Because both parents
or one of them has moved overseas, most of the children are left to their
grandparents to take care of them, and we call them “left-behind children of
parents in overseas" (LBCPO). Due to the distance and time difference,
it is difficult for parents to provide family education guidance to them.
The age gap between the cross-generation guardians and the children is
large, and their own cultural level is low, so their performance in family
education is weak. This study distributed questionnaires to 207 LBCPO and
their guardians to understand the implementation status of LBCPO family education,
guardians' attitude towards family education, self-efficacy, resource
utilization and evaluation. We then interviewed 15 LBCPO, 11 LBCPO
guardians, and 6 teachers in LBCPO’s schools. The results show that LBCPO
family education has the following problems: (1) Guardians' understanding of
family education is biased, and the content of family education is biased;
(2) Guardians recognize the importance of family education, but their
attitudes and actions differ greatly; (3) Guardians lack self-efficacy and
rely too much on out-of-school care institutions; (4) Lack of family
education resources, guardians lack scientific guidance; (5) The effect of
family education is not good, lack of evaluation and supervision mechanism.
This study also put forward recommendations on the LBCPO family education
from three aspects: government, school and family.
Accepted: 09/10/2023
Published: 16/10/2023
*Corresponding Author
SaiqiTian
E-mail: tiansaiqi@
wzu.edu.cn
Keywords: Family education, Left-behind children, Parents in overseas.
1. INTRODUCTION
In
July 2021, Chinese government issued the “Double Reduction” policy, which
reduces the burden of homework and out-of-school training for students (The
General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the
General Office of the State Council of People’s Republic of China, 2021). This
had a considerable impact on Chinese fundamental education. To effectively
reduce the burden on students and the anxiety of parents, it is necessary to
pay attention to family education (Eryong et
al., 2022). For parents, the “Double Reduction” policy actually
increased the requirement for their science education ability.
Because their parents have been working and
living abroad for a long time, most of the children are left to receive
education in their hometown, which has formed a special group of left-behind
children (Wang & Tong, 2019). Most of them are left to their grandparents
to take care of them. Due to the distance and time difference, it is difficult
for parents to give family education guidance to left-behind children. As the
age gap between the intergenerational guardians and children is large and their
own educational level is low, their performance in family education is weak.
After the issue of the "Double Reduction" policy, accompanied by the
reduction of after-school homework and the closure of after-school tutoring
classes, children's time at home has also increased greatly, which makes the
implementation of family education difficulties for left-behind children
increasingly prominent.
Therefore,
we distributed questionnaires to 207 left-behind children and their parents in
overseas to understand the implementation status of family education for
left-behind children of
parents in overseas (LBCPO),
parents' attitudes towards family education, self-efficacy, resource
utilization and evaluation. Then, 15 left-behind children, 11 parents and 6
teachers of left-behind children of parents in overseas were interviewed to supplement and
explain the contents of the questionnaire. This study can improve parents' understanding of family education, update
their ideas and truly implement home-school cooperative parenting. This paper
proposes family education strategies for left-behind children, which can reduce
the blindness of family learning activities and improve the effectiveness of
family learning activities.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Left-behind
children of parents in overseas
In
the current situation of the globalization of capital and labor, more and more
labor force choose transnational employment because of the pull of more job
opportunities or better pay abroad, resulting in the transnational flow of the
world population, and thus producing the left-behind children, a group derived
from international population flow. We define " left-behind children of
parents in overseas" (LBCPO) as children whose parents or one of them has
moved overseas for any reason and left them in China under the care of one of
their parents or grandparents, or children who have had such left-behind
experience.
In terms of psychological characteristics,
the mental health status of LBCPO is worse than that of non-left-behind
children (Udrea & Guiu, 2022; Chen, 2014; Jin, 2022). Among LBCPO with
psychological problems, girls are more severe than boys (Jin, 2022). LBCPO who
have more frequent contact with their parents are less likely to have
psychological problems (Wang, 2022). Nevertheless, electronic information
technology cannot replace hugging or physical contact (Udrea & Guiu, 2022).
The loneliness experience of LBCPO whose parents go abroad is significantly
higher than that of LBCPO whose single parents go abroad, and the longer the
left-behind years are, the more adverse the psychological development of LBCPO (Chen
& Yu, 2022).
Due to the lack of heteronomy and the lack of
parents' teachings, rewards and punishments, LBCPO are more likely to have
problems in conduct and habits (Lin, 2012; Wu, 2019), such as late completion
of homework, plagiarism (Yu, 2020), weak self-control (Sun & Deng, 2018; Yu,
lying (Chen, 2014), etc.
