Life stage of boarding at school and middle school student victimization in rural China

Boarding at school is a prevalent arrangement for rural students in China. Previous studies about boarding at school and students' victimization experiences seldom considered the life stages when the children are first placed in boarding facilities. Using a unique data set collected from 26 junior high schools in rural China, we discovered that boarding at school is associated with increased victimization. Further analysis shows that such vulnerability mainly applies to boys. Furthermore, earlier exposure to boarding, such as being placed in a boarding facility at the primary school stage, has a stronger positive association with victimization than exposure to boarding at a later stage, such as at secondary school, indicating the importance of starting life stage of boarding when examining the boarding outcome. Our attempt at the mediation analysis of attachment to schools and families shows that boarding at school reduces students' school attachment, making it a potential factor for their susceptibility to victimization. This study contributes to understanding the consequences of boarding at school on student well-being under the national school merging initiatives in China in the past decades.