Gansu Survey of Children and Families Papers Copyright (c) 2013 University of Pennsylvania All rights reserved. http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers Recent documents in Gansu Survey of Children and Families Papers en-us Sun, 16 Jun 2013 01:35:56 PDT 3600 It's Not Just About the Money: Motivations for Youth Migration in Rural China http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/42 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/42 Fri, 14 Jun 2013 10:49:25 PDT This study investigates the incentives for labor migration of youth in rural China using panel data from the Gansu Survey of Children and Families, a longitudinal study of youth in rural Gansu Province of China. We investigate the individual and altruistic economic motivations featured prominently in demographic and economic research on migration. However, we propose that the non-economic goal of personal development, a motivation suggested in numerous qualitative studies of women migrants in China and elsewhere, is also important, especially for young migrants. Analyzes indicate that, while young men and young women hold different motivations for migration, the desire for personal development is a common motivator for young migrants. Results suggest that non-economic incentives may play an important role in youth migration in rural China and that positioning in family structures shapes the susceptibility of individuals to migrate due to altruistic economic motivations.

]]> Yilin Chiang et al. Community Poverty, Industrialization, and Educational Gender Gaps in Rural China http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/41 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/41 Fri, 03 May 2013 13:23:22 PDT This paper investigates community impoverishment and industrialization as explanations for educational gender gaps in rural China with analysis of a multi-province household survey and a longitudinal study of youth in one impoverished province. We consider attributes of poor communities that might shape gaps and the related roles of household and community poverty.

Three major results emerge from this paper: community impoverishment, not industrialization, correlates with gaps; poverty and isolation shape gaps differently at different educational levels; and girls in relatively wealthy households fare better than boys at the transition to high school. Results suggest the importance of theorizing differences by educational stage and the need for research that conceptualizes the non-local dimensions of industrialization as potential considerations in educational decisions.

]]> Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng et al. Under Attack: A Multilevel Analysis of Peer Victimization in Rural Chinese Middle Schools http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/40 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/40 Tue, 13 Nov 2012 10:12:42 PST Physical victimization at school is little studied in impoverished developing country contexts, where resource deprivation may heighten tensions that lead to student misbehavior. Moreover, the role of school and classroom contexts as risk factors remains poorly understood. We perform a multi-level logistic regression analysis of physical victimization among middle school students from 100 villages in one of China’s poorest provinces. Results show that forty percent of students report having been beaten by classmates. Elevated risk is found among males; students with prior poor performance in language; students with past internalizing problems; students of female teachers and teachers evaluated as low-performing; students in disruptive classrooms; and students in classrooms undergoing mandated reforms. Results speak to the importance of micro-climates within schools as risk factors.

]]> Jennifer Adams et al. Reforming Rural Education: Understanding Teacher Expectations for Rural Youth http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/39 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/39 Tue, 13 Nov 2012 10:12:41 PST For China’s rural children, the State’s commitment to improve teaching quality in rural regions is a key component of the national efforts to close the rural-urban education gap. In this paper, we investigate an understudied, but critical dimension of quality teaching – teacher expectations. We employ longitudinal data gathered in Gansu Province in 2000 and 2007 to first examine whether teacher expectations for rural youth are conditioned by students’ social origin and teacher background characteristics. Next, we determine the predictive accuracy of their expectations. Our results highlight the ways in which teacher expectations condition the sorting of rural children among different schooling tracks with distinct life trajectories. Importantly, teachers are more likely to hold lower expectations for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In addition, non-local teachers hold lower expectations for rural children compared to local teachers. Finally, a low percentage of teachers expect students to enroll in post-compulsory vocational education. We consider the implications of these results for both educational policy and social inequality.

]]> Lisa Yiu et al. Poverty, Food Insecurity and Nutritional Deprivation in Rural China: Implications for Children's Literacy Achievement http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/38 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/38 Tue, 13 Nov 2012 10:12:39 PST Globally, food insecurity is a significant contextual aspect of childhood. About 850 million people were undernourished worldwide during the period 2006 to 2008, including 129.6 million people, or 10 percent of the population, in China (FAO 2011:45‐46). Implications of food insecurity for children's schooling in developing country contexts are poorly understood. Analyses of a survey of children from 100 villages in northwest China show that long‐term undernourishment and food insecurity strike the poorest disproportionately, but not exclusively; long‐term undernourishment matters for literacy via early achievement; and, after adjusting for socioeconomic status, long‐term undernourishment, and prior achievement, food insecure children have significantly lower literacy scores.

