Left-behind children are not the same as problem children Left behind, what does it bring to them?

The detection rate of depression and excessive anxiety in left-behind children is higher than that of non-left-behind children, but there are also aspects of better development

Stay behind, what will it bring them?

Reporter Zhao Lihao

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As the year draws to a close, left-behind children who look forward to reuniting with their parents are about to usher in the most joyful moment of the year, but can the psychological lack of long-term separation from their parents be remedied in just a few days? A few days ago, a 26-year-old photographer committed suicide after posting his last words on his birthday, and the keywords in the self-introduction of rural areas, left-behind children, and mountain children have aroused public attention to the mental health problems of rural left-behind children. The data show that the detection rate of depression and excessive anxiety in left-behind children is higher than that of non-left-behind children. Experts believe that the long-term absence of parents will affect children's self-perception and behavior habits, but it should also be noted that left-behind children are not equal to problem children.

On November 28, 26-year-old photographer "Lu Dawson" posted a last word on Weibo on his birthday and subsequently disappeared. On December 1, the photographer's body was found in the waters off Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, and police said in a notification that they excluded him from killing. Rural, left-behind children, mountain children... This is the key word that "Lu Dawson" introduced himself in his suicide note, and for a time, the mental health problems of rural left-behind children were pulled back to the public eye.

Previously, the "Investigation Report on The Mental Health of Rural Children" released by the National Mental Health Evaluation and Development Center of the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences showed that the detection rate of depression in rural children was 25.2% and the detection rate of anxiety was 25.7%. Among them, the detection rate of depression in left-behind children was 28.5%, and the detection rate of excessive anxiety in left-behind children was 27.7%, both higher than those of non-left-behind children.

As the year draws to a close, left-behind children looking forward to reuniting with their parents are about to usher in the most joyful moment of the year. However, can the psychological lack of long-term separation from parents be remedied in these few days?

What remains estranged is the child's heart

Zhou Hao (pseudonym), a migrant worker in the Changkou Industrial Park in Wuhua District, Kunming City, Yunnan Province, is from Chongqing and has been working outside the home for 30 years, and can only return home during the Spring Festival every year. He told reporters that he would contact his children by video phone about once a week, and his wife would usually take care of the children at home.

"I feel that I have less time to spend with my child, and I have worried about my child's mental health, but I don't know what my child thinks in his heart." Zhou Hao said that although the child looks very lively, he rarely expresses his innermost thoughts.

One or both parents have been working outside the home for a long time, lacking time and opportunities to establish a good attachment relationship with their children, alienating the child's heart, which is a problem that migrant workers cannot solve. In fact, many migrant workers in the city have also noticed their children's mental health problems and consciously brought their children with them.

31-year-old Guo Sen (pseudonym) came to Kunming from Chuxiong in 2009 to work, and her daughter is 5 years old this year and has been following her parents, "The elderly in the family do not understand the education of children, and we are not at ease to leave our children in their rural hometowns, so they have been renting with us." Although the end of work often ends at 9 o'clock in the evening, Guo Sen will also see his daughter who is already asleep for the first time when he returns home.

Fu Minghong, a professor of psychology at Yunnan Normal University, believes that due to the intuitiveness of children's cognitive feelings, the lack of direct companionship and love and warmth of parents is easy to produce the feeling of being ignored and abandoned, and self-cognition will feel that they are unimportant and unworthy of being loved, affecting the establishment of self-confidence, and the psychology of withdrawal, timidity, and lack of bold attempts, which requires vigilance in the parent-child relationship of left-behind children.

At the same time, the long-term absence of parents will bring a sense of lack to children, and it is difficult for parents to provide a good learning example for their children. Fu Minghong explained that children often learn from their parents the template of behavior habits, and long-term stay-behind situations may cause children to not know how to establish social relationships with different people.

Left-behind children do not equal problem children

In Fu Minghong's view, the factors affecting the mental health of left-behind children are very complex, the age and gender of the children, the length of time the parents go out to work, the family's parenting model, etc. will have an impact, and different evaluation standards will also produce different results, but it should be noted that "left-behind children are not equal to problem children".

