Intergenerational Transmission of Parenting: Motivation and Satisfaction Among Adults with A Left-Behind Childhood in China

Experiencing parental migration in childhood may fundamentally shape how individuals later approach their own parenting roles. This research examines parenting motivation and parenting satisfaction among 431 Chinese adults who were once left-behind children. Exploratory factor analyses of survey data from Sichuan Province identified two motivational dimensions: instrumental/obligational parenting motivation and emotional/relational parenting motivation. Structural equation models (SEMs) built on this distinction