Tough or No Love? Parental Migration and Children’s Exposure to Corporal Punishment and Neglect in Rural China

ABSTRACT The effects of parental migration on behavioral and psychological outcomes of children left behind (LBC) in rural China have drawn much public and research attention. Surprisingly, despite much research attention to this highly disadvantaged group, we know little about whether parental migration and alternative caretaking arrangements influence the exposure of this group to corporal punishment and neglect – key predictors of a myriad of child developmental outcomes such as educational performance, delinquency, and mental wellbeing. To address this research gap, we used a probability sample of approximately 1,200 middle-school students in Jiangxi province to investigate whether parental migration and alternative caretaking arrangements influenced children’s exposure to corporal punishment and neglect. Our models revealed that being taken care of by grandparents significantly decreased the odds of exposure to corporal punishment among children. Meanwhile, our results indicated that child neglect is prevalent among all children regardless of living and caretaking arrangements. Suggesting a protective role that grandparenting plays in LBC families against corporal punishment, these findings enrich the literature on child abuse and neglect in general and contribute to the understanding of the effect of parental migration on LBC’s development and experience in particular. Finally, policy recommendations are offered based on these findings.