The overall performance of LBCPO is lower
than that of non-left-behind children due to the low expectations of their
parents, the low educational level of their grandparents and the lack of
parental supervision (Zeng, 2011; He, 2008; Sun, 2016; Wang, 2022; Xiao et al.,
2022). Some LBCPO are born and grow up abroad and come back to China. Due to
the lack of Chinese influence in the growing environment, their Chinese
learning is difficult (Xiao et al., 2022). Therefore, after returning to China,
some LBCPO study beyond the school age, and some go out to exchange residence
in the middle of study, so there are some LBCPO who want to study but do not
have law (Wu, 2019). In terms of learning attitude, most of the LBCPO have low
enthusiasm and lack of initiative, and even some LBCPO are tired of learning (Tomșa & Jenaro, 2015;
He, 2008; Sun & Deng, 2018; Xiao et al., 2022).
2.2 Family education
The
Dictionary of Education defines family education as
the interaction and education of family members, and emphasizes that family
education usually refers to the education of children and children by parents
or other elders (Gu, 1986). The Law of the People's
Republic of China on the Promotion of Family Education stipulates that
family education refers to the cultivation, guidance and influence of parents
or other guardians on the moral character, physical fitness, life skills,
cultural accomplishment and behavioral habits of minors in order to promote
their all-round and healthy growth (Central People's Government of the People's
Republic of China, 2021). There are different kinds of understanding about the
connotation of family education in academic circles, but it is generally
recognized that family education has broad sense and narrow sense. Family
education in a broad sense is a kind of education and influence implemented
among family members, while family education in a narrow sense is the education
of minor children by parents or other guardians (Liu & Shao, 2021; Liu et
al., 2022; Luo, 2018; Yu, 2020). In the narrow sense, family education is the
category that the academic circles pay attention to and study, and it is an
educational form relative to school education.
From the perspective of behavior, family
education refers to a kind of education and influence activities of parents or
other guardians on the growth of children; From the perspective of space, the
space of family education has extended beyond the physical space of the family
to multiple regional Spaces (such as outdoor, shopping malls and other public
places), including family education through online forms; From the point of
view of subject and object, parents or other guardians are the subject of
family education, and minors are the object of family education. From the
content point of view, family education includes the ideal and belief of
socialism with Chinese characteristics; Core values of socialism, excellent
traditional Chinese culture; Social morality, family virtue, individual
morality; Life knowledge, scientific knowledge, legal knowledge, safety
knowledge; Behavioral habits, mental health, labor literacy, network literacy;
Other education conducive to the all-round development and healthy growth of
minor children.
3. METHOD
3.1 Research design
This
paper used quantitative and qualitative methods. Firstly, questionnaires were distributed to LBCPO, with
one side of the questionnaire for children and the other for parents. After
completing the questionnaire, LBCPO participating in the survey were asked to
take the questionnaire home and invited parents to fill in the parent version.
Either the actual guardian in China or parents abroad can be invited to fill in
the questionnaire online. Then the LBCPO who participated in the survey was
asked to take the questionnaire back to the school and collect it.
The interviews
were conducted after the collection and analysis of questionnaire data, and all
interviews were conducted in the form of one-to-one between the interviewer and
the interviewee. At the beginning of the interview, the interviewer explained
to each respondent the purpose of the study, the voluntary nature of the study,
and informed them of their right to decline or withdraw from the study at any
time, and explained that all research results were presented anonymously. After
obtaining the consent of the interviewees, the interviewer recorded the
interview content. The first step was to conduct an interview with LBCPO. All
interviewees filled out questionnaires before being interviewed. The second
step is to conduct interviews with LBCPO parents or guardians. After the
interviews, the interview results of the first step and the second step are
analyzed, the problems existing in LBCPO family education are summarized, and
some of the problems are attributed. The third step is to interview the
teachers of the school where LBCPO is located, to make a supplementary
understanding of the current situation of LBCPO family education, and to
attribute the existing problems.
3.2 Participants
The study involved 207 LBCPO and their guardians.
The mean age of the children participating in the questionnaire was 11.15 years
old (standard deviation 0.92), of which 104 were boys (50.24%) and 103 were
girls (49.76%). The average age of the parents or guardians who participated in
the questionnaire was 44.49 years old (standard deviation 11.59), among which
102 (49.28%) were the children's mothers, 37 were the children's fathers
(17.87%), 28 were the children's grandmothers (13.53%), and 19 (9.18%) were the
children's grandfathers. There were 21 other relationships with the children
(including 18 aunts, 2 older brothers and 1 older sister). Among the guardians
who participated in the questionnaire survey, 108 (52.17%) had a middle school
education or below, 69 (33.33%) had a high school/secondary school education,
20 (9.66%) had a junior college education, and 9 (4.35%) had a bachelor's
degree. In particular, only one of the parents who participated in the survey
had a master’s degree or above, and this guardian was the aunt of the child.
