A Study On The Health Impact Of Husbands Working Outside On Left-behind Women

Since the reform and opening up,due to the rapid development of urbanization in China,rural labor force has shifted to urban areas.Due to the restrictions of the current household registration system and the consideration of the best choice for families,the labor force outside the family is usually male,which has led to a large number of Left-behind women groups in rural areas.Husband's going out has changed the traditional family labor mode.Left-behind women have become the main labor force in the family.Their health is not only related to personal development,but also to family harmony,social stability and long-term economic development.Therefore,it is not only of academic value,but also of practical significance to study the impact of husbands' going out to work on the health of Left-behind women.In this paper,the physiological health problems of Left-behind women are analyzed.Through the mechanism of income effect and substitution effect,the influence of husband's going out on the health status of Left-behind women is systematically investigated.Firstly,a theoretical analysis framework is constructed to discuss how the income effect and the substitution effect of time allocation,expressed by the family income,can affect the health of Left-behind women when their husbands go out to work.Subsequently,based on the CFPS data of 2014,this study used the PSM model and regression of instrumental variables to empirically test the impact of husbands' migrant workers on the health of Left-behind women and the underlying mechanism.This study draws the following conclusions: Husbands going out to work are conducive to the health of Left-behind women.The possible reason is that although the husband's going out to work makes women undertake more tasks in the family and production,which is not conducive to the health of Left-behind women,the husband's going out to work promotes the increase of family income,improves family living conditions and medical care,and thus plays an active role in the health of Left-behind women,which is generally conducive to the improvement of the health level of Left-behind women.Specifically: on the one hand,the income earned by husbands working outside increases the per capita income of the family,which improves the living standard and nutrition intake level of the family,and more funds can be invested in disease prevention and treatment,thus conducive to the health of the family,including left-behind women.On the other hand,husbands going out to work will reduce the working hours of Left-behind women,but the absence of husbands will increase their time in housework and family care.They need to take on more housework while spending more energy and time to take care of their families.Under such circumstances,husbands going out to work make left-behind women more hardworking and working for her as a whole.Their health has had a negative impact.However,the balance result of "income effect" and "substitution effect" brought by husbands' going out to work is that the income effect brought by husbands' going out to work is greater than the substitution effect,which is beneficial to the health of Left-behind women as a whole.According to the above statements,this paper summarizes the following enlightenments:(1)It is necessary to enhance the employment competitiveness of rural labor force in order to improve the income of non-agricultural employment;(2)It is necessary to integrate public resources and improve the market of family care substitutes in order to alleviate the burden of housework of Left-behind women;(3)It is necessary to strengthen the propaganda of health knowledge in order to influence the health concept of Left-behind women to promote healthy behavior.