40 percent of left-behind children see parents at most twice a year

More than 40 percent of left-behind children in China meet their parents no more than twice a year, according to a white book on the psychological conditions of left-behind children.

The white book was issued on Tuesday by On the Road to School, a Beijing-based NGO, and a research team from Beijing Normal University. It was based on 11,126 valid questionnaires from rural children from Grades 3 to 8 in 17 provincial-level areas nationwide in the first half of the year.

Only 37 percent of surveyed children had both parents working in their hometown. Twenty-seven percent had one parent working outside their hometown, while the remaining 36 percent were considered left-behind children who did not have either parent around as their guardian.