Parental migration and self-reported health status of adolescents in China: a cross-sectional study

Lu, Weijia, Zhang, Anwen and Mossialos, Elias ORCID: 0000-0001-8664-9297 (2020) Parental migration and self-reported health status of adolescents in China: a cross-sectional study. EClinicalMedicine, 22. ISSN 2589-5370

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Abstract

Background: Over 100 million children are parented by migrant workers in China. The aim of this study was to investigate how self-reported adolescent physical and mental health are associated with parental migration. Methods: Based on cross-sectional data of 13996 students in 112 schools drawn from a nationally representative sample of middle school students in China, this study used self-reported measures for adolescent physical and mental health. Ordered logistic regression was used for the analysis of self-reported physical health, and linear regression was used for the analysis of self-reported mental health, both adjusting for socio-economic covariates and school fixed effects, to determine how adolescent health is associated with parental migration. Findings: In urban areas, migrant adolescents were physically healthier (OR=1.19, 95% CI: 1.03–1.36), and similarly mentally healthy (b=-0.07, 95% CI: -0.37–0.23), compared to urban adolescents from intact families; in rural areas, left-behind adolescents were less physically (OR=0.84, 95% CI: 0.76–0.94) and mentally (b=0.45, 95% CI: 0.24–0.66) healthy than rural-intact adolescents, holding other variables constant. Left-behind adolescents had less close parent-adolescent relationships than rural-intact adolescents with both father (OR=0.63, 95% CI: 0.56–0.71) and mother (OR=0.62, 95% CI: 0.54–0.70). Interpretation: Our study highlights a great need for health interventions aimed at left-behind adolescents in China and globally, and the important roles of parent-adolescent relationships in addressing the health needs of left-behind adolescents.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/eclinicalmed...
Additional Information:	© 2020 The Authors
Divisions:	Health Policy
Subjects:	R Medicine > RJ Pediatrics > RJ101 Child Health. Child health services H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration
Date Deposited:	28 May 2020 15:03
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2024 02:11
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/104636

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