We Moved for Nothing: A Meta-Analysis of Mental and Physical Health among Chinese Migrant Children
Abstract
China’s internal migration has led to 71 million migrant children. Prior research has mainly compared migrant children with their urban peers in receiving areas, overlooking an equally important comparison—non-migrant children remaining in migrants’ areas of origin. Moreover, systematic comparisons of physical health between migrant and non-migrant children remain limited. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of migrant children’s physical and mental health by comparing them with local peers in receiving and sending contexts. A systematic review and meta-analyses were conducted across six Chinese and English databases. A total of 98 studies were included, synthesising data from up to 152,550 children (18,597 migrant). Physical and mental health outcomes were analysed under two comparison frameworks. Moderator analyses examined year, region, school stage and school type. Compared with receiving-area peers, migrant children were more likely to be underweight or malnourished (OR = 1.27, 95% CI [1.05, 1.54]) and less likely to be overweight or obese (OR = 0.63, 95% CI [0.55, 0.73]). They also showed poorer mental health across both negative (SMD = 0.22, 95% CI [0.14, 0.30]) and positive indicators (SMD = −0.58, 95% CI [−1.05, −0.10]). No significant differences were found between migrant children and sending-area peers on physical or mental health outcomes. Disparities were greater in first-tier cities for internalising problems and smaller among older samples for some negative mental health outcomes. Despite increasing policy attention, internal migrant children in China experience persistent physical and mental health disadvantages relative to receiving-area peers, while migration offers no measurable health advantage compared with sending-area peers. These findings highlight the need for policies addressing both structural barriers in receiving contexts and upstream regional inequalities in sending areas that shape children’s health prior to migration.
Key messages: • Internal migrant children in China experience worse physical and mental health than receiving-area peers, while showing no health advantage over peers in sending areas.
• Using dual reference groups, this study challenges urban-only comparisons and shows that improving migrant child health requires addressing both destination barriers and origin inequalities.
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BibTeX
@article{wu2026moved,
title = {{We Moved for Nothing: A Meta-Analysis of Mental and Physical Health among Chinese Migrant Children}},
author = {X Wu and Y Zhou and M Mendonca and R Goodwin},
journal = {The European Journal of Public Health},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.599},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.599},
note = {CC BY-NC 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - We Moved for Nothing: A Meta-Analysis of Mental and Physical Health among Chinese Migrant Children
AU - X Wu
AU - Y Zhou
AU - M Mendonca
AU - R Goodwin
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - The European Journal of Public Health
DO - 10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.599
UR - https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.599
AB - China’s internal migration has led to 71 million migrant children. Prior research has mainly compared migrant children with their urban peers in receiving areas, overlooking an equally important comparison—non-migrant children remaining in migrants’ areas of origin. Moreover, systematic comparisons of physical health between migrant and non-migrant children remain limited. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of migrant children’s physical and mental health by comparing them with local peers in receiving and sending contexts. A systematic review and meta-analyses were conducted across six Chinese and English databases. A total of 98 studies were included, synthesising data from up to 152,550 children (18,597 migrant). Physical and mental health outcomes were analysed under two comparison frameworks. Moderator analyses examined year, region, school stage and school type. Compared with receiving-area peers, migrant children were more likely to be underweight or malnourished (OR = 1.27, 95% CI [1.05, 1.54]) and less likely to be overweight or obese (OR = 0.63, 95% CI [0.55, 0.73]). They also showed poorer mental health across both negative (SMD = 0.22, 95% CI [0.14, 0.30]) and positive indicators (SMD = −0.58, 95% CI [−1.05, −0.10]). No significant differences were found between migrant children and sending-area peers on physical or mental health outcomes. Disparities were greater in first-tier cities for internalising problems and smaller among older samples for some negative mental health outcomes. Despite increasing policy attention, internal migrant children in China experience persistent physical and mental health disadvantages relative to receiving-area peers, while migration offers no measurable health advantage compared with sending-area peers. These findings highlight the need for policies addressing both structural barriers in receiving contexts and upstream regional inequalities in sending areas that shape children’s health prior to migration. Key messages: • Internal migrant children in China experience worse physical and mental health than receiving-area peers, while showing no health advantage over peers in sending areas. • Using dual reference groups, this study challenges urban-only comparisons and shows that improving migrant child health requires addressing both destination barriers and origin inequalities.
SN - 1101-1262
SN - 1464-360X
ER -