]]> Emily C. Hannum et al. Does Smoking Make One Dumber? Evidence from Teenagers in Rural China http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/37 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/37 Wed, 17 Oct 2012 09:13:14 PDT Youth smoking can biologically reduce learning productivity. It can also reduce youths’ motivation to go to school, where smoking is forbidden. Using rich household survey data from rural China, this study investigates the effect of youth smoking on educational outcomes. Youth smoking is clearly an endogenous variable; to obtain consistent estimates of its impact, we use counts of registered alcohol vendors and a food price index as instrumental variables. Since the variable that measures smoking behavior is censored for non-smoking adolescents, we implement a two-step estimation strategy to account for the censored nature of this endogenous regressor. The estimates indicate that, conditional on years of schooling, smoking one cigarette per day during adolescence can lower students’ scores on mathematics tests by about 0.1 standard deviations. However, we find no significant effect of youth smoking on either Chinese test scores or total years of schooling. This study also provides strong empirical support for "parental effects" – parental smoking has significant impacts on the probability and intensity of youth smoking.

]]> Meng Zhao et al. The Hopes Carry Them On: Early Educational Expectations and Later Educational Outcomes in Rural Gansu China http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/36 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/36 Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:03:04 PDT It is commonly held in the education literature that parents’ and children’s educational expectations are important factors in predicting children's educational achievement and attainment. However, very little is known about the significance of parents’ and children’s early expectations in developing country settings. This study employs a case study of children in 100 rural villages in a poor province in Northwest China to explore the impact of parents’ and children’s early expectations on children’s later school persistence and completion of compulsory and secondary education. I pay special attention to the agreement and disagreement in early educational expectations between parents and children. Results from analyses of longitudinal data from the Gansu Survey of Children and Families (GSCF) from 2000 to 2009 reveal two main results. First, parents’ and children’s early expectations are strong predictors of children's chances of staying in school, completing compulsory education and completing secondary education. Second, there are substantial discrepancies in expectations between parents and children in many families, but children whose high expectations aligned with their parents’ fared best in later educational outcomes. This positive impact held even for children from the most impoverished families. Results also show that parents’ expectations are tied to the local village cultural environment.

]]> Yuping Zhang Adversity and Internalizing Problems among Rural Chinese Adolescents: The Protective Roles of Parents and Teachers http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/35 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/35 Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:28:17 PDT Throughout the developing world, adolescents living in rural poverty face multiple and inter-related adaptive challenges. Using longitudinal data from the Gansu Survey of Children and Families, we investigate the relationship between cumulative adversity and internalizing problems among adolescents in an interior Chinese province, and the protective roles of parental warmth and teacher support. Results of multivariate regression models suggest that internalizing problems increase in later adolescence. The rate of increase does not differ by gender in our sample, counter to most extant literature on sex differences in the developmental trajectory of internalizing problems. Along with parental warmth, teacher support emerges as an especially important protective factor, highlighting the significance of teachers as an often overlooked resource for poor rural adolescents.

]]> Shannon Davidson et al. Curriculum Transformation in China: Trends in Student Perceptions of Classroom Practice and Engagement http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/34 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/34 Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:28:16 PDT In the late-1990s, education policymakers began a process of curriculum reform with the goal of transforming Chinese schooling from exam-oriented education to student-centered learning. Traditional education practices have expected students to passively accept and memorize material presented by teachers, and to reproduce the knowledge on often high-stakes examinations. The new curriculum is designed to reduce teacher-centered instruction in favor of student-centered learning characterized by active learners creatively solving problems, challenging existing knowledge, and participating in lively discussion. Despite such a dramatic shift in curriculum policy, little is known about the whether reform efforts are truly transforming the educational experiences of students. In this paper, we describe these changes in curriculum policy. Second, using data from three waves of the Gansu Survey of Children and Families (2000, 2004, 2007), we investigate how student perceptions of classroom and teaching practices have changed as over time as the new curriculum has been implemented. Finally, we examine the relationship between new curriculum practices and student engagement. The perspective of the students is a crucial dimension to understanding the shift in the practices of teaching and learning that seek to cultivate creativity and innovativeness in students to bolster China’s entrance into the global information age.

]]> Jennifer H. Adams et al. Reforming Rural Education: Understanding Teacher Expectations for Rural Youth http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/33 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/33 Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:28:15 PDT For China’s rural children, the State’s commitment to improve teaching quality in rural regions is a key component of the national efforts to close the rural-urban education gap. In this paper, we investigate an understudied, but critical dimension of quality teaching – teacher expectations. We employ longitudinal data gathered in Gansu Province in 2000 and 2007 to first examine whether teacher expectations for rural youth are conditioned by students’ social origin and teacher background characteristics. Next, we determine the predictive accuracy of their expectations. Our results highlight the ways in which teacher expectations condition the sorting of rural children among different schooling tracks with distinct life trajectories. Importantly, teachers are more likely to hold lower expectations for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In addition, non-local teachers hold lower expectations for rural children compared to local teachers. Finally, a low percentage of teachers expect students to enroll in post-compulsory vocational education. We consider the implications of these results for both educational policy and social inequality.

