IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ariqol/v12y2017i4d10.1007_s11482-016-9498-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Migrant Parenting and Mobile Phone Use: Building Quality Relationships between Chinese Migrant Workers and their Left-behind Children

Author

Listed:
  • Piper Liping Liu

    (Hong Kong Baptist University)

  • Louis Leung

    (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Abstract

This study examines the uses and derived gratifications of mobile phones among migrant parents in communicating with children they left behind. Data were gathered from a sample of 378 migrant parents who worked in factories in southern China. The results show that migrant workers who used mobile phones to assist in distance parenting were motivated by a desire for instantaneous communication (e.g., immediate access and reassurance), online transactions, affection, mobility, relaxation, and information. The demographic results show that the migrant workers tended to communicate with their older male children via calls and text messaging with their female children via audiovisual interaction. When migrant parents called, texted, or interacted with their children via audiovisual functions, they were motivated by the need for affection and relaxation. In predicting the quality of migrant workers’ involvement in parenting, the current study found that significant motives for the use of mobile phones included their ability to care for the children they left behind through communicating instantaneously, expressing affection, and conducting online transactions. The current paper discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the results of this study.

Suggested Citation

  • Piper Liping Liu & Louis Leung, 2017. "Migrant Parenting and Mobile Phone Use: Building Quality Relationships between Chinese Migrant Workers and their Left-behind Children," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 12(4), pages 925-946, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ariqol:v:12:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1007_s11482-016-9498-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s11482-016-9498-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11482-016-9498-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11482-016-9498-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matthew DeBell, 2008. "Children Living Without Their Fathers: Population Estimates and Indicators of Educational Well-being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 87(3), pages 427-443, July.
    2. Thomas Hansen, 2012. "Parenthood and Happiness: a Review of Folk Theories Versus Empirical Evidence," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 108(1), pages 29-64, August.
    3. Li, Yushi (Boni), 2009. "How the cell phone became the most important interactive communication medium in today's China," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 53-55.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Qiushi Zhou & Shaolingyun Guo & Hui Jing Lu, 2021. "Well-Being and Health of Children in Rural China: the Roles of Parental Absence, Economic Status, and Neighborhood Environment," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(5), pages 2023-2037, October.
    2. Zhang, Chunyang & Yang, Xiujie & Xu, Wei, 2021. "Parenting style and aggression in Chinese undergraduates with left-behind experience: The mediating role of inferiority," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    3. Siu-ming To & Ching-man Lam & Yuk-yan So, 2020. "A Qualitative Study of Rural-To-Urban Migrant Chinese Mothers’ Experiences in Mother-Child Interactions and Self-Evaluation," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 15(3), pages 813-833, July.
    4. Zhen, Rui & Li, Lu & Liu, Xuanwen & Zhou, Xiao, 2020. "Negative life events, depression, and mobile phone dependency among left-behind adolescents in rural China: An interpersonal perspective," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    5. Zhen, Rui & Li, Lu & Ding, Yi & Hong, Wei & Liu, Ru-De, 2020. "How does mobile phone dependency impair academic engagement among Chinese left-behind children?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    6. Sue Nichols & Nadia Selim, 2022. "Digitally Mediated Parenting: A Review of the Literature," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-15, March.
    7. Chi Zhou & Qiaohong Lv & Nancy Yang & Feng Wang, 2021. "Left-Behind Children, Parent-Child Communication and Psychological Resilience: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-10, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Angus Deaton & Arthur A. Stone, 2013. "Two Happiness Puzzles," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 591-597, May.
      • Arthur A. Stone & Angus Deaton, 2013. "Two happiness puzzles," Working Papers 2013-3, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Health and Wellbeing..
    2. Eiji Yamamura & Fumio Ohtake, 2023. "Family Structure, Gender and Subjective Well-being: Effect of Child ren before and after COVID 19 in Japan," Papers 2312.04411, arXiv.org.
    3. Anna Matysiak & Letizia Mencarini & Daniele Vignoli, 2016. "Work–Family Conflict Moderates the Relationship Between Childbearing and Subjective Well-Being," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 32(3), pages 355-379, August.
    4. Tatiana Karabchuk, 2016. "The subjective well-being of women in Europe: children, work and employment protection legislation," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 15(2), pages 219-245, November.
    5. Inessa Love & Boris Nikolaev & Chandra Dhakal, 2024. "The well-being of women entrepreneurs: the role of gender inequality and gender roles," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 325-352, January.
    6. Laura Langner, 2022. "Desperate Housewives and Happy Working Mothers: Are Parent-Couples with Equal Income More Satisfied throughout Parenthood? A Dyadic Longitudinal Study," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(1), pages 80-100, February.
    7. Matthew Andersson & Jennifer Glass & Robin Simon, 2014. "Users Beware: Variable Effects of Parenthood on Happiness Within and Across International Datasets," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 115(3), pages 945-961, February.
    8. Yujin Kim & Hyeyoung Woo & Sinn Won Han, 2022. "Work and Family Pathways and Their Associations with Health for Young Women in Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-17, November.
    9. Hanna Liberska & Monika Deja, 2021. "Satisfaction with Life, Emotions, and Identity Processes in Polish First-Time Mothers and Fathers and Their Child’s Age," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-15, January.
    10. Janusz Czapiński, 2015. "Individual quality of life and lifestyle," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 9(4), December.
    11. Björn Huss, 2021. "Well-Being Before and After Pregnancy Termination: The Consequences of Abortion and Miscarriage on Satisfaction With Various Domains of Life," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 2803-2828, August.
    12. Jona Schellekens, 2019. "Does the association between children and happiness vary by level of religiosity? The evidence from Israel," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 41(5), pages 103-124.
    13. Gimenez-Nadal, Jose Ignacio & Sevilla, Almudena, 2016. "Intensive Mothering and Well-being: The Role of Education and Child Care Activity," MPRA Paper 74249, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Thomas Hansen & Britt Slagsvold & Marijke Veenstra, 2017. "Educational inequalities in late-life depression across Europe: results from the generations and gender survey," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 407-418, December.
    15. Petra Rattay & Elena von der Lippe, 2020. "Association between Living with Children and the Health and Health Behavior of Women and Men. Are There Differences by Age? Results of the “German Health Update” (GEDA) Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-19, May.
    16. Adler, Matthew D. & Dolan, Paul & Kavetsos, Georgios, 2017. "Would you choose to be happy? Tradeoffs between happiness and the other dimensions of life in a large population survey," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 60-73.
    17. Matthias Pollmann-Schult, 2018. "Parenthood and Life Satisfaction in Europe: The Role of Family Policies and Working Time Flexibility," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 34(3), pages 387-411, August.
    18. Baetschmann, Gregori & Staub, Kevin E. & Studer, Raphael, 2016. "Does the stork deliver happiness? Parenthood and life satisfaction," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 242-260.
    19. Pierluigi Conzo & Giulia Fuochi & Letizia Mencarini, 2017. "Fertility and Life Satisfaction in Rural Ethiopia," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(4), pages 1331-1351, August.
    20. Małgorzata Mikucka & Ester Rizzi, 2020. "The Parenthood and Happiness Link: Testing Predictions from Five Theories," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 36(2), pages 337-361, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ariqol:v:12:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1007_s11482-016-9498-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.