| Objectives The study aims to investigate the situation of parents migrant Work, guardians and maternal separation of rural pupils in Anhui Province, to investigate the distribute the genders,grades and academic achievements of rural pupils, educational level of mothers between maternal migrant work and non-maternal migrant work, and to explore the effects of early and later maternal separation on cognition and social-life abilities of rural pupils and the effects of that by different genders, different mother-child meeting frequencies and different total maternal separation time.Methods The cross-sectional investigation was conducted in all the 5 elementary schools in Jiagou country of Anhui Province. Self administered questionnaires were used to collect information from guardians. The questionnaire included socio-demographic characteristics, and the situation of migrant work of parents and maternal separation. According to the matching requirements and the informations of maternal separation which are obtained from target population (section 1), 65 of matched individuals of each group (early maternal separation; later maternal separation; controls) were enrolled in our continuous study finally (n=195). The attention, memory, intelligence and social-life abilities were assessed with continuous performance test (continuous performance test, CPT), Digit Span test, combined Raven's test (combined raven's test, CRT) and infant-Junior Middle School Students'Social-Life Abilities Scale. There were two CPT conducted and the Digit Span test and CRT were conducted as mental workload between the two CPT. Mainly, the Chi-Square, t-test and One-Way ANOVA test were used to analyze. Results In total, 1338 students are enrolled in the study. Of the 1044 left-behind students, there are 760 students (72.8%) whose mothers are migrant workers. There are no significantly statistical differences in gender and academic achievements distribution between maternal migrant work and non-maternal migrant work (χ~2=0.174,P=0.677;χ~2=6.247,P=0.181). The grade of students who are maternal migrant work is statistically higher than that of non-maternal migrant work (χ~2=15.897,P=0.007). The education level of mothers who are non-maternal migrant work is statistically higher than that of maternal migrant work (χ~2=28.795,P=0.000). 21.0% of students who were maternal separation were separated at the age of 2, 36.6% students were between the age of 2 and 5, and 42.3% students were after 5. Most of the total time of maternal separation is more than three years. 69.7% of the mother-child meeting frequencies are one or two time every year. 14.9% of students who were maternal separation are supervised by their single parents, 81.3% students by their grandparents. The proportion of democracy harmonious education mode among non-left behind students is statistically higher than maternal separation ones (P=0.016).In section 2, there are no significantly statistical differences in the parameters of attention (E, O, F) among the three groups in the two CPT (P>0.05). In the male children, the parameter of O in the group of later maternal separation is statistically higher than other two groups (P<0.05). There are no significantly statistical differences in the parameters by different mother-child meeting frequencies and different total maternal separation time (P>0.05). In the two CPT of the group of later maternal separation, the parameter of O in the frequency of"less once a year"is the lowest among the three frequencies (P<0.05), while in other two groups, there are no significantly statistical differences in attention among the three frequencies (P>0.05). In the group of early maternal separation, the parameter of O after mental workload is statistically lower than that before mental workload (P<0.05), especially in female children, the frequency of"more than once a year", the total maternal separation time of"more than 3 years"(P<0.05). In the group of later maternal separation, the parameter of E after mental workload is statistically lower than that before mental workload (P<0.05), especially in the frequency of"once a year", the total maternal separation time of"more than 3 years"(P<0.05); the parameter of O after mental workload is statistically lower than that before mental workload (P<0.05), especially in male children, the frequency of"more than once a year, once a year", the total maternal separation time of"more than 3 years"(P<0.05).There are no significantly statistical differences in the parameters of memory (Immediate memory span, Maximum memory bits) among the three groups (P>0.05). It is also that there are no significantly statistical differences in the parameters by different genders, mother-child meeting frequencies and total maternal separation time (P>0.05).The IQ of later maternal separation is statistically lower than that of early maternal separation and controls (P<0.05). And the phenomenon is same in male. With the frequency of"once a year", the IQ of later maternal separation is statistically lower than that of early maternal separation and controls (P<0.05). With the frequency of"less than once a year", the IQ of later maternal separation is statistically lower than that of early maternal separation and controls (P<0.05).And in the groups of early and later maternal separation, the IQ of lower mother-child meeting frequencies is statistically lower than that of higher mother-child meeting frequencies (P<0.05). With the total maternal separation time of"more than 3 years", the IQ of later maternal separation is statistically lower than that of early maternal separation and controls (P<0.05).In the groups of early maternal separation, the IQ of"more than 3 years"is statistically higher than that of"less than 3 years"(P<0.05), while there are no significantly statistical differences in IQ between the two total maternal separation time in the group of later maternal separation (P>0.05). There are no significantly statistical differences in the factors of IQ among the three groups (P>0.05). In male, the similar comparative factor scores of the group of later maternal separation is statistically lower than that of early maternal separation and controls (P<0.05). With the frequency of"less than once a year", the similar comparative and perception discriminant factor scores of early and later maternal separation is statistically lower than that of controls (P<0.05). The similar comparative and perception discriminant factor scores of the group of early maternal separation and the perception discriminant factor scores of the group of later maternal separation which are both in the frequency of"less once a year"are statistically lower than that of other two frequencies (P<0.05). By different total maternal total maternal separation time, there are no significantly statistical differences in the factor scores among the three groups (P>0.05). In the group of early maternal separation, the similar comparative factor score of"more than 3 years"is statistically higher than that of"less than 3 years"(P<0.05).There are no significantly statistical differences in the parameters of social-life abilities among the three groups (P>0.05). By different genders, mother-meeting frequencies and total maternal total maternal separation time, there are no significantly statistical differences in the parameters among the three groups (P>0.05). With the decreasing of the mother-meeting frequencies, the differences among the three groups are no significantlly statisticant (P>0.05). The scores of social-life abilities tend to increase with the increasing of the total maternal separation time. In the group of early maternal separation, the total score, S and SD scores of"more than 3 years"is statistically higher than that of"less than 3 years"(P<0.05), while in the group of later maternal separation, the SH and O scores of"more than 3 years"is statistically higher than that of"less than 3 years"(P<0.05).Conclusions The proportion of maternal migrant work experience in rural areas is high. Most of the total maternal separation time is long, and most of the mother-child meeting frequencies are low. These students who were maternal separation are mostly supervised by their single parents or grandparents, and they have more problems of education. Early maternal separation and later maternal separation both have negative influence on attention, intelligence and social-life abilities. Lower mother-child meeting frequency will make further impairment of that. The performance of students with less total time of maternal separation is better than that of students with longer total time. But we found no significantly effect on memory in our study. |
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