]]> Lisa Yiu et al. Identifying the Attributes of Effective Rural Teachers: Teacher Attributes and Mathematics Achievement among Rural Primary School Students in Northwest China http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/32 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/32 Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:28:14 PDT Using matched student-teacher, I investigate what kind of teacher attributes make a difference for student achievement in resource-constrained rural communities in northwest China. Results from a series of random-effects models controlling for student background and community economic and social resources identifies several teacher attributes that are associated with student mathematics achievement in the early years of schooling. Students who are taught by teachers who have official credentials, high levels of motivation to improve practice, commitment to the profession, and strong interpersonal skills have higher math achievement, on average. In addition, students who are taught by teachers with 3-5 years of teaching experience have the highest performance, on average, controlling for other student, family, and community characteristics. Importantly, the analyses indicate that teacher attributes to be a distinct dimension of community inequality in rural Gansu rather than as an immediate link between community resources and student achievement. The findings provide a complex picture of the influence of wide range of teacher characteristics on achievement, and carry important policy implications for teacher recruitment, retention, and professional development in rural disadvantaged communities in China and around the world.

]]> Jennifer H. Adams Who Goes, Who Stays, and Who Studies? Gender, Migration, and Educational Decisions among Rural Youth in China http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/31 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/31 Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:58:14 PST Little is known about what affects the decision to migrate in China, despite the estimated 145 million rural migrants that reside in urban areas as of 2009. Drawing on a survey of youth from 100 villages in Gansu Province, we analyze migration and education decisions, with a focus on disparities associated with gender, sibship structure, and academic performance. Results show modest gender differences favoring boys in educational migration, but no gender differences in the overall likelihood of labor migration. Youth with older sisters are less likely to migrate, while youth with younger brothers are more likely to migrate. For girls, having older sisters is also negatively related to being a local or a migrant student, and better early academic performance is related to educational migration. For boys, labor migration may serve as a backup plan in the event of failing the high school entrance examination. Overall, results shed more light on the factors shaping educational migration than labor migration.

]]> Yilin Chiang et al. The Mediating Role of Perceived Parental Warmth and Parental Punishment in the Psychological Well-Being of Children in Rural China http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/30 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/30 Tue, 05 Jul 2011 07:45:53 PDT Research has documented that parenting practices, such as parental warmth and parental punishment, play a mediating role in linking individual (e.g., age, gender) and familial characteristics (e.g., economic status, marital quality) to the psychological well-being of children. However, few studies have validated these connections with respect to the Chinese population, especially those in rural areas of China plagued with unfavorable conditions such as poverty and lack of education. In this study, we investigated whether child (age, gender, and sibship size), and familial characteristics (family wealth, parental education, and marital quality) indirectly contribute to the children’s psychological well-being (as indicated by their self-reported internalizing and externalizing problems) through their perceived parental warmth and parental punishment. Using structural equation modeling, we analyzed data collected from 2,000 children (ages 9–13) and their parents in rural China. The results reveal significant, indirect relationships from family wealth and marital quality to these children’s externalizing problems through parental warmth and parental punishment. There are age and gender differences in the children’s experiencing internalizing and externalizing problems. Gender differences are also found in their perceived parental warmth and parental punishment. Directions for future research are discussed.

]]> Jennifer Jun-Li Chen et al. Examinations and educational opportunity in China: mobility and bottlenecks for the rural poor http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/29 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/29 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 07:11:28 PDT Despite the important role played by examinations in educational stratification and mobility in China, to our knowledge there is no literature in English that investigates the impact of exams on educational attainment with empirical data. We address this gap with an investigation of how examinations shape opportunities for children of the rural poor, a vulnerable group of great contemporary policy significance. After introducing China's high school and college entrance examination systems, we present a case study of examinations and educational transitions in rural Gansu Province, one of China's poorest provinces. We offer a snapshot of educational progress among rural young adults in 2009, with special attention to social selection in exam taking and outcomes, and to the role of examinations in shaping subsequent educational transitions. As expected, high school and college entrance exam results play an important role in determining transitions to secondary and tertiary education, and in determining the type of education received. Exams reinforce inequalities observed in other stages of educational transition, but generalised disparities in educational opportunity precede exams, shape who takes exams, and emerge net of exam results. The patterns of advantage and disadvantage associated with different dimensions of household and village socioeconomic status do not tell a simple story: different factors matter at different stages of education. At the early stages, residing in villages that have an established tradition of education, along with the infrastructure to support education, is important. Residing in a wealthier household shapes the chance of persisting in the system to the examination stage, and offers second chance possibilities later in the game: wealthier youth are more likely to make it to both university and vocational education. Notably, father's education matters most consistently, not only for 'survival' to exam-taking and supporting tertiary transitions, but also for performance. Disadvantages throughout the process faced by the children of poorly educated fathers, even after accounting for household economic status, village context and performance, speak to equity issues within the education system that require ameliorative strategies beyond addressing cost barriers.

