The Effect of Parental Absence on Child Development in Rural China

• Author: Jia Wu,Junsen Zhang
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/aepr.12166
• Published date: 01 January 2017
• Date: 01 January 2017

The Effect of Parental Absence on Child

Development in Rural China

Jia WU

1

, and Junsen ZHANG

2

†

1

Jinan University,

2

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

This study estimates the effect of parental absence on the development of children in rural China.

Although some previous studies have looked into the effect of parental absence on children’s

academic achievements, we investigate the effects of parental absence on both the cognitive and

non-cognitive skills of children. Our results show that parental absence during early child

development mostly incurs negative effects on the academic achievement and non-cognitive

development of children. A child whose parents are both absent tends to have lower Chinese and

mathematics test scores, lower self-assessment on his/her behavior, and is less likely to be happy

and satisfied. A gender difference is also observed inthe effect of parental absence: girls suffer more

from the effect of both parents being absent on their mathematics test scores than do boys.

Key words: cognitive achievement, left-behind children, non-cognitive ability,parental absence

JEL codes: A20, J13

1. Introduction

Rural–urban migration in China was restricted during the centrally planned era through

the hukou registration system (Meng, 2012).The rapid growth of China since the mid-

1980s generated a large demand for labor, which induced massive rural–urban

migration. The restrictions of the hukou system were gradually relaxed, and numerous

rural people migrated to cities to pursue off-farm jobs and high wages. However,

although rural migrants and their families are allowed to live in cities, they are excluded

from accessing the social benefits that urban citizens enjoy because they do not have an

urban hukou in their residency. This unequal treatment is reflected in various aspects,

such as healthcare and social insurance. In particular, the children of migrant workers

do not have free access to public education in cities. The Law of Compulsory Education

requires that all children should have free access to schools until the ninth grade, yet

most migrant children continue to have no access to public schools in urban areas.

A reason for this unfortunate treatment is that, in funding of compulsory education,

local governments have no incentives to share their resources with those without urban

hukou registration. Therefore, migrant children can only go to either private schools in

cities by paying a high tuition fee, which most migrant workers cannot afford, or to

The authors are grateful to the fundingsupport provided by the Ministry ofEducation of China

in 2016 and the Guangdong Collaborative InnovationCenter of Industrial Transformationand

Upgrading.

†Correspondence: Junsen Zhang,Department of Economics, The ChineseUniversity of Hong Kong,

Shatin, Hong Kong.Email: jszhang@cuhk.edu.hk

doi: 10.1111/aepr.12166 Asian EconomicPolicy Review (2017) 12, 117–134

©2017 JapanCenter for EconomicResearch 117

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“migrant schools,”which are usually run by local entrepreneurs with a subsidized fee.

Although these schools provide educational opportunities for migrant children, high

tuition fees or the low quality of education in these schools make many migrants decide

to leave their children in the countryside. In rural China, about one-fifth of children

under age 17 are classified as left-behind children.

1

This phenomenon has led to a

serious concern about the migrants’children who are left-behind. Numerous researchers

have raised concerns about the neglect of left-behind children in China because parental

absence may reduce the human capital investment in these children (Myerson, 2015),

thereby leading to inefficiencies and decreased rates of employment growth in the

future (for example, Haveman & Wolfe, 1995).

In this study, we seek to understand the consequences of parental absence on

children’s development. Parental absence can affect the cognitive and non-cognitive

abilities of children. Some previous studies have examined the effect of parental absence

on the academic achievements of children (for example, Antman, 2011, 2012; Mckenzie

& Rapoport, 2011; Zhang et al., 2014). Academic achievement is extremely important for

children’s development because it is related to their education level, job performance,

and wage when they enter the labor force. However, the characteristics of academic

achievement lie in the premise that the importance of cognitive ability increases with

job complexity (Kautz et al., 2014). Cognitive skills are more important for senior

workers (such as professors, scientists, and managers) than for semi-skilled or un-skilled

laborers (Schmidt & Hunter, 2004). By contrast, non-cognitive skills may increasingly

play a ubiquitous role. These skills are widely used in a number of contexts and are

useful for both high- and low-end jobs. A large body of evidence shows that non-

cognitive ability is important for the future development of children. This type of skill

predicts a variety of outcomes, ranging from educational attainment (Lleras, 2008;

Duncan & Magnuson, 2011) to income and labor market performance (Cunha &

Heckman, 2009; Hall & Farkas, 2011). Hence, non-cognitive ability has received renewed

interest recently. Evidence from many empirical studies supports such claims. First, non-

cognitive abilities play an important role in schools. For example, Nisbett (2009)

demonstrates that non-cognitive abilities predict standardized achievement test scores.

Heckman et al. (2014) specify that the deficits in non-cognitive skills cause the students

who belong to the General Educational Development program

2

to drop out of high

school and underperform later in life. Second, non-cognitive abilities are useful for

people in the labor market and can partly dictate people’s wages. For example, Holzer

(1997) and Zemsky (1997) conduct employer surveys and determine that personal

qualities such as responsibility, integrity, communication skills, and self-management

are keys to success in the workplace. Nelsen (1997) realizes that social skills are useful

for new workers to learn skills from experienced workers. The time inputs of parents

are found to be an important investment for the development of their children (Del Boca

et al., 2014). Hence, parental absence is similar to a deficiency in an important source of

investment, a deficiency that may affect children’s skill formation of both cognitive and

non-cognitive abilities. However, the manner of how parental absence affects the non-

cognitive skills of a child is yet to be widely investigated. To address these gaps in our

The Effect ofParental Absence on Child Development Jia Wu and JunsenZhang

118 ©2017Japan Center for EconomicResearch