Effect of government polices on mental health of left-behind children

Abstract

The left-behind children in China are children who remain in rural regions of China while their parents leave to work in urban areas. This paper aims to disclose the effect of government policies on mental health of left-behind children (LBC) in China. The LBCfrom 10 rural primary schools in remote areas of western China were selected as the subjects. The author conducted a survey on their mental health, using the standardized mental health diagnostic test (MHT). The results show that the LBC were significantly higher than non-LBC in physical symptom only and slightly higher in the other respects; the female LBC whose father is migrant worker had much worse mental health than their male counterparts in learning anxiety social anxiety and self-blame, allergic and terrorist tendencies; male LBC had much higher anxiety of physical symptom than female LBC. To sum up, the government policies have effectively improved the mental health of the LBC, and special care should be given to female LBCs whose father is migrant worker. The research results provide the direction for LBC policy-making.