| BackgroundThe first 1000 days after the baby is born is a critical period for the development of the brain and nervous system because the rapid growth of early childhood makes the brain particularly vulnerable to external environmental stimulation.Rural left-behind children,a vulnerable population that emerged with the economic and social translation in China,have been existed for a long time.Because of the long-term separation from parents and living in rural areas,the daily life,medical and educational resources available in their places of residence are also scarcer.Besides,the lack of parent-child interaction and communication will make safe parent-child attachment difficult to form.These disadvantages makes it easier for left-behind children to have problems in this critical period.With the continuous increase of the number of left-behind children in recent years,it is significant to carry out the research on the early development level of left-behind children in rural areas from 0 to 3 years old.ObjectivesThis study is aimed at the special vulnerable group of left-behind children in the special period from 0 to 3 years old,and analyze the influencing factors of the psychological development of rural left-behind children to provides the policy a theoretical basis.Subjects and MethodsThe study used the data of children under three years old from the Health Planning Commission's "Evaluation Survey of Health Service Needs for Rural Left-behind Children in Poor Areas" program to analyze.Quota sampling method was used and 3249 left-behind children and 1727 children in the control group were randomly selected from 27 poverty-stricken counties in 12 provinces of China.Questionnaires were used to investigate children and caregivers for family environment and family members situation.The children's development warning signs checklist was used to screening early psychological behavior problems of children.Through statistical description method to analyze the growth and development of left-behind children aged 0?3 years.The influencing factors of children's psychological behavior development were analyzed by binary unconditional logistic regression multivariate analysis.Results1.Status of left-behind children.In the 0?1 year old group of children,55.3%of the mothers have left the child for more than 6 months,and the father has a higher proportion of 67.0%.Alternative caregivers have common situation of old age(median 53 years old)and low academic qualifications.2.Evaluation of early childhood development.The prevalence of abnormal development warning of all children in poor rural areas was 10.7%.There is no significant difference between left-behind children and non-left-behind children.The prevalence of boys(10.94%)were significant higher than girls(7.75%)which is mainly reflected in the development of language ability.Children had the highest prevalence(19.44%)in the first six months after birth and decline with month age.3.Comparison of left-behind and non-left-behind children in parenting environment.In terms of responsive care giving,left-behind children were worse in poor care(7.47%),good parent-child interaction(48.88%)and endorsing corporal punishment(54.49%)than non-left-behind children(5.49%,52.68%,33.27%).On the contrary,the daily TV viewing time is higher than that of non-left-behind children;in terms of nutrition and feeding,the proportion of never breastfeeding(15.40%)is higher than that of non-left-behind children(11.72%).The average weaning age of left-behind children(8.41±3.70)was lower than that of non-left-behind children(9.29±4.16),while proportion of exclusive breastfeeding time more than 6 months,which means the food supplement was added too late,of left-behind children(34.6%)was higher than non-left-behind children(26.6%);In the early learning support,the proportion of left-behind children with toys(47.52%)was higher than that of non-left-behind children(35.56%),and there was no difference between the two groups of the proportion of having their own books;The annual income of different households was not statistically different from the two groups.However,the proportion of non-left-behind children in high-end consumer goods(52.27%)is significantly higher than that of left-behind children(33.22%).There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of two-week prevalence or injury rate.4.Analysis of influencing factors of left-behind children's psychological behavior the development.Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that good parent-child interaction,more consumer goods at home and well food supplement are protective factors for children's psychological behavior development.Poor care,never breastfeeding and ill of children are risk factors.Boys are more prone to abnormal development.Living with brothers or sisters and daily interaction with caregivers for more than half an hour are the independent protection factors for left-behind children.ConclusionPeriod of 0?3 years old after birth is significant for the development of children's development potential.The status of development of left-behind children in poor rural areas is not optimistic due to long-term parent-child separation and insufficient parent-child communication.The disadvantages are mainly in the aspects of responsive care and nutritional supplementation or feeding style.The prevalence of abnormal psychological behavior among the boys is higher than girls,mainly reflected in the development of language field that are not as good as girls.Children's psychological behavior development is influenced by many factors such as internal biological factors(gender,age),material environmental factors(number of household durable consumer goods)and mental and social environment(parental interaction,poor care).It is recommended that caregivers create more opportunity to increase parent-child interaction time,improve caregiver knowledge,and promote breastfeeding and reasonable addition of complementary food.Suggestions1.Pay more attention to the left-behind children's parenting environment and completing government policy.Government departments should formulate relevant policies and interventions for left-behind children,widely publicize the importance of parents for the growth and development of children,strengthen the guardianship and parenting responsibilities and encourage parents of infants to try not to leave home to work.Resources should be allocated reasonably to enable funds to help poor children who really need funding.The work mainly includes the screening of the funded population,the rational management and distribution of mixed funds of different classes,and the follow-up at the later stage.2.Develop targeted intervention policies for different influencing factors,demographic trait and age of children.Since 0?3 is a stage of rapid growth of children,the evaluation,influencing factors and intervention measures of different periods of development are different.We recommend that the parents should use the "family" as the unit to carry out educational activities such as parenting knowledge and mental health,and the different platforms and professional institutions should intervene in each other.3.Build a suitable mental health service system.The mental health problems of left-behind children have not received enough attention and there is a lack of system building in poor rural areas.We recommend that local professional medical institutions set up psychological counseling clinics for children and adolescents.At the same time,medical institutions in the media layer have doctors with certain professional backgrounds to improve the screening,diagnosis and prevention of psychological behavior problems in rural areas.4.Cautious alternative caregiver selection and training of care sensitivityThe selection of surviving caregivers for left-behind children is very important.Parents and alternative caregivers should be trained in parenting knowledge and concepts at the same time.Parents of left-behind children should keep frequent communication with caregivers and children,and correct bad parenting methods in time. |
PDF Full Text Request