Perceived discrimination, schooling arrangements and psychological adjustments of rural-to-urban migrant children in Beijing, China

Objectives: The global literature has revealed potential negative impacts of migration and discrimination on individual's psychological adjustments. However, the psychological adjustments among internal migrant children in developing countries are rarely assessed. This study simultaneously examines perceived discrimination and schooling arrangements in relation to psychological adjustments among rural-to-urban migrant children in China. Methods: A sample of 657 migrant children was recruited in Beijing, China. Cross-sectional associations of self-reported perceived discrimination and schooling arrangements (i.e. public school and migrant children school (MCS)) with psychological adjustment outcomes (i.e. social anxiety, depression and loneliness) were examined by general linear model. Results: (1) Compared with migrant children in public school, migrant children in MCS had lower family incomes, and their parents had received less education. (2) Migrant children in MCS reported higher levels of social anxiety, depression and loneliness than did their counterparts. Children who reported high level of perceived discrimination also reported the highest level of social anxiety, depression and loneliness. (3) Perceived discrimination had main effects on social anxiety and depression after controlling for the covariates. A significant interaction between perceived discrimination and schooling arrangements on loneliness was found. Specifically, the migrant children in MCS reported higher loneliness scores than did migrant children in public school only at low level of perceived discrimination; however, schooling arrangements was unrelated to loneliness at medium and high levels of discrimination. Conclusions: These results indicate that migration-related perceived discrimination is negatively associated with migrant children's psychological adjustments. These findings suggest that effective interventions should be developed to improve migrant children's capacities to cope with migration-related discrimination and improve their psychological adjustments, especially in terms of loneliness.