two dimensions (p<0.01): anxiety about people and impulsive tendency,consequently, the better the family adaptability, the better themental health of rural left-behind children accordingly.