The Timing Effect And Return Effect Of Parental Migration On Children’s Health Outcome

BackgroundThe unprecedented large-scale rural-urban migration in China has left over 60 million children in rural area.Restricted by the household registration system,educational policy,social welfare system and actual economic problems,parents have to left kids over in rural places,which leads to negative impacts on health development to the left behind children.Focusing on the health of left behind children would able to path the way of constructing the New Socialist Countryside,but also promote social harmonious development.ObjectiveTo compare the difference of health status and the nutrient absorbed condition between left behind children and non-left behind children,to explore the short turn,long turn and cumulative effects of parental migration and return migration decisions on health and nutritional status of left behind children,to offer advices on how to improve the health and nutritional status among left behind children.MethodsThis paper uses panel data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey(CHNS),and applied Fixed Effect-Instrument variable method to evaluate the short turn,long turn and cumulative effects of parental migration and return migration decisions on health and nutritional status of left behind children.We use the interaction terms between wage growth in provincial capital cities and community migrant networks as instrumental variables to account for migration decision.Furthermore,based on classical papers,we use Lewbel’s method and the proportion of the households with migrants and the wage gap sorted by educational level as additional instrumental variables to control for the"endogeneity" of migration when analyzing the time use pattern among left behind children.ResultsOur results show that parental migration has negative effect on the height,weight and nutrient absorbed condition of children.However,the return migration can reduce this negative impact and improve the quality and quantity of nutrition,then help improve the health status of left behind children.Due to the burden of housework and farm,left behind children spend less time on preparing food and this caused the potential malnutrition among older left behind children.Parental return decision can effectively reduce their work in family.ConclusionThe health status is deeply related to the expectation of education level,work efficiency and income.Rural government should record the left behind children regularly and help them in economical and mental ways.At the same time,Government should help return migrants attend entrepreneur activities and give financial or political help,this can help alleviate gaps between urban and rural and help promote a harmonious society.Government should also improve educational and medical facilities for help migrant children grow up without burden.