Open Access

REVIEW

Investigating the Mental Health of Left-Behind Children in China’s Rural Areas: A Systematic Review Approach

Jian Li^1,*, Yide Chen², Xinyi Zhao³, Eryong Xue^3,*
1 Institution of International and Comparative Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
2 Department of Human Development, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
3 Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
* Corresponding Author: Jian Li. Email: ; Eryong Xue. Email:
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Child and Adolescent Mental Health: Risk and Protective Factors, Assessment, Interventions and Lifespan Outcomes)

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2026.073286

Received 15 September 2025; Accepted 30 December 2025; Published online 30 January 2026

Abstract

Background: The mobility of people in rural areas may lead to more and more left-behind children (LBC) appearing, and being an LBC brings a lot of risks to mental health, which could greatly hinder children’s development and undermine their happiness and safety in life. Previous scholars have conducted plenty of studies that focused on Chinese rural LBCs’ mental health issues, such as what they exactly look like and some potential factors, but there remains a paucity of reviews about the relationship among certain mental health issues. We will try to figure out how the most common mental health issues of LBC in China’s rural areas correlate with each other, as well as their related factors. Methods: In this study, we used a systematic review approach to analyze 35 publications from Web of Science and EBSCO (to August 2025), followed by the sorting standards of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020. Results: By mainly using quantitative techniques, we found that Chinese rural LBC are more likely to have mental health issues than children who have no experience of being left behind, and they often suffer from depression, social anxiety, internet addiction, and suicidal ideation. These four mental health issues share influencing factors and positively correlate with each other. We also found that Chinese rural LBCs are somewhat resilient towards the risk factors of mental health issues, and national or social policies and interventions can really help them a lot. Conclusion: For Chinese rural LBC, there are important relationships among the common psychological disorders they often suffer, along with multiple factors that affect their mental health, which can help related scholars and practitioners pay attention to such mechanisms and think more comprehensively when they try to help the children who are left behind.

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Keywords

Left-behind children; rural area; China; mental health; systematic review

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