The demographic information of the participants in the questionnaire is
summarized in Table 1.
Table 1. Demographic information of the participants in
the questionnaire.
N
%
Gender
Male
104
50.24
Female
103
49.76
Relationship
Mother
102
49.28
Father
37
17.87
Grandmother
28
13.53
Grandfather
19
9.18
Other
Aunts
18
8.69
Older brother
2
0.97
Older sister
1
0.48
Educational level
Middle school and
below
108
52.17
High school/secondary school
69
33.33
Junior college
20
9.66
Bachelor
9
4.35
Master and above
1
0.48
A total of 15 LBCPO participated in the
interview. Their mean age was 11.73 years old (SD= 0.85), of whom 9 were boys
and 6 were girls, 7 were born domestically and 8 were born abroad. One returned
to China at the age of 12, and the rest returned before entering primary
school. We invited 15 guardians whose children participated in the interview,
but 5 guardians refused to accept the interview survey after understanding the
purpose of the study, and 11 guardians accepted. Their mean age was 59.45 years
(SD= 10.05), 7 were female and 4 were male. Of the interviewees, 4 are LBCPO's
grandmothers, 4 are LBCPO's grandfathers, 2 are LBCPO's mothers, and 1 is a LBCPO's
aunt. The education level of 8 guardians is middle school or below, the
education level of 2 guardians is junior college, and the education level of 1 guardian
is bachelor degree. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 teachers
who taught classes with a high number of LBCPO. The mean age of the teachers was
37.00 years (SD= 10.54), the mean teaching experience was 14.17 years (SD=
11.19), and all of them were female. The education level of one teacher is
master degree, the education level of one teacher is junior college, and the
education level of 4 teachers is bachelor degree. One of them taught English,
two of them taught mathematics, three of them taught Chinese.
3.3 Instruments
The questionnaire is divided into two
sections, one for children and the other for guardians. The questionnaire for
children is divided into two parts. The first part is the basic information of
children, including gender, grade and age. In the second part, family education
from the perspective
of children is compiled according to the guidance content for children aged
7-12 in the National Guiding Outline for Family Education. It is divided into
six dimensions, namely, health monitoring, life education, self-care ability
education, labor concept and spending habit education, gratitude and integrity
education, learning habit and learning interest cultivation. The second part is
a 5-level Likert scale, based on the frequency of the family education, from 1
to 5 are never, occasionally, sometimes, often, always. The questionnaire for
guardians is divided into 6 parts. The first part is the basic information of
the guardians, including the relationship with the child, age and education.
The second part is the attitude towards family education, which is divided into
four dimensions, namely the perceived importance, willingness, positive emotion and negative emotion. The
third part is the self-efficacy of guardians in family education. The fourth
part is the utilization of family education resources, and the fifth part is
the evaluation of the effect of family education. Among them, the second and
third parts of the questionnaire are 4-level Likert scales, from 1-4 are very
inconsistent, inconsistent, consistent, and very consistent respectively.
The Cronbach's α of the children's version
(0.955) and guardians' version (0.859) are both greater than 0.8, indicating
that the reliability of the questionnaire is very ideal. The results of KMO
test and Bartlett sphericity test (KMO value is greater than 0.6, p value is less
than 0.05) indicate that there is a correlation between variables, and the
questionnaire has good validity.
This study
adopts the semi-structured interview method. The interview for LBCPO consisted
of four main questions. The first question is to obtain the basic information
of the interviewees, the second question is to understand the current situation
of LBCPO's family education, the third question is to understand LBCPO's
attitude towards family education, and the fourth question is to understand the
implementation effect of family education. There are five main questions in the
interview for guardians. The first question is to obtain the basic information
of the interviewees, the second question is to understand guardians' attitude
towards family education, the third question is to understand guardians'
self-efficacy and possible difficulties in family education, the fourth
question is to understand the current situation of resource utilization in
family education, and the fifth question is to understand the current situation
of evaluation of the effect of family education. There are five main questions
in the interview for teachers. The first question is to obtain the basic
information of the interviewees; the second question is to understand the
psychological characteristics, learning characteristics and behavioral
characteristics of LBCPO in school; the third question is to understand the
current situation and existing problems of LBCPO family education from the
perspective of teachers; the fourth question is to understand the
characteristics of LBCPO compared with the left-behind children of parents in
China and the characteristics of family education.
