父母外出与子女精神健康

Parents Migration and Children’s Mental Health in China

子女的精神健康对其学习生活乃至成年时候的成就都有至关重要的作用。基于北京师范大学"全国儿童青少年发育特征数据库",本文研究了父母外出对子女精神健康的影响,包括城镇留守儿童和农村留守儿童。基于倾向得分匹配的匹配样本估计结果显示:一方面,父母一方外出会降低城镇子女的自信可能性;另一方面,无论城镇子女还是农村子女,在父母都外出的情况下焦虑可能性都会显著提高,同时自信和自尊可能性都会显著降低。分性别估计结果显示,女孩更容易遭受父母外出引起的精神健康损失的风险。

Using a unique and professional psychological data,applying propensity score matching method,this paper studies causal effects of parental migration on mental health of left-behind children.The estimates suggest that if only one of parents migrate,the children’s mental health will not be affected,except self-trust of children in urban areas.While if both parents are out for migration,children’s mental health will be negatively affected.Additionally,girls are more likely to be affected by the parental out-migration.