Impact of the Age and Duration Separated from Parents on Left-home-kids' Behaviors and Emotions

Abstract

Objective: To study the impact of the age and duration being separated from parents on left-home-kids' behaviors and emotions.Methods: The Youth Self Report(YSR),Depression Self-rating Scale For Children(DSRSC) and Children's Loneliness Scale(CLS) were conducted in 268 left-home-kids and 228 non-left-home-kids.Results: ①Left-home-kids scored significantly higher than non-left-home-kids in the loneliness,somatic complaints of behaviors,anxiety depression,social problems,aggressive behaviors,internalization behavior problems,externalizing behavior problems and the total behavior problems;②The two-factor variance analysis(the duration and age separated from parents) revealed that the main effect of the two factors were not significant in all factors of the behavior problems,loneliness and depression;③The interaction effect was significant between the duration and age separated from parents in depression,somatic complaints of behaviors,anxiety depression,thinking problems,internalization behavior problems,while it was approximately significant in total scores of behavioral problems.Conclusion: Parent-child separation of left-home-kids had negative impact on their behavior adaption and emotion development.It was significant when separated before six years old no matter the length of left-time,but this negative influence would become more serious when separated after 6 years old with the increase in time of left-home.