Education of Migrant Children Worrisome

The plight of migrant workers in China, estimated to number in the hundreds of millions, has drawn grave concerns from top leaders and common people alike. Part of their plight is the schooling of their children that they cannot go to school on equal terms as local children. Nearly half of school-age migrant children in China cannot go to school as scheduled, and 9.3% of them dropped out of school or never attended school, according to a latest survey of migrant populations in nine Chinese …     

Disability of Children A Serious Issue

A national survey jointly conducted by the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Public Security, China Federation of the Disabled, National Statistical Bureau and UNICEF in 2001 among 60,000 children, aged 0-6 and with disability, showed that nationwide, there were roughly a total of 1.395 million children with disability and 199,000 were added to the total number each year. Based on the 2000 national population census, the survey estimated that of these children with disability, 1.07 milli…     

An Analysis of the Status of Out-of-School Children in China

ＡｎＡｎａｌｙｓｉｓｏｆｔｈｅＳｔａｔｕｓｏｆＯｕｔ－ｏｆ－ＳｃｈｏｏｌＣｈｉｌｄｒｅｎｉｎＣｈｉｎａ￥ＹａｎｇＳｈｕｚｈａｎｇ（ＹａｎｇＳｈｕｚｈａｎｇｉｓａｓｅｎｉｏｒｒｅｓｅａｒｃｈｅｒｆｒｏｍｔｈｅＣｈｉｎａＰｏｐｕｌａｔｉｏｎＩｎｆｏｒｍａ...     

The Characteristics of Children’s Subjective Well-Being

Despite the increased interest in recent decades in the study of children’s subjective well-being (SWB), much too little is known about the factors that contribute to their SWB, especially with regards to socio-demographic characteristics. In addition, only handful of studies has made a comparison between countries and was based on large samples. The present study is a first of its kind. Utilizing the International Study of Children’s Well-Being first wave data set with questionnaires from over 34,500 children from 14 different countries to explore the characteristics of children’s SWB and the relations between an array of socio-demographic variables and children’s SWB. SWB was measured using three scales—overall life satisfaction, overall satisfaction in specific domains and overall SWB that was measured using agreement items. The socio-demographic variables were composed of demographic characteristics (e.g. gender and age), self-reported socio-economic items and the children’s country of residence. Findings show that children’s SWB in all countries is relatively high, although some variation can be found between the three SWB scales. Differences were found between the three measurements of SWB in regard to the explained variance, nevertheless the socio-demographic characteristics explain relatively low amount of the variance in SWB (10.9–20.2 %). The demographic variables have the lowest contribution, followed by the socio-economic items, while countries have the highest contribution. Thus one of our main conclusions is that the answer for understanding children’s SWB does not lay in the socio-demographic characteristics. The implications of these findings for further research of children’s SWB are discussed.     

Education of Children of Migrant Population: A Challenge for Government

AsthefreedomofmovementbecomesmoreaccessibletoordinaryChinese,China'sbigcitiesfaceanincreasinglyseriousproblem:migrantpopulation.Shanghai,China'slargestcity,forexample,hasamigrantpopulationof2.37million(1/6ofitspermanentpopulation),accordingtoa1997samplingsurvey.Whilecontributingtotheirhostcity'sdevelopment,themigrantpopulationfacesaseriesofchallengesintheirdailylife.Oneofthoseistheeducationoftheirchildren.ProblemsAccordingtothesamesurveymentionedabove,ofthe2.37millionmigrantpeoplelivinginSha…     

Education of Children Among Migrant People A Major Concern

Receiving education is one of the fundamental rights that all children are entitled to. China抯 law grants nine-year compulsory education to all children. In practice, however, many children of migrant people have been deprived of this right. For those who did attend school, the situation is also worrisome. Major problems include a low attendance rate and high dropout rate. A recent survey conducted in Beijing indicates that over 100,000 out of the 3 million migrant population in Beiji…     

Study on the Situation of Left-in-hometown Children in China

The issue of rural children left behind by parents who have migrated to the cities has become an important topic that has drawn much attention. This     

Parental Migration and Children’s Early Childhood Development: A Prospective Cohort Study of Chinese Children

Population Research and Policy Review - In the developing world, children are at high risk of growing up without one or both parents for extended periods of time during childhood, largely due to...     

