“留守”与儿童竞争偏好:一项实地实验研究

“Left-behind” Experience and Competition Preference of Children: A Field Experimental Study from Central Rural China

儿童时期人力资本形成,对个人一生至关重要。竞争态度不仅是一种个性特征,也是重要的非认知能力,对个人性格养成和人力资本积累意义深远。笔者在中部地区两所农村小学开展实地实验,研究儿童“留守”(缺乏父母陪伴)如何影响其竞争偏好。结果表明:留守儿童比非留守儿童更加规避参与竞争;并且,两者竞争偏好之差异,并非儿童在实验任务中的能力和表现所致,与儿童性别、体格(身高/体重)、父母受教育程度、家庭经济状况没有显著关系。证据指向“留守”状态,即缺乏父母陪伴,是儿童更加规避参与竞争的原因。进一步分析发现,父亲陪伴对于儿童竞争偏好的形成更加重要。本研究发现了留守儿童与非留守儿童的竞争偏好差异。研究结果具有一定的政策含义。

The formation of human capital in childhood is vital for the success during one s lifetime. Competition preference is not only one type of personal traits but also an important non-cognitive skill, which has profound implications for personal character development and human capital accumulation. We conducted field experiments in two rural primary schools in Central China and for the first time examined the differences in competition preference between left-behind children and non-left-behind children. The results show that left-behind children are more reluctant to participate in competition compared with non-left-behind children. While the difference between these two types of children in terms of competition preference is neither caused by children s ability and performance in the experimental task, nor related to children s gender, physique (height/weight), parental education and family economic status, the “left-behind” experience, i.e., the lack of parental accompanying, is found to be the reason why left-behind children evade participation in competition. Further analysis show that accompanied by father is more important for the formation of children s competition preference. The above findings have important policy implications.