The Well-being of the Left-behind Children in Rural Sichuan, China: A Preliminary Study Report

Abstract

Chinese scholars have studied the status of left-behind children's subjective and general well-being. However, one significant gap is the need to measure comprehensive well-being in China's backward economic rural areas. This study measures the well-being of left-behind children in rural Sichuan, China. Adopting the Social-Ecological Theory as its framework, this paper focused on the well-being of the left-behind children in the micro-system. The preliminary study found that left-behind children reported a very high level of individual well-being, scored lower in most of the listed essential items, and had poor scores in child protection service, stress and problem management, and community participation. In conclusion, the results from this study provide inputs to a new direction for social policies and services for left-behind children in rural areas in China