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Internal migration and child health: An investigation of health disparities between migrant children and left-behind children in China

Using data from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), this study empirically examines the association between internal migration and child health through an investigation of health disparities between migrant children and left-behind children in China. The results show that, in comparison with be...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zhang, Yue, Zheng, Xiaodong
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8926270/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35294483
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265407
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author Zhang, Yue
Zheng, Xiaodong
author_facet Zhang, Yue
Zheng, Xiaodong
author_sort Zhang, Yue
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description Using data from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), this study empirically examines the association between internal migration and child health through an investigation of health disparities between migrant children and left-behind children in China. The results show that, in comparison with being left behind, migrating with parents significantly improves children’s self-reported health, height-for-age z-score (HAZ) and BMI-for-age z-score (BAZ), and reduces their frequency of sickness. These findings remain robust to a suite of robustness checks. Furthermore, the health effects of internal migration are more prominent for children with a rural hukou compared with urban ones. Although migrant children are more likely to experience teacher discrimination, they have higher levels of parental care, family relationships, and peer relationships relative to their left-behind counterparts, which indicates possible mechanisms behind the association between children’s migration and health. Our findings underline the importance of policy improvement and evidence-based interventions aiming at reducing involuntary parent-child separation and facilitating the development in health of disadvantaged children in developing countries like China.
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spelling pubmed-89262702022-03-17 Internal migration and child health: An investigation of health disparities between migrant children and left-behind children in China Zhang, Yue Zheng, Xiaodong PLoS One Research Article Using data from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), this study empirically examines the association between internal migration and child health through an investigation of health disparities between migrant children and left-behind children in China. The results show that, in comparison with being left behind, migrating with parents significantly improves children’s self-reported health, height-for-age z-score (HAZ) and BMI-for-age z-score (BAZ), and reduces their frequency of sickness. These findings remain robust to a suite of robustness checks. Furthermore, the health effects of internal migration are more prominent for children with a rural hukou compared with urban ones. Although migrant children are more likely to experience teacher discrimination, they have higher levels of parental care, family relationships, and peer relationships relative to their left-behind counterparts, which indicates possible mechanisms behind the association between children’s migration and health. Our findings underline the importance of policy improvement and evidence-based interventions aiming at reducing involuntary parent-child separation and facilitating the development in health of disadvantaged children in developing countries like China. Public Library of Science 2022-03-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8926270/ /pubmed/35294483 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265407 Text en © 2022 Zhang, Zheng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Zhang, Yue
Zheng, Xiaodong
Internal migration and child health: An investigation of health disparities between migrant children and left-behind children in China
title Internal migration and child health: An investigation of health disparities between migrant children and left-behind children in China
title_full Internal migration and child health: An investigation of health disparities between migrant children and left-behind children in China
title_fullStr Internal migration and child health: An investigation of health disparities between migrant children and left-behind children in China
title_full_unstemmed Internal migration and child health: An investigation of health disparities between migrant children and left-behind children in China
title_short Internal migration and child health: An investigation of health disparities between migrant children and left-behind children in China
title_sort internal migration and child health: an investigation of health disparities between migrant children and left-behind children in china
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8926270/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35294483
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265407
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