A meta-analysis of loneliness among left-behind children in China

Due to the long-term separation from their parents, the physical and mental health development of left-behind children is not optimal. Among many psychological problems, loneliness is the most significant. We searched all publicly published literature related to the loneliness of left-behind children from its establishment to September 30, 2022 in Chinese and English databases. Forest plots and funnel plots were drawn to examine the heterogeneity and publication bias of the included studies, and the loneliness status of left-behind children was analyzed by meta-analysis. A total of 23 studies with 6,678 left-behind children were included in the analysis. The meta results showed that the loneliness level of left-behind children was higher than that of non-left-behind children. Subgroup analysis showed that there was no significant difference in total effect size among different grades. However, different guardian types could affect the loneliness level of left-behind children, for example, single-parent monitoring was associated with lower loneliness than other relative monitoring.