Millions of children in rural China grow up while one or both parents work far from home, and that separation appears to leave a mark on how they think and feel. Teenagers left behind report unusual thoughts and perceptions more often, and find them more distressing, than classmates whose parents remain at home. The pattern is clearest when the emotional bond with a mother is weaker.
Researchers surveyed 4,209 pupils aged 10–17 at a junior high school in Zhangzhou and a senior high school in Shaoguan between December 2021 and July 2022. About one in four, 1,027 teenagers, were left-behind children, meaning they had lived apart from one or both parents for more than six months because of migration. The work, published in BMC Psychology, examined parent-child attachment and psychotic-like experiences, a term for thoughts and perceptions that resemble the positive symptoms of psychosis without always causing serious impairment.
Across the sample, 36.9% crossed the threshold for frequent psychotic-like experiences in the past month, and 38.5% reported meaningful distress from them. Among left-behind teenagers the figures were 43.5% for frequency and 45.7% for distress, compared with 34.8% and 36.2% among those living with their parents. Pupils with both parents away fared worse than those with only one parent away, with nearly half reporting frequent unusual experiences and just over half reporting distress.
Left-behind adolescents also scored lower on mother-child attachment and father-child attachment. Trust and communication were weaker, and feelings of alienation were stronger. After the team allowed for age, sex, boarding at school, only-child status, family income stability and a family history of mental disorders, stronger bonds with both mothers and fathers were still linked to less frequent and less distressing unusual experiences.
Parental migration changed the picture for mothers only. The protective link between mother-child attachment and how often unusual experiences occurred was weaker among left-behind teenagers than among their peers. A close bond with a mother still helped, but it helped less when a parent had migrated. Father-child attachment was linked to fewer unusual experiences whether or not parents had left, and migration did not alter that association. The same pattern appeared for maternal trust and communication, but not for alienation.
The authors point to a familiar rural pattern in which fathers often leave for work while mothers stay and carry the emotional load. Prolonged separation, care for older relatives and the demands of raising children alone may strain those mothers, which could explain why the usual benefit of a strong maternal bond is blunted. Both parents being away was tied to more frequent and more intense experiences than one parent being away, which suggests the amount of absence matters for adolescent mental health.
The findings are a snapshot rather than proof that weak attachment causes these experiences. Answers came from the pupils themselves, the schools were chosen for convenience, and the survey took place while China was still managing pandemic controls, a period when unusual experiences in adolescents were already elevated. Duration of migration, how often parents called, and who provided day-to-day care were not measured.
Even with those limits, the results single out left-behind children in rural China as a group that warrants closer attention, especially where both parents have migrated. Keeping communication focused on emotional needs, not only school results, and supporting the well-being of mothers who remain at home, are the practical steps the researchers highlight.