Children’s Resilience-Related Beliefs as a Predictor of Positive Child Development in the Face of Adversities: Implications for Interventions to Enhance Children’s Quality of Life

This paper reports the findings of a longitudinal childhood resilience study which investigated the relationship between resilience-related beliefs and positive child development. Three waves of data collection (T1, T2, and T3) were completed in January 2005, July 2005, and January 2006 with a sample of 843 grade 4 pupils, drawn from six primary schools in Hong Kong, and their parents or guardians. At T1, parents/guardians responded to a 24-item inventory of life adversities affecting their children since birth; at T1 and T3, they completed a 25-item Parental Assessment of Child’s Habit, which provided parental evaluation of children’s performance at home and in school. At T1, T2, and T3, children responded to a 58-item Child and Youth Resilience Measure, a 9-item scale on Chinese cultural beliefs about adversity, and an 11-item Chinese Resilience Measure for Children and Adolescents in Hong Kong. Regression analyses, based on linear mixed models, controlling for gender, T1 and T2 scores, personal variables, and random effects of schools, were conducted to test and validate the hypothesis that children’s resilience beliefs are predictive of positive child development, and that this predictive relationship is stronger with increasing adversity in children’s lives. Implications of these findings for the development of resilience-based interventions to enhance the quality of life of children facing adversities are examined.     

Magic Moment? Maternal Marriage for Children Born Out of Wedlock

To test the existence of the “magic moment” for parental marriage immediately post-birth and to inform policies that preferentially encourage biological over stepparent marriage, this study estimates the incidence and stability of maternal marriage for children born out of wedlock. Data came from the National Survey of Family Growth on 5,255 children born nonmaritally. By age 15, 29 % of children born nonmaritally experienced a biological-father marriage, and 36 % experienced a stepfather marriage. Stepfather marriages occurred much later in a child’s life—one-half occurred after the child turned age 7—and had one-third higher odds of dissolution. Children born to black mothers had qualitatively different maternal marriage experiences than children born to white or Hispanic mothers, with less biological-parent marriage and higher incidences of divorce. Findings support the existence of the magic moment and demonstrate that biological marriages were more enduring than stepfather marriages. Yet relatively few children born out of wedlock experienced stable, biological-parent marriages as envisioned by marriage promotion programs.     

Children’s Experiences After the Unintended Birth of a Sibling

This study examines whether children with a younger sibling whose birth was unintended experience larger declines in the quality of their home environment and larger increases in behavioral problems than children whose younger sibling’s birth was intended. We use data from the NLSY79 to estimate cross-lag regression models that assess changes in the home environment and children’s behavioral problems after the birth of a sibling (intended or unintended). Results are consistent with our hypotheses, finding that, indeed, unintended births have negative spillover effects. Compared with children whose sibling’s birth was intended, both boys and girls whose sibling’s birth was unintended experienced larger declines in the quality of their home environment, and boys had larger increases in behavioral problems. We also find some unexpected evidence that mistimed births may have larger negative effects than unwanted births. This deserves further research, and we offer some possible explanations that could guide those investigations.     

Schools for Children of Migrant Workers in Beijing:An Issue of Concern for All People

Although the migrant workers in Beijing are living in the city, the institution of separation between urban and rural areas still denies them participation in the urban public service and social security     

Why are Children with Married Parents Healthier? The Case of Pediatric Asthma

Among a recent birth cohort in U.S. cities, young children were far more likely to be diagnosed with asthma and to experience an asthma-related emergency if their parents were unmarried. Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, I find that the child health benefits of marriage seem to stem from the benefits of parental coresidence and the demographic and socioeconomic correlates of marriage. Children whose parents live apart appear to be at heightened risk of asthma even after taking into account demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The child health benefits of marriage are only weakly related to mothers’ health behaviors and are not related to father involvement. An analysis of relationship transitions suggests that marital disruption may be more harmful for children than the disruption of cohabiting unions. The results provide some cautions and considerations for the U.S. government’s Healthy Marriage Initiative.

