The Impact Of The "National Child Development Plan In Poor Areas(2014-2020)" On The Health Of Left-behind Children In Poor Areas.

Rural left-behind children who are separated from their parents for a long time due to lack of parental care,support and emotional communication may suffer from physical and psychological health problems.Poor health during childhood significantly reduces their ability and income in adulthood,which is not conducive to the formation of their human capital,ultimately leading to a "nutrition-poverty" trap.With the development of the national economy,all poor counties in China have been lifted out of poverty,but there still exists a certain gap between poor areas and other regions in China,and the health of rural left-behind children in poor areas remains a prominent issue.Policy intervention is crucial for improving the nutritional and health status of rural left-behind children in poor areas.This article mainly explores the following questions:What is the effect of the implementation of the "National Development Plan for Children in Poor Areas(2014-2020)"?What are the remaining health problems of left-behind children in poor areas after the policy implementation?Why have these problems not been improved?What methods can social workers use to intervene in the improvement of the health of left-behind children in poor areas?This article utilizes the " National Child Development Plan in Poor Areas(2014-2020)" as a quasi-natural experiment,based on the micro-panel data of the China Family Panel Studies(CFPS)in 2010,2012,2014,2016,and 2018,this article selects indicators such as height(length)Z-score,weight Z-score,and physique Z-score by age group among left-behind children in poor areas as representative variables for physical health,and selects happiness indicators as representative variables for mental health.The double difference method(DID)is used to evaluate the implementation effects of the "Development Plan" and explore the impact of current policies on the health of left-behind children in rural poor areas.The article also groups left-behind children according to gender,growth stage,and household income,and conducts heterogeneity analysis to examine the differences in the impact of the"Plan" on different groups.By interpreting the results of the double difference,this article aims to provide empirical support for further improving the child development plan and formulating other policies for left-behind children.The research results show that in terms of physical health,the "Development Plan"has significantly improved the growth and short-term nutrition level of left-behind children in poor rural areas,and the improvement in height is more significant than in weight,leading to thinner physiques for the children.In terms of mental health,the"Development Plan" has significantly increased the happiness of left-behind children,indicating that the policy of providing caring services for left-behind children from both schools and families in the "Development Plan" has had an effect.Quantile regression shows that the implementation of the "Development Plan" has a greater improvement on children who suffer from more severe growth retardation.This shows that the "Development Plan" has popularized knowledge of children’s nutrition and diet to parents while providing nutritious meals to school-age children,which has effectively improved the growth and development status of children.Overweight children have improved their physique.They were not deficient in nutrient intake,but their obesity was caused by an imbalance of nutrients,which was corrected to a certain extent through the implementation of the "Development Plan".The improvement effect of the "Development Plan" is more significant among left-behind children with lower levels of happiness.This may be because left-behind children with higher levels of happiness have already received high levels of care from guardians such as parents and schools,while the "Development Plan" reinforces the responsibilities of schools and families for children with lower levels of happiness.The heterogeneity analysis shows that the improvement in weight for boys with slow growth and the improvement in height for girls with slow growth are not significant after the implementation of the "Development Plan".Considering the influence of the idea of favoring boys over girls,families tend to provide more nutrition for boys than girls,and the weight of boys with slow growth had already reached a good level before the implementation of the "Development Plan",so the improvement in weight is not significant.Girls with slow growth have already had their development level basically fixed due to long-term inadequate nutrition,so the improvement effect of the policy on height is not significant.The short-term nutrition and health status of low-income children has improved more significantly than that of high-income children.This may be because high-income families have better nutrition and medical conditions,and the improvement brought by the "Development Plan" is relatively light.This article proposes some intervention suggestions for the challenges faced by individual,family,school,community,and cultural systems in the healthy growth of left-behind children in poor areas.Specifically,it includes interventions through individual case management,group work,family and school social work to support the health of left-behind children in poor areas,establish a support system for them,and create a social work team rooted in the local community.