| Rapid urbanization has generated large size of the floating population,where migrant children have been less than halfway through such process.Following parents who seek employment or economic opportunities in developed regions,these children face multiple stressors.They are more likely to experience social exclusion,cognitive prejudice etc.due to institutional discrimination,making them more likely to show negative attitudes towards school.Among the existing studies on migrant children’s discontent behavior,scholars often focus on two main topics,academic fatigue &school escaping,research relevant to school avoidance remains scare.In addition,when examining the potential mechanisms that may lead to the discontent behaviors,peer relationship as a crucial source of social support does not gain enough scholarly attention.To fill to gap,this paper attempt to focus on four main question:(1)Are there any differences between migrant children & local children in school avoidance?(2)Is peer relation associated with levels of school avoidance of children,? ?(3)Are there any differences on the peer effects between local children & migrant children?(4)If there is a difference,can the peer effects act as an effective mediation mechanism that can explain the school avoidance differences between local & migrant children?To examine above-mentioned questions,this study used the school fixed effect model & KHB mediation test using the baseline data of the China Education Tracking Survey(CEPS)project in 2013/2014.The results have shown that,first of all,holding constant of various individual & family background factors,there are indeed significant differences on levels of school avoidance between migrant children & local children,with the level higher for migrant children.The study found that the number of friends,the behavior tendency of friends,the proportion of friends from other counties,& the proportion of friends with the same school had significant effects on children’s levels of school avoidance,& the hypothesis of peer effects was established.The supportive role of peer groups & the social support effect among peer groups has been suggested.In addition,by conducting the school fixed-effects model of school for local children & migrant children respectively,we found that the difference in the structure of friends is an important factor in explaining the difference between the local &migrant children.The proportion of friends in other counties & the proportion of friends in the same school have explained the majority of the difference between the migrant children & the local children.For migrant children,the proportion of friends from other counties is more important,whereas for local children,the proportion of friends from the same school is more significant.Finally,through the KHB test,this paper explores the mediation effect between migration status & children’s school avoidance.Studies have shown that the number of friends,the proportion of out-of-town friends,& the proportion of friends who are in the same school have mediated the effect of migration status on levels of school avoidance.Based on the these findings,the author believe that,in the future education,we should pay more attention to the psychological wellbeing of migrant children.In this vein,education policy is not at all sufficient to solve this problem.To eliminate social prejudice,reduce social exclusion,reduce the stereotype for local students is more crucial than education per se.Therefore,we should help the migrant children to engage in the new environment & to interact with the local children,let them have better support & more encouragement from peer groups. |
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