Left-behind children and return migration in China

Table 2 Descriptive statistics

*Mean value or %*	Return migrants	On-going migrants	Mean test	Full sample
Age (years)	40.20	29.65	***	34.29
Age at first migration (years)	26.37	22.29	***	24.08
Female	0.416	0.415	NS	0.415
Married	0.888	0.591	***	0.722
Education (years)	5.888	7.434	***	6.754
Household size	4.256	5.006	***	4.676
Migrant spouse	0.600	0.465	**	0.525
At least a member above 70	0.176	0.170	NS	0.173
At least a member aged 55 to 70	0.376	0.560	***	0.479
Children-related variables
At least one child (<16)	0.472	0.522	NS	0.500
At least one child (12–15)	0.184	0.101	**	0.137
Son (12–15)	0.120	0.050	**	0.081
Daughter (12–15)	0.088	0.057	NS	0.070
At least one child (6–11)	0.176	0.264	**	0.225
Son (6–11)	0.080	0.201	***	0.148
Daughter (6–11)	0.120	0.113	NS	0.116
At least one child (<6)	0.216	0.321	**	0.275
Son (<6)	0.120	0.151	NS	0.137
Daughter (<6)	0.112	0.170	*	0.144
Sample size	125	159		284

Source: Wuwei 2008 Survey.
Notes: For return migrants, all children-related variables are computed at the moment of return; for on-going migrants, they are computed at the time of the survey. The mean test column indicates the significance level of mean differences between return migrants and on-going migrants. NS non-significant; *significant at 10%; **significant at 5%; ***significant at 1%.