3.4 Data analysis
The data collected by the questionnaire were
analyzed using SPSS software. The frequency analysis was used to process the
basic information of the respondents and the evaluation of the effect of LBCPO
on family education. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the general
situation of LBCPO family education, guardians' attitude towards family
education and guardians' self-efficacy in family education. Independent sample
t test and one-way analysis of variance were used to analyze the differences
between different types of LBCPO and guardians' family education situation,
attitude and self-efficacy.
The
interview data were analyzed using inductive content analysis. First, the
recording data was transcribed verbatim and analyzed along with the
participants' descriptive words; Second, read through the transcribed data
several times to fully understand the results of the interview; Then, the data
sharing classification code; Finally, the code is divided into subcategories
based on differences and similarities.
4. FINDINGS
4.1 Current situation
of family education for left-behind children of parents in overseas
Table
2 shows the analysis results of the current situation of family education from
the perspective of LBCPO. The 5-level Likert scale was used in this part of the
questionnaire, and the average score of each dimension was between 3-4,
indicating that all dimensions of LBCPO family education were between
"sometimes" and "often". Among them, the value of
"gratitude and integrity education" is the highest (3.983),
indicating that this kind of family education has the highest frequency, and
the scores of "health monitoring" and "self-care ability"
are also relatively high, respectively, 3.949 and 3.929, indicating that guardians also attach great
importance to these two aspects of family education. The mean value of
"life education" is the lowest (3.121) and the standard deviation is
the lowest (0.757), which is the closest to "sometimes", and the
difference of this kind of family education for LBCPO is the least. The average
value of "labor concept and spending habits" is also significantly
lower (3.126), but the standard deviation is the largest (1.288), indicating
that some guardians pay
more attention to LBCPO labor concept and spending habits, but some guardians ignore family
education in this aspect.
Table 2:
The analysis results of the current situation of family education from the
perspective of LBCPO.
M
SD
Health monitoring
3.949
1.022
Life education
3.121
0.757
Self-care ability education
3.929
1.101
Labor concept and spending habit education
3.126
1.288
Gratitude and integrity education
3.983
1.151
Learning habit and learning interest cultivation
3.800
1.103
According
to the interview, 15 guardians
attach importance to "self-care ability" education. There are
differences in the cultivation of children's "labor concept and spending
habits", 9 guardians
attach importance to it, while the other 6 parents do not attach importance to
it. None of the 15 guardians
attached importance to "life education".
Table 3 shows the different analysis results
of LBCPO family education of different genders. In the six dimensions of family
education, there was no difference (p>0.05), indicating that guardians did
not conduct different family education because of children's genders. In the
interview, the interviewed teachers all said that the current guardians
generally do not have a "preference for boys" or "preference for
girls over boys", and do not treat boys and girls differently.
Table 3:
The difference analysis results of LBCPO family education of different genders.
Gender
M
SD
t
p
Health monitoring
Female
3.990
0.921
0.810
0.446
Male
3.921
1.113
Life education
Female
3.191
0.682
1.673
0.190
Male
3.043
0.819
Self-care ability education
Female
4.003
1.043
0.547
0.579
Male
3.853
1.160
Labor concept and spending habit education
Female
3.113
1.253
0.572
0.565
Male
3.125
1.327
Gratitude and integrity education
Female
4.025
1.095
0.554
0.575
Male
3.933
1.207
Learning habit and learning interest cultivation
Female
3.885
1.030
0.989
0.374
Male
3.726
1.170
Table 4 shows the results of correlation
analysis between LBCPO age and family education, and there is no correlation
between LBCPO age and family education.
