Fathers’ involvement and left-behind children’s mental health in China: The roles of paternal- and maternal- attachment

Due to the lack of parental care, the issue of left-behind children (LBC)’s mental health has been highlighted in the academic field. In LBC’s families, a large proportion of fathers migrated to other cities for work. Migrated fathers’ involvement also has crucial impacts on children’s development, but previous studies focused less on it. Thus, using the longitudinal data of two waves, current study examined the relationship between fathers’ involvement and the LBC’s mental health from the perspective of the Dual-Factor Model of Mental Health and its underlying mechanism. A total of 613 LBC at primary schools in China completed questionnaires twice about fathers’ involvement, paternal and maternal attachment, life satisfaction, prosocial behavior, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. The results showed that the total effects of fathers’ involvement on LBC’s life satisfaction and prosocial behavior were significant, while those on problem behaviors were insignificant. Also, father-child attachment played a mediating role in the association between fathers’ involvement and the positive indicators of LBC’s mental health. Meanwhile, mother-child attachment mediated the relationships between fathers’ involvement and LBC’s problem behaviors. The study not only highlights the positive influence of fathers’ involvement on LBC as well as the relations among different subsystems in the family but also implies the different effects of paternal and maternal attachment on LBC’s mental health, which brings inspiration for improving the mental health of LBC in China.