Saving,Sharing, or Spending? The Wealth Consequences of Raising Children

This study uses 1986–2012 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort data to investigate the relationship between raising children and net worth among younger Baby Boomer parents. I combine fixed-effects and unconditional quantile regression models to estimate changes in net worth associated with having children in different age groups across the wealth distribution. This allows me to test whether standard economic models for savings and consumption over the life course hold for families at different wealth levels. My findings show that the wealth effects of children vary throughout the distribution. Among families at or below the median, children of all ages were associated with wealth declines, likely due to the costs of child-rearing. However, at the 75th percentile and above, wealth increased with the presence of younger children but decreased after those children reached age 18. My results, therefore, provide evidence for a saving and investment model of child-rearing among wealthier families but not among families at or below median wealth levels. For these families, the costs of raising children largely outweighed motivations for saving.     

Purchasing Piety? Coresidence of Married Children With Their Older Parents in Japan

We investigated the conditions under which married children live with their older parents in Japan. We focused on how needs and resources in each generation are associated with whether married couples live with their parents in parent-headed and child-headed households, and we also investigated difference in power relations between older and younger generations and between children and their spouses. We analyzed a nationally representative sample of older parents (n = 3,853) and their married children (n = 8,601) from the 1999 Nihon University Japanese Longitudinal Study of Aging (NUJLSOA). Mutinomial regression revealed that married children with relatively affluent parents tended to live with them in parent-headed households and that married children with parents who are in relatively poor health or who are widowed tended to live with them in child-headed households. We also found that less-educated married children tended to live in the households of their higher-income parents, suggesting that parents may be "purchasing" traditional arrangements with less-affluent children. In addition, children with an educational advantage over their spouses were more likely to have parents living with them in child-headed coresident households. We conclude that traditional multigenerational coresidence has become a commodity negotiated within families based on relative resources and needs within and across generations.     

The Progress of Human Rights in China：Protecting the Legitimate Rights and Interests of Women and Children

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Population Education for young Children

ＰｏｐｕｌａｔｉｏｎＥｄｕｃａｔｉｏｎｆｏｒｙｏｕｎｇＣｈｉｌｄｒｅｎ￥／／ＭｙＤａｒｌｉｎｇａｎｄＺｈａｏｄｉＡｂｉｇｃｏｃｋｃｒｏｗｓｌｏｕｄｌｙｉｎｔｈｅｍｏｒｎｉｎｇ，Ａｎｄｈａｓａｗｏｋｅｍｙｄａｒｌｉｎｇｔｏｇｅｔｕｐｅａｒｌｙ．Ｈｅｇｏ...     

Grown-up Only Children in Shanghai

ＧｒｏｗｎｕｐＯｎｌｙＣｈｉｌｄｒｅｎｉｎＳｈａｎｇｈａｉＴｈｅｒｅａｒｅ２．１７４ｍｉｌｉｏｎ”ｏｎｅｃｈｉｌｄ”ｆａｍｉｌｉｅｓｉｎＳｈａｎｇｈａｉ．Ｔｈｅｆｉｒｓｔｃｏｈｏｒｔｏｆｔｈｅｓｅｏｎｌｙｃｈｉｌｄｒｅｎｉｓｐｒｅｓｅｎｔｌｙ２３...     

The Effects of Grandparents on Children’s Schooling: Evidence From Rural China

The issue of whether the social class of grandparents affects grandchildren’s socioeconomic outcomes net of the characteristics of the middle generation is much debated in the social mobility literature. Using data from the 2002 Chinese Household Income Project, we investigate the direct effects of grandparents on grandchildren’s educational attainment in rural China. We find that the influence of grandparents is contingent on living arrangements. Although the educational level of coresident grandparents directly affects the educational attainment of their grandchildren, with an effect size similar to that of parental education, the education of noncoresident and deceased grandparents does not have any effect. These findings suggest that grandparents can directly affect grandchildren’s educational outcomes through sociopsychological pathways. Our study not only adds an important case study to the literature but also sheds new light on theoretical interpretations of grandparent effects when they are found.