Parental migration patterns and children depression in China's ethnic minority rural areas: A latent profile analysis

Mental health problems among rural children have aroused widespread concern in both society and academia. Ethnic minority rural children, in particular, confront various challenges, including poverty and psychological crises. Compared to their non-rural counterparts, they are more prone to experiencing depression and other adverse emotions. Consequently, investigating the protective factors against depression in ethnic minority rural children holds significant practical importance. This study aimed to identify the depression subgroups among Chinese rural minority children, and to focus on the prediction of parental migrant patterns on depression subgroups. The data for this research were collected from primary school students in Congjiang County, Guizhou Province, China, with a sample size of 745 participants. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was applied to explore the depression categories. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the 20-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CESD). Logistic regression analyses were used to explore the influence of parental migrant patterns on the identified depression categories. LPA results showed that the most suitable model comprised three profiles: "Diverse, severe somatic symptoms (7.4%)", "Stable, low depression (68.8%)" and "Diverse, severe depression (23.8%)". Significant statistical differences (P < 0.05) were observed in depression symptoms among these three profiles. Logistic regression analysis indicated that children with only mothers working outside the home were more likely to fall into the "Diverse, severe somatic symptoms" subgroup (OR = 2.955, P < 0.05). Children with both parents at home were less likely to be classified in the "diverse, severe depression" subgroup (OR = 0.627, P < 0.05). At the same time, it was found that the pattern of parents working outside the home had no significant effect on the subgroup of "stable, low depressive symptoms" (P > 0.05). For ethnic minority rural children, parental migration patterns will affect their depression subgroups, especially when only mother goes out to work. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the mental health status of this group and provide specific support.