Table 4: The results of correlation analysis between
LBCPO age and family education
r
p
Health monitoring
0.114
0.103
Life education
-0.004
0.952
Self-care ability education
-0.013
0.857
Labor concept and spending habit education
0.075
0.280
Gratitude and integrity education
0.103
0.138
Learning habit and learning interest cultivation
0.092
0.189
4.2 LBCPO guardians' attitudes towards
family education
Table 5 shows results of guardians' attitudes
towards family education, which uses a 4-level Likert scale. Among them,
"importance" refers to whether guardians think family education is
important. For example, the item "The earlier children are educated at
home, the better" has the highest mean value (0.509) and the lowest
standard deviation (0.509), indicating that guardians generally believe that
family education is very important and have very consistent views in this
regard. "Willingness" refers to guardians' willingness to conduct
family education for LBCPO and to improve their own level of willingness for
better family education, such as the item "I am willing to adopt a variety
of ways to educate my children", and the average value of this dimension is
slightly lower than that of "importance" (3.316). This indicates that
although guardians recognize the importance of family education, they are less
active in implementing it into action. "Positive emotion" refers to
the positive feelings that guardians showed to LBCPO during family education,
such as happiness, pleasure, liking, enthusiasm, etc. The average score of this
dimension was also high (3.331), indicating that guardians mainly showed
positive emotions during family education for LBCPO. "Negative
emotion" refers to the negative feelings that guardians show during the family
education of LBCPO, such as anxiety, tension, stress, etc. Negative feelings
are not contradictory to positive feelings. For example, when guardians are
educating LBCPO at home, he may feel stressed due to lack of knowledge, but he
also enjoys spending time with LBCPO, thus showing both positive and negative
emotions. The dimensional average of negative emotion is 2.403, which is
greater than 2, indicating that guardians do have certain negative feelings
when conducting family education for LBCPO, but the standard deviation of this
dimension is the largest (0.758), indicating that guardians have a large
difference in this dimension. Some guardians did not show much negative feelings,
while others showed some negative feelings.
Table 5: Results of guardians' attitudes
towards family education
M
SD
Importance
3.425
0.509
Willingness
3.316
0.550
Positive emotion
3.331
0.546
Negative emotion
2.403
0.758
In the interviews with guardians
and LBCPO, it is found that 11 guardians think that family education is very
important. 10 guardians say that although family education is important, they
are weak in their willingness, 9 guardians will have negative emotions in
family education, and only 1 guardian has fewer negative emotions. For example,
a guardian said:
I think family education is important, and I would like to educate my
child, but I don't have the ability to educate them, I haven't been educated, I
don't know how to educate a child.
Table 6 shows the results of guardians'
attitudes towards family education in different relationships with LBCPO. In
the three dimensions of importance, positive emotion and negative emotion,
there was no difference in the attitude of different categories of guardians
(p>0.05). There are differences in the dimension of action intention
(p=0.013<0.05), among which the average action intention of grandpa is the
highest (3.553), while the average action intention of grandma is the lowest
(3.045). It is worth noting that the standard deviation of the three dimensions
of importance, action intention and positive emotion of other guardians in this
category is relatively high, indicating that there are relatively large
differences in attitudes towards family education. In the interview, four
teachers pointed out that aunts pay more attention to family education than
grandparents.
Table 6: Results of guardians' attitudes towards family
education in different relationships with LBCPO.
Relationship
M
SD
F
p
Importance
Mother
3.429
0.462
1.622
0.170
Father
3.514
0.456
Grandmother
3.232
0.495
Grandfather
3.553
0.430
Other
3.393
0.801
Willingness
Mother
3.311
0.532
2.900
0.023*
Father
3.365
0.470
Grandmother
3.045
0.582
Grandfather
3.553
0.575
Other
3.405
0.605
Positive emotion
Mother
3.343
0.549
1.393
0.238
Father
3.365
0.451
Grandmother
3.125
0.520
Grandfather
3.474
0.583
Other
3.357
0.650
Negative emotion
Mother
2.434
0.697
1.018
0.399
Father
2.439
0.718
Grandmother
2.393
0.780
Grandfather
2.079
0.965
Other
2.500
0.873
Table 7 shows the results of guardians'
attitudes towards family education with different educational level.
Considering that only one guardian (aunt) has a master's degree, this data may
be somewhat accidental. Therefore, this data is excluded in all the difference
analysis based on education background in this paper, and only the family
education situation of guardians with middle school and below, high
school/secondary school, junior college, and bachelor is analyzed. Guardians
with different educational level have differences in importance (p=0.039),
willingness (p=0.043) and positive emotion (p=0.040). The overall trend is that
the higher the educational background of guardians, the higher the average
value of importance, willingness and positive emotion. There was no difference
in the dimension of negative emotion among guardians with different educational
level (p=0.301). In the interview, the interviewed teacher indicated that the
same view was also presented. For example, a teacher stated:
The probability of highly educated guardians attaching
importance to family education is relatively high, but it does not mean that
guardians with low education do not attach importance to family education. Many
guardians working abroad is very hard, theyhave a rough time because of lack of
education and do not want their children to have the same rough time, so it is
very important to the education of children. Highly educated guardians know how
to carry out family education for their children, while guardians with low
education attach great importance to them, but lack of methods to educate their
children.
