The purpose of this study is to investigate the actual conditions and causes of the problem behaviors of Korean Chinese‘left-behind’children in China in order to propose a support system to prevent problem behaviors of them. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 399 children who attend at three Korean Chines schools in Yonbian in China.
The questionnaire consisted of general characteristics, internalizing problem behavior, social support, self-esteem, and self-resilience. This paper analysed the survey data by employing one-way ANOVA and a structural equation modeling. It verified if there is significant difference in internalizing problem behaviour, self-esteem, self-resilience, and social support between left-behind children’s group and non left-behind children’s group. It also identified a structural causal relationship and direct or indirect effects among problematic behaviour, self-esteem, self-resilience, and social support. The results of the analysis are as follows.
First, there was a statistically significant difference in the social withdrawal and depression of internalizing problem behaviors between left-behind children’s group and non left-behind children’s group. Second, the left-behind children’s group showed no significant difference in self-resilience and social support compared to non left-behind children’s group, but showed a significant difference in self-esteem. In the positive self- esteem factor, non left-behind children’s group showed much higher score whereas left-behind children’s group was higher in the negative self-esteem factor. Third, social support for left-behind children’s group has a statistically significant direct negative effect on internalizing problem behaviors, and indirectly negative effects on problem behavior through self-resilience. These results suggest the necessity of establishing a social support system for mitigating and preventing problem behaviors and the necessity of preparing measures to improve self-resilience.
Based on the results of the study, we discussed how to establish a social support system in China to mitigate internalizing problem behaviors of Korean Chinese left-behind children.