I. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background
Many working parents are separated from their children and are only able to visit home once a year. This results in a significant strain on parent-‐ child relationships, parents ' well-‐ being and children’ s development. Numerous studies have shown that the trauma of being left-‐ behind by parents weighs heavily on children, affecting everything from their communication skills to school performance to mental health to outlook on life 1. Similarly, separation affects the parents too. Between May 2014 and March 2016, CCR CSR conducted 30 in-‐ factory trainings aimed towards parents with left-‐ behind children. According to the pre-‐ training survey, only 19 % of workers thought of themselves as adequate parents and one in three found it difficult to communicate with their child / children. When parent workers receive no support from their employers, these feelings of inadequacy can play out in their attitudes towards work, effecting their morale, loyalty to the factory and productivity 2.
The tendency to leave children behind is still prevalent in China today. Many of these children are looked after by their aging grandparents in faraway towns and villages, with few or no opportunities to visit their parents at their place of work. However, while there is a growing trend of parents bringing their children with them when they migrate for work, many struggle to find suitable childcare solutions, especially during the long summer break. As a result, an unknown number of children roam around workshop floors and factories during the summer months, as witnessed by CCR CSR first-‐ hand during an unrelated supply chain assessment.
1 Survey on left-‐ behind children by China Youth and Children Research Center:
http:// www. jyb. cn / china / gnxw / 201502 / t20150215 _ 613519. html; " White Paper on Left-‐ behind Children ' s Psychological Wellbeing " by Shangxue Lushang: http:// ccrcsr. com / news / new-‐ white-‐ paper-‐ draws-‐ attention-‐ left-‐ behind-‐ children’ s-‐ psychological-‐ well-‐ being 2 " They Are Also Parents: A Study on Migrant Workers with Left-‐ behind Children in China ", CCR CSR,
2013
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