A press conference on Chinese left-behind children's psychological condition is held in Beijing on Oct. 17, 2018. (Photo/China News Service)
(ECNS) - About 40 percent of left-behind children meet their parents at most twice a year, according to a report by non-profit organization dedicated to the psychological condition of children.
The On the Road to School Beijing Center launched in May 2013 by former news media professional Liu Xinyu mainly invites celebrities and volunteers to record stories and then share them with children across the country.
Its latest report shows about 20 percent of left-behind children had contact with their father or mother no more than four times a year. The term left-behind children refer to those in rural villages that are looked after by grandparents or other relatives while their parents work in the booming cities.
Left-behind children of all grades had significantly lower scores in terms of emotional bonds and dependence on their parents compared with those who lived with their parents, said the report.
One noticeable finding is that fifth graders had negative expectations toward their fathers, indicating they developed the psychology of adolescence one year earlier than children not separated from their parents.
Left-behind children also showed poor performance in core self-evaluation indicators and overall emotional state.
The report said parents need to make more phone calls to their children and pay attention to their growth, while mothers can help improve the father-children relationship through more contacts with their child.
The research initiative started last December and collected 11,216 questionnaires from 19 province-level regions in nine months. It resulted in a long-term study on the mental health of left-behind children, described in four aspects -- pleasure, peace, unsettling and confusion.
