Depression among Migrant and Left-Behind Children in China in Relation to the Quality of Parent-Child and Teacher-Child Relationships

Jing Guo; Xuezhu Ren; Xiaohua Wang; Zhiyong Qu; Qianyun Zhou; Chun Ran; Xia Wang; Juan Hu

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0145606

Depression among Migrant and Left-Behind Children in China in Relation to the Quality of Parent-Child and Teacher-Child Relationships

PLoS One. 2015 Dec 31;10(12):e0145606. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0145606. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Jing Guo¹, Xuezhu Ren², Xiaohua Wang³, Zhiyong Qu³, Qianyun Zhou¹, Chun Ran³, Xia Wang⁴, Juan Hu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Sociology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, P. R. China.
² School of Education, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, P. R. China.
³ School of Social Development and Public Policy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.
⁴ Beijing Haidian Institute for Educational Research, Beijing, P. R. China.
⁵ Community health service center, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, P. R. China.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine rates of depression among migrant children (MC) and left-behind children (LBC) as compared to non-left-behind children (NLBC) and also to examine the relationship between depression among these children and the quality of their parent-child and teacher-child relationships. This study collected data from a large sample of 3,759 children aged from 8 to 17 years, including 824 who had been left behind by one parent (LBCO), 423 who had been left behind by both parents (LBCB), 568 MC and 1944 NLBC. Children's Depression Inventory-Short Form was used to measure child depression. Parent-Child Relationship Scale (PCRS) and Teacher-Child Relationship Scale (TCRS) were used to measure the quality of parent-child and teacher-child relationships, respectively. The results showed that the prevalence of depression was 10.5% among NLBC, 13.1% among LBCO, 16.1% among LBCB, and 20.1% among MC. Depression was related to parent-child relationship quality and teacher-child relationship quality. Negative parent-child relationship was more relevant to depression than negative teacher-child relationship among LBCB, while negative teacher-child relationship was the most correlated with depression among MC.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Child
China / epidemiology
Demography
Depression / epidemiology*
Faculty*
Female
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Male
Parent-Child Relations*
Prevalence
Regression Analysis
Transients and Migrants*

Grants and funding

The study was only supported by “the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities”, HUST: 2015AE004. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.