What is it about?

This study includes 370 left-behind adolescents and 388 adolescents who are not abroad for work. Among them, 17% experienced psychological problems, with left-behind adolescents showing a higher prevalence of low psychological well-being (20%) and psychological dysfunction (21%) compared to non-left-behind adolescents (13% and 14%, respectively). Adolescent females exhibited higher rates of psychological problems (21% vs. 12%) and dysfunctions (21% vs. 13%) than males in both groups. Perceived relationships with parents were strongly linked to psychosocial health, with left-behind adolescents being more likely to experience psychological issues and dysfunction compared to non-left-behind adolescents. Similarly, factors such as communication with migrated parents, visit intervals, social media use, and mobile access were associated with the psychosocial health of left-behind adolescents.

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Why is it important?

This study links poorer psychosocial well-being in adolescents with having parents working abroad. The paper suggests that school-based mental health programmes could perhaps help support their well-being.

Perspectives

This indicates that the perceived relationship with parents is one of the primary factors for psychosocial problems in left-behind adolescents, which was also reported by a large study (N = 1431) in the Philippines with students aged 11–17 years. Both our study and the one in the Philippines link better parent-child relationships with increased emotional, psychological, and social well-being their children.

Prof. Edwin R van Teijlingen
Bournemouth University

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Parental Migration for Work and Psychosocial Problems among Left-behind Adolescents in Nepal, Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, October 2025, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/s10903-025-01799-3.
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