"Parents going out to work are not necessarily bad influences." Fu Minghong found in the field investigation that during the period when parents go out to work, some left-behind children will be more precocious and exercise their ability to live independently. "During the interview, we found that there was a family where three children took care of each other, and the eldest cooked for the second and third elders, raised pigs, and watered the vegetable fields." Fu Minghong said that under such circumstances, left-behind children's life ability, self-reliance and empathy are better developed than other children.

At Dong Na Meng Primary School in Guangnan County, Wenshan Prefecture, children play basketball on the sports field, rehearse ethnic dances, a vibrant scene, 10-year-old student Li Xiaoyu (pseudonym) said that when helping grandparents work at home, they felt very happy, and now they have to study well to lay a good foundation.

Li Xin (pseudonym), who is in the fourth grade, has a much more cheerful personality than before with the help of her teacher. Due to the divorce of his parents, he has been living with his grandparents, and when he went to kindergarten, he could not communicate and play with others, and his communication skills were very poor. After entering the Shalang National Experimental School in Wuhua District, Li Xiongmei, a teacher in the primary school, noticed his situation and decided to help him out of the predicament.

"He's not a special student, just like the other students." Li Xiongmei said that his focus is on the child's inner receptivity, usually in the classroom will consciously let other students communicate and play with Li Xin, while observing his psychological needs as a bystander and giving guidance, "Now he is not so depressed, and he is willing to talk with people in the same dormitory."

Fu Minghong also said that although parents are not around the child, but "love" can not be absent, grandparents, teachers, relatives and friends love is also an alternative role, while a good parenting model is also critical, the growth of children is a positive effect.

Help others to help themselves out of the psychological quagmire

"Some students have early psychological problems and have not yet reached the point of going to take medicine, but some parents are eager to go to the hospital to prescribe medicine, which will make the child think that 'I am sick and need to take medicine to rest'." Hu Xinyu, a staff member of the Moral Education Department of the Wuhua District Education and Sports Bureau, said that some sudden psychological problems only need to slowly channel the mood to return to a good psychological state.

In this regard, Wuhua District has set up a mental health education guidance center for primary and secondary schools to provide long-term psychological counseling for students, alleviate mental health problems, avoid students from being easily labeled as "patients", and also set up psychological rescue funds to rescue poor students and special cases.

It is understood that the center has built a psychological assessment cloud platform for the education system in Wuhua District, which conducts psychological assessments for 45,000 students in 73 schools in the district, and the assessment data is stored on the cloud platform by one person and one file, and students can still track and view after they go to school.

"The compulsory education stage has been promoting and popularizing mental health classes according to the curriculum, and now students will go to the teacher to talk to the teacher if they feel uncomfortable for a certain period of time." Hu Xinyu said that the solution of psychological problems is actually to help others help themselves, "to get out of the predicament is to rely on yourself, I give you the strength to let you pull yourself out of this pit." ”

Zhao Jinfeng, a teacher in the middle school department of The Shalang National Experimental School, told reporters that almost all the students in the school are rural students, and the school relies on the Activities of the Children's Palace to carry out extracurricular activities such as Bai tie-dye and embroidery, so that students do not want to be closed in their own world, while paying attention to the problems exposed by students' participation in the activities, "I hope that the development of a series of interest activities can help protect students' mental health." Zhao Jinfeng said.

The reporter noted that according to the relevant requirements, at present, each school in the rural primary and secondary schools in Kunming is equipped with at least one psychological teacher, and grass-roots educators believe that such a number is far from meeting the needs of students' mental health education. In this regard, Fu Minghong suggested that in the absence of conditions in schools, theme classes can be used to complete the study of mental health education classes.

Urbanization continues, and there are still a large number of workers who want to go to the city to work. Fu Minghong believes that not only should enterprises strive for the welfare of migrant workers in the city, provide a good accommodation environment and sufficient companionship time for migrant workers and their children, but also strive to create a good educational environment for the children of migrants, "This is a systemic problem, and all aspects of society need to form a joint force to promote the healthy development of the psychological health of left-behind children." Fu Minghong said.

Source: Workers Daily