BackgroundWith great economic development and rapid urbanization in China, left-behind children whose parents migrate to big cities for job has become a large special population which requires more attention. The present study aims to explore the specific influence of migrant mothers on early child development, especially on social-emotional problems.MethodsThe data of this study was obtained from a cross-sectional study in 8 counties of central and western rural China. Development status of 1880 children aged P for interaction?=?0.037).ConclusionsThe study concluded that children left behind by migrant mothers were more likely to have suspected developmental delay compared with their peers living with mothers, especially on social emotional development. Future intervention is needed for this special population and should pay more attention to girls.With reform and open-up during the past four decades, urban areas in China experience rapid social and economic development, and provide attractive job opportunities for labors in rural areas. According to data from National Bureau of Statistics of China, it is estimated that 180 million of rural population have migrated for seeking employment opportunities in the 3rd quarter of 2017 [1]. The Chinese government administer residents, provide social services and allocate welfare according to “HUKOU”, which is similar with “an internal passport” and residents’ living address could be located by it [2]. Given that these migrant workers do not have “HUKOU” in the city where they work and live, their children are lack of access to public education in the cities, so many of them have to leave their children in the rural hometown with other family members, which are grouped as left-behind children [3]. Left-behind children refers to those below the age of 18 years who lived in their HUKOU location with one parents or other family members since one or both of their parents migrate to and live in other places for work [4]. All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) reported that there were about 23 million left-behind children below the age of 5 by 2010, increased rapidly by 7.47 million compared with 2005, and contributed 38.5% of 60 million left-behind children in rural China [5].There is increasing body of literature concerning physical and mental health of this special population. Left-behind children face higher risk of slower physical growth compared with their peers not being left-behind [6]. It is well-documented that left-behind children have more mental and behavioral problems compared with general population of children: for example, depression, anxiety, severe psychological distress, alcohol consumption, and internet addiction [7-9]. However, while relationship between being left-behind and social-emotional problems is well documented during adolescence, much less is known regarding the association between socio-emotional development and left-behind children in early childhood. Socio-emotional development is a comprehensive concept widely used among preschool children, which refers to capability of communicating with social environment, dealing with social relationships and regulating emotion [10]. Delay in socio-emotional development in early childhood is related with emotional and behavioral problems in later childhood and even adolescence. Therefore, screening and early detection of socio-emotional problems is crucial for follow-up treatment and long-term mental health.Accumulative evidence has shown that maternal characteristics, such as maternal depression, maternal cyclothymic temperament, and maternal education, play an important role on their children’s socio-emotional development [10,11]. But few studies have analyzed how absence of mother due to migration for work will affect child socio-emotional development. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore mother’s role on neurodevelopmental problems among <60 months left-behind children, especially socio-emotional development. Moreover, we compared two screening measurements: Ages and Stages Questionnaires and Ages and Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional on evaluating socio-emotional development.
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