Association of the previous experience of maternal migration absence with non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in their school-aged children: a cross-sectional study in Anhui, China

Compared with children whose father is currently migrating and the mother never migrated for work (FM-MN), children whose father never migrated but the mother previously migrated for work (FN-MP, OR = 2.21, 95% CI [1.27-3.84], p < 0.01) and children whose father is currently migrating and the mother previously migrated for work (FM-MP, OR = 1.46, 95% CI [1.00-2.13], p < 0.05) evidenced greater odds of the prevalence of 12-month NSSI. And also, a significantly higher risk for 12-month NSSI was found among FN-MP and FM-MP compared with children whose parents lived in the household and neither had ever migrated for work (FN-MN). For those children with maternal migration experience, while controlling for the paternal migration characteristics, there was no difference between before and after school age at initiation of migration in the risk of NSSI, nor were there any differences across 1-3, 4-6, and more than 6 years of maternal migration length CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggested the potential long-term effect of the experience of maternal migration on children and provided implications for the early identification and prevention of school-aged children at risk for NSSI, particularly within the maternal migrant family context.