Academic performance for left-behind children in rural areas and migrant children in urban areas in China : Systematic Literature Review from 2010-2020

Abstract: Due to the increasing number of rural-to-urban migration of middle-aged labors, some of the migrants’ children were left behind in the rural areas with one parent, grandparents, siblings or other relatives, however, some others migrated to the urban areas with one or both parents. To the left-behind children and migrant children in school age, there are different barriers and facilitators in rural and urban areas for their academic performance. This study is a systematic review with the aim of describing the academic performance in China for left-behind children in rural areas and migrant children in urban areas between the ages of six to eighteen. This systematic review was conducted by using four databases with an inclusion and exclusion criteria designed in advance. Articles on left-behind and migrant children were searched separately. 97 articles on left-behind children and 184 on migrant children were identified at first. 6 articles on left-behind children and 19 on migrant children were identified after abstract and title screening. Eventually, 8 articles in total were included into this study after the full text screening process. The results showed that, there are a number of barriers for academic performance of left-behind children, for example, the poor quality of school and the absence of mother. And for migrant children, there are more facilitators for academic performance comparing to left-behind children, for instance, they are more likely to have adequate support from parents. The limitations, further researches and practical implementations were also discussed in this study.