Table 7: The results of guardians' attitudes towards
family education with different educational level.
Educational level
M
SD
F
p
Importance
Middle school and below
3.382
0.463
2.850
0.039*
High school/secondary school
3.399
0.573
Junior college
3.600
0.409
Bachelor
3.806
0.583
Willingness
Middle school and below
3.273
0.559
2.759
0.043*
High school/secondary school
3.293
0.532
Junior college
3.438
0.479
Bachelor
3.778
0.579
Positive emotion
Middle school and below
3.322
0.549
2.823
0.040*
High school/secondary school
3.257
0.514
Junior college
3.450
0.599
Bachelor
3.778
0.458
Negative emotion
Middle school and below
2.338
0.748
1.226
0.301
High school/secondary school
2.453
0.682
Junior college
2.663
0.929
Bachelor
2.278
1.019
The interview results show that LBCPO
guardians' attitude towards family education has a great impact on LBCPO. A
teacher gave two examples:
Wu's mother does not take the initiative to communicate
with me about his education, pay less attention to his family education. His
grandparents in addition to taking care of his life, almost no education. Wu is
introverted and not confident. Xu's mother often communicates with me about his
learning status, and timely communicated and solved any problems. His mother
often makes video calls with him, and tells his grandparents to pay attention
to the family education, although his academic performance is not ideal, but
the character is very cheerful.
4.3 Self-efficacy of
LBCPO guardians in
conducting family education
Table
8 shows the results of guardians'
family education self-efficacy in different relationships with LBCPO.
Self-efficacy in conducting family education refers to parents' confidence in
their ability to use the skills they have to conduct family education, such as
"I have enough knowledge to guide my child at home." In general, the
average value of guardians'
self-efficacy is 2.558, which is greater than 2, indicating that the
self-efficacy is positive. Guardians
with different relationships with LBCPO showed different levels of
self-efficacy (p=0.025), grandmothers had the lowest mean value of
self-efficacy (2.214), the other parents had the highest mean value of
self-efficacy (2.833), and grandfathers had the highest standard deviation of
self-efficacy (0.940). Mothers had the lowest standard deviation of
self-efficacy (0.646). It shows that grandmothers have the lowest confidence in
family education, other types of guardians
have the highest confidence in family education, grandfathers have the greatest
difference in confidence in family education, and mother has the least
difference in confidence in family education.
Table 8: The results
of guardians' family
education self-efficacy in different relationships with LBCPO.
Relationship
M
SD
F
p
Mother
2.510
0.646
2.855
0.025*
Father
2.750
0.819
Grandmother
2.214
0.871
Grandfather
2.645
0.940
Other
2.833
0.864
Total
2.558
0.776
Table
9 shows the self-efficacy in family education of guardians with different educational level. Guardians with different
educational levels showed differences in self-efficacy of family education
(p=0.027). Guardians with
a junior college
education had the strongest self-efficacy, followed by those with a bachelor's
degree, high
school/secondary school, middle school and below, showing a trend of higher
self-efficacy with higher educational background. The interview data showed the
same findings. A guardian with
only an elementary school education said:
I usually practice writing at home. When my child was in
the lower grade, I could read his Chinese homework. But now I can not understand, also can not
teach the him, can only let the teacher pay more attention to him at school.
The other guardian, who is the grandmother of
a LBCPO, with
a junior college
education stated:
I could help
the her with homework and accompany her to read together. Sometimes she asks me
questions, I will call her mother or search information on the Internet. I feel
that I can teach most of the problems.
A teacher described a situation that,
My school
has a family class, sometimes the school teachers give lessons to guardians,
sometimes ask outside experts to give lessons to guardians, and teach guardians
how to teach their children. Guardians with relatively low education rarely
participant such family lessons. They think they can't teach their children,
and they can't learn such learning activities. The more they don't learn
educational methods, the more they won't teach their children, and the vicious
circle.
Table 9: The
self-efficacy in family education of guardians with different educational level.
Educational level
M
SD
F
p
Middle school and below
2.417
0.802
3.119
0.027*
High school/secondary school
2.641
0.658
Junior college
2.888
0.700
Bachelor
2.833
1.166
4.4 Resource
utilization of LBCPO family education
Most
of our family education resources come from the life experience. Eight guardians said that they used
life experience to educate their children, and three of them used the Internet,
ask teachers for help or consult other parents.
4.5 Evaluation of the
family education on LBCPO
Eight guardians said they never evaluate the
effectiveness of family education, and only three guardians said they evaluated
the effectiveness of family education based on school test scores. For example,
a LBCPO’ mother said:
My child is
rebellious. She won't listen to me. I asked her what happened at school but her
didn't tell me. She wouldn't tell me my test scores or let me contact my
teachers. I can't judge family education.