]]> Emily Hannum et al. To Walk Out: Rural Parents’ Views on Education http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/28 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/28 Tue, 29 Mar 2011 07:46:03 PDT Peggy A. Kong Why Are Teachers “Overpaid” in Developing Countries? --The Role of the Nature of Educational Production in Teachers’ Labor Markets http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/27 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/27 Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:00:43 PDT Qihui Chen Family Background, Ability and Student Achievement in Rural China –Identifying the Effects of Unobservable Ability Using Famine-Generated Instruments http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/26 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/26 Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:00:42 PDT This paper investigates the effects of family background on academic achievement in basic education (grade 1-9) in rural China, using information on a sample of children aged 9-12 in 2000 from Gansu, China. The instrumental variable method developed by Mason and Griliches (1972), and Blackburn and Neumark (1992) is applied to control for unobserved child ability. Scores of a cognitive ability tests are first used to proxy unobservable child innate ability. This error-ridden measure of child innate ability is then instrumented by an instrumental variable generated by the Great Famine in China, 1958-1961. Empirical results indicate that omission of child innate ability leads to overestimation of income effects. Parental education is found to be key determinants of student achievement, but the roles of father’s education and mother’s education differ across child gender and levels of ability. For example, father’s education has significantly positive effect on academic achievements for both boys and girls, while mother’s education only matters for girls. The effect of father’s education matters for lower ability children, while mother’s education matters for higher ability children.

]]> Qihui Chen Ability and Intrahousehold Allocation in Gansu Province, China http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/25 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/25 Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:00:40 PDT This paper analyzes the strategies employed by households in rural China to allo- cate educational expenditure to children of di erent endowment, examining whether parents use educational funding to reinforce or compensate for variation in endow- ment. Employing climatic shocks as an instrument for children's endowment yields results indicating that parental expenditure is preferentially directed to children of lower endowment. This result appears robust to the potentially confounding e ects of gender and grade level and holds across a number of measures of expenditure. This analysis is consistent with a hypothesis that parents use the allocation of household resources to compensate for di erences in endowment among their children.

]]> Jessica Leight Parental Migration and Child Development in China http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/24 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/24 Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:00:38 PDT In recent years, China has witnessed a massive wave of rural-to-urban migration, which frequently results in family separations. This study uses panel data from a longitudinal study of rural children inwestern China to analyze the impact of migration by fathers on the development of children left behind in rural villages. Child development indicators include both measures of academic attainment, such as enrollment, years held back, and test scores in math and language; as well as measures of non-cognitive skills, specifically children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior which reflects their psychosocial development. To identify the effect of changes in parental migration on changes in child outcomes, we instrument changes in migration status with labor market shocks to village-specific migration destinations. Results suggest that fathers’ migration reduces enrolment by sons, has significant positive effects on the academic outcomes of daughters, but has negative effects on the psychosocial well-being of both boys and girls.

]]> Leng Lee et al. Mothers' Educational Expectations and Children's Enrollment: Evidence from Rural China http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/23 http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/23 Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:00:36 PDT How much would mothers' educational expectations influence their children's actual school attainment in the rural setting of China? This study explores the impact of mothers' educational expectations on children’s schooling by focusing on the discrepancy in expectations between mothers and children. Going beyond existing literature, this study pays special attention to the directions of mother-child discrepancy. I analyze Gansu Survey of Children and Families (GSCF), the longitudinal data, from rural Gansu, China. The analysis reveals that mother-child discrepancy in educational expectations is substantial. Children have a much better chance to stay in school when their mothers share with them the same college dream, or when mothers hold expectations higher than their own. Children at high risk of dropping out, that is those who are from impoverished families and those who struggle academically, benefit most from this positive impact. And mothers' influence becomes stronger as children advance in their schooling.

]]> Yuping Zhang