Abstract:

The influence of left-behind experience on children’s study and health is one of the focuses of academic research in recent years, but the analysis results are not consistent. This study introduces a new research perspective and uses the survey data of Shaanxi Province from 2016 to 2018 to examine the learning performance of rural children from three dimensions: left-behind experience, left-behind time, and left-behind model. The study found that compared with children who have never been left behind, short-term left-behind children have a significant advantage in their test scores, and short-term parental outings have a positive effect on children’s performance. However, if parents go out for a long time, the academic performance of left-behind children will be negatively affected to a certain extent. There is no significant difference in the academic performance of left-behind children whose parents go out and those who have never left-behind; left-behind children whose fathers go out and are under the supervision of their mothers have obvious advantages in language performance. In addition, this study also found in the cases if parents who go out to work and often go home to reunite with their left-behind children, it is beneficial to improve the children’s academic performance. This study puts forward the possible reasons for the differences in children’s academic performance in three dimensions, and makes recommendations from two perspectives, policy and methodology. Based on the conclusions of this study, it can be considered that population migration may promote the development of education in the outflow areas to a certain extent. In the future, the migrant work economy should be used as a driving force to promote the development of rural education, and we have provided two possible ways for this.

Key words: left-behind experience, left-behind duration, left-behind pattern, frequency of going home, academic attainment