The other LBCPO’ mother stated:
I usually
see my children's test results at school, and there is no other way to evaluate
them. A good test means a good education. A bad test means a bad education.
5. DISCUSSION
LBCPO is a special group of left-behind
children, they are often included in the left-behind children, but this special
group is different from the children who are left behind because their parents
work across provinces. One feature is "distance", that is, the
distance between parents and children is far, parents work abroad most of the
time, and the difficulty and cost of children wanting to meet their parents is
much higher than that of common left-behind children. Another feature is
"high income", LBCPO family income compared to the traditional
inter-provincial migrant workers, the family income is higher. The high income
of their parents in foreign countries can create a good material environment
for LBCPO. LBCPO are often hosted in after-school care institutions to complete
their homework after class. The educational environment they enjoy is also
different from that of traditional left-behind children. However, the guardians
of LBCPO are usually their grandparents, most of whom are not capable of family
education for LBCPO, so the family education situation of LBCPO is not
optimistic.
5.1 Challenges of LBCPO
family education
The content of family education should be
multi-dimensional, but most guardians think that family education is to guide
children's homework and solve learning problems, and then ignore the
cultivation, guidance and influence of children's moral quality, physical
quality, life skills, cultural accomplishment, behavior habits and other
aspects. China's talent selection system is mainly based on exams, which makes
guardians attach great importance to their children's learning, especially test
scores. Therefore, guardians will equate "family education" with
"help with homework and study." Although many guardians teach their
children in moral character, physical fitness, life skills, etc., this kind of
family education is usually unconscious, unsystematic, and less frequent.
Most LBCPO guardians
think that family education is very important, but in practice, they rarely
consciously family education for children, especially children raised by
grandparents, they think that they only need to be responsible for children's
"food and clothing", education is nothing to do with them. There is a
big difference in guardians' attitude and action force towards family
education. Usually, mothers and aunts have the most positive attitude and the
strongest action force, while grandparents have the most negative attitude and
the weakest action force. Guardians' attitude and motivation towards family
education are related to the effect of family education. The more positive the
attitude and stronger the motivation of guardians, the better the children's
mental health, academic status, moral quality, physical quality, life skills,
cultural accomplishment, behavior habits and other aspects.
Most LBCPO guardians have a low self-efficacy in family
education, and most of them think that they do not have the ability to conduct
family education. This is mainly related to the educational level of LBCPO guardians. Most of them have a
college education or below, and more than half of them have a junior high
school education or below. The educational limitation makes them lack of
information about family education for their children. After school, most LBCPO
guardians put their
children in after-school care
institutions. However, the main function of after-school care institutions is to supervise and
guide children to complete school homework, and the care staff has the problem
of low learning and weak professional level, and the area of the after-school care institutions
is small, which is difficult to meet the activity needs of students.
Guardians lack resources such
as materials, teaching cases, equipment and materials, and tools for family
education. Some guardians
use resources for family education under the guidance of teachers, more guardians rely on their own
life experience when conducting family education, and a small number of guardians use the Internet,
consult relatives and other parents. Generally speaking, family education
resources are scarce. Guardians
have few opportunities to learn the theory and practice of family education,
and the main learning resources come from schools and teachers. However, most
parents in foreign countries have little communication with teachers due to
time difference and examples, while grandparents lack the awareness and ability
to learn due to educational limitations. Ultimately, family education stays
more at the level of "tutoring homework and learning".
LBCPO has a higher probability of problems in
mental health, behavior and habits, especially in academic status, which is
greatly related to the lack of family education, indicating that the effect of
family education is not good. Parents work abroad, there is a time difference,
LBCPO can only communicate and communicate with parents at certain times.
Therefore, most LBCPOs have little contact with their parents and limited
communication. Although some parents will conduct online family education for
their children, its effect is far less than offline companionship and teaching
by words and deeds. Most LBCPOs are raised by their grandparents, and they
generally have a negative attitude towards family education and a low sense of
self-efficacy, and generally have a low educational background. They think they
only need to be responsible for their children's food and clothing, family
education is not their responsibility. Most LBCPO guardians do not evaluate the effectiveness of family
education or rely solely on school grades. Guardians have no awareness of the effect evaluation of family
education, and lack of tools to evaluate family education, and most guardians do not have the
ability to evaluate family education. In addition, at present, there is no
supervision mechanism to supervise the family education of guardians, which is one of the
reasons for the poor effect of family education
5.2 Recommendations
for LBCPO family education
Improving
the current situation of LBCPO family education is a very complex issue, which
requires the cooperation and role of many aspects, and the government, schools
and families must form a joint force. On the basis of the current situation and
challenges of LBCPO family education, this study proposes some recommendations
of LBCPO family education from the three main aspects of government, school and
family.
The government should pay more attention to
LBCPO family education, set up specialized agencies, and coordinate all
relevant departments to give full play to their functions. The root cause of
the LBCPO family education problem is that local employment cannot meet the
needs of residents, forcing many people to leave their homes and seek work
opportunities abroad. Therefore, the government should develop local
industries, formulate preferential policies for employment and
entrepreneurship, and promote the return of personnel. It is also necessary to
establish a supervision and evaluation system for family education, and
actively organize professionals to develop evaluation tools. The supervision
and management of after-school care institutions must be strengthened to ensure
the orderly development of after-school care institutions.
Schools should establish a long-term
communication mechanism with parents who work abroad. According to the time
difference of parents' countries, coordinate communication time, establish a
regular communication mechanism, exchange children's daily study and life,
ideological and psychological conditions through new communication media such
as Wechat, QQ, Dingding and
Tencent Conference, and pass family education knowledge and methods to parents
directly or indirectly. Schools should help parents fully understand the
connotation of family education, master the methods of family education,
enhance parents' attention to family education, improve parents' level of
family education, and improve parents' self-efficacy in family education. Both
online and offline parent meetings could be held, and LBCPO parents should be
encouraged to participate in these meetings online. It is helpful to establish
a communication platform between LBCPO parents, encourage thenm
to supervise each other, and exchange more experiences and methods of online
family education. Schools can set up online parent schools to guide parents to
participate in family education discussions through the combination of live and
video broadcasting, provide parents with online family education methods and
strategies by listing real cases, and regularly set small tasks for online
family education, so that parents can continuously improve their online family
education ability and self-efficacy by completing the tasks. Schools should
establish a family education resource library and develop family education
cases, micro-lessons, teaching materials and evaluation tools suitable for guardians with low education
levels, so that guardians
can directly use these resources to carry out family education. The school can
set up a reward mechanism, by the head teacher set up the task of family
education punch, to actively complete the task of guardians for timely spiritual or material
rewards, to help guardians
form the awareness of family education.
Guardians should fully understand family
education and fulfill their responsibilities as guardians. Guardians should learn advanced
family education ideas and methods, fully understand the connotation of family
education, broaden the content of family education, and change the traditional
education methods. Although parents abroad cannot accompany their children,
they should often communicate with their children online and use online
platforms to subtly educate their children. Parents abroad should communicate
with the actual guardian of the child in a timely manner, understand the
current situation of the child from the perspective of the actual guardian, and
exchange family education methods with the actual guardian. Parents abroad and
actual guardians of children in China should actively contact school teachers
and cooperate with teachers to solve various problems in children's study, life
and psychology.
5.3 Limitations and
future studies
The age of LBCPO surveyed in this study was
concentrated between 9 and 14 years old, and the average age was 11.73 years
old. There is no investigation on the family education status of LBCPO in other
age groups. Future studies should expand the scope of research objects to
analyze the family education of LBCPO of other ages. This survey is a
cross-sectional study. The data collected are based on a short period of time
and can only reflect the current situation of family education at this point.
Future studies can select sample families, carry out pilot reforms of family
education, and track and investigate the effect of family education reform.
Funding
This
work was funded by Basic Research Project of Wenzhou City (R20220016).
Ethics
declarations
Conflict of interest
The
authors have not disclosed any competing interests.
Ethical approval
Our institution’s relevant body deemed
ethical approval not required because the study was not medical research nor
regarded human experimentation as stated in the Declaration of Helsinki. All
procedures performed were in accordance with the ethical guidelines outlined by
the Human Subjects Ethics Committee of Wenzhou University, considering obtained
and anonymized data for this non-interventional study. In the survey, a
preamble was included indicating the collection of information for a research
project, explaining what it consists of and what it is intended to obtain
(objectives, the benefits that the information will bring, the voluntary nature
of participation, the anonymous treatment of the data and reference to the
treatment of the information in accordance with the Data Protection Act).
Data
availability
The
data generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available
from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Cite this Article: Yuanyuan, G; Wenyao, G; Saiqi,
T (2023). Family education for left-behind
children of parents in overseas: current situation and challenges.Greener
Journal of Educational Research, 13(1): 50-64.
