The impact of non-agricultural employment of parents on the cognitive abilities of left-behind children in rural areas

With the accelerated progress of industrialization and urbanization in China, the rural migrant population has been increasing annually. Nearly half of rural children are affected by population mobility, with the total number of left-behind children in rural areas exceeding 9 million. The cognitive status of these children has attracted attention from various sectors of society. This study utilizes panel data from the China Family Panel Studies for the years 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020 to construct fixed-effects models, empirically examining the impact of parental non-agricultural employment on the cognitive abilities of left-behind children in rural China. The results of the study indicate that parental non-agricultural employment can improve educational cognition and investment, compensate for the lack of companionship, and have a positive promoting effect on the cognitive abilities of rural left-behind children. However, this promoting effect is lower compared to non-left-behind children. Furthermore, this study explores the moderating effects of parental outmigration for work on the cognitive abilities of rural left-behind children. The results show that factors such as the distance of parental outmigration for work, rural teaching quality, rural education digitization, and rural economic development level all have positive moderating effects. The conclusions of the study provide insights for further improving the cognitive abilities of China’s large population of rural left-behind children and ensuring the quality of future labor force.