Understanding the psychological well-being of children left behind : The

case of the Austro Region in Ecuador

Ana Rivas and Germán CalfatArnoldshain Seminar XI

June 25 -28, Antwerp, Belgium

Outline• Background

• Children as unit of analysis• Key concepts

• Empirical strategy• Data • Methodology

• Estimation Results ( Preliminary)• Concluding remarks

Background• MigDev: Institutional cooperation between Flemish Universities

(VLIR) and the Univ. of Cuenca in Ecuador

• Research objective: Explore the economic and social impact of migration on local development (The Austro region ),

• Information challenge: Available sources of information (e.g. Census, LSMS) limited the opportunities to accomplish project’s main goals.

• Design of a Monitoring impact migration mechanism (MIMM) MIMM survey

•

Background (2)

MIMM

Human capital

Return migration

Social remitta

nces

Health and

nutritionVulnerabi

lity

Children as unit of analysis• There is little research on the impact on children’s psychological

wellbeing.• Related literature:

Aspirations /expectations of students ( Bohnme, M. (2012); Dreby, J. and Stutz, Lindsay ( 2012)

Emotional, behaviour factors ( Asian region: Philippines , Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand)

• Local context: Available studies examine this issue relying on qualitative approaches with very limited samples.

• Figures from MIMM survey : Children population (<18) : 992\

Accounts 32% urban population 12% are children left behind 76% attend school

Migrant parents • 90% of migrants parents are “illegal” workers, performing low skills jobs in US.

Key concepts

• Two basic concepts:Education aspirations : the desire to attain a specific

level (grade) of education based on his(her) present and future perspectives. Dembo (1931/1976); Qualia, R. & Cobb, C. (1976)

Indicator of psychological well-being : Account for child’s hyperactivity, peer relations, emotional and behavioural factors (Goodman R. (1996))

•

Empirical strategy• Aims : • Investigate what factors account for and explain educational aspirations of

children left behind. • Explore to what extent the parental absence impact the psychological health

of the children left behind

• Data • Sources of information • MMIM : Information from HH • Schools:

• Basic information on student’s population + student’s school performance,

• PEACH : • Self reported : emotional and behavioural difficulties, positive attitudes (strengths), future

goals , views on migration, family migration histories• Parents /tutors : aspirations and expectations on their children’s education ,• Teachers : problems and difficulties endured by each of the students

•

Educational aspirations• Model:

• Child_ch Child characteristics (gender, age, ed. level); • Family_facts situational family factors ( parents living

apart, migrant parents, HH with remittances); • well-being indicator • fut_persp future migratory perspectives (desire

country and motivation), • Demog demographic controls (rural/urban)

_ ( _ , _ ., _ , _ ., )Child asp f child ch family fact well being fut persp demog

Child well-being• Model

• Child_ch Child characteristics ( gender, age, ed.level)• Caregive_fact set of variables typifying caregiving in

transnational context (e.g migrant: mom, caregiver: dad,)• par_cfact Indicator for child communication with parents

(based on frequency), • length of parent absence, • Demog demographic factors (urban/rural, wealth proxy)

_ ( _ , _ ;_ ., )

Ch wellbeing f child ch caregive factpar cfact demog

Methodology

• Variables of interest are categorical Ordered logit

Educational aspiration Indicator of well beingFive (05) categories :

1= Basic education (1-10 )2= Bachillerato. (1-3)3= No Uniiversity/Technical Edu.4= University 5= Postgraduate studies (e.g. master.)

Three (03 ) categories

1= Normal level of well-being2= middle level (borderline)3 = Abnormal level of wellbeing

Child well-being indicatorDimension Score Factors considered Normal

(unlikely to have serious problems)

Medium (reflects some significant problems)

Abnormal (reflect serious problems

Total 40 0-15 16-19 17-40

Emotional problems 10 Somatic, worries, unhappy, clingy , afraid

0-5 6 5-10

Conduct problems 10 Temper, obeys, fights, lies steals

0-3 4 4-10

Hyperactivity (attention deficit)

10 Restless, fidgety , distracted, reflects, attends

0-5 6 7-10

Peer relations problems

10 loner , friend ,popular bullied , better with adults

0-3 4-5 4-10

Pro social behaviour 10 Considerate, shares, caring, kind , volunteers

6-10 5 0-4

Results: Ed. aspirations• Contrary to expectations (Mexican experience)

having a migrant father (US), increases the probability of reaching the highest level of education aspiration.

• As expected older children are less ambitious in terms of aspirations.

• Girls’ hopes of accomplishing higher levels of education are higher compared to adolescent males.

• Perspectives to migrate to both Spain and the US increases the likelihood of reaching higher educ. Aspirations.

• Main motivations for migration reduce (as expected) the level of aspirations.

• Low levels of well-being influences negatively the hopes for higher education levels.

• Not very surprising, living in a rural area (keeping in mind a poor educational infrastructure in the region) decreases the probability of attaining higher level of education.

Variable odd ratio Z

Mig. parents Just dad 1.650071 ** 2.49Child Age 0.833524 ** -2.41

Gender 2.287381 *** 5.68Ed. Level 2.354425 *** 4.4

Perspectives Desire to go to Spain 6.273121 *** 3.46Desire to go to USA 5.970886 *** 3.67Go for studying 0.323345 *** -2.13Go for working 0.175599 *** -3.28Go for family 0.230748 *** -4.62Go for Adventure 0.181484 *** -2.99Go for Curiosity 0.092568 *** -4.1

Child conditionInd well being 0.967428 ** -2.39Rural 0.61774 *** -3.18

Cut1 -6.98468Cut2 -2.67622Cut3 -1.80846Cut4 0.769903

obs 841

Results: Child well-being• Findings: • As expected the absence of one

of the parents leads to a deterioration of child well-being

• Age and education covariates indicate that adolescents experience a deterioration of their well-being as they become older

• Communicating with migrant father on regular basis improves child well-being

Variable odd ratio z

Family/caregiving Mig.father/caregiver mother 2.258553 *** 2.6Mig.mother/caregiver father 4.16398 *** 7.8Mig.mother/caregiver oth.Rel. 2.59254 1.7

Child Education 1.070401 ** 2.6Age 1.317661 *** 3.8Gender 1.652389 *** 3.1

Parents/child com. Com. Mig. Father 0.809911 ** -2.5

Cut1 5.74901Cut2 6.992057

obs 840

*** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1

Concluding remarks• Our preliminary findings shows that family factors including

migration account on explaining educational aspirations and child well-being

• Our results need to be confirmed/complemented with further qualitative research undertaken with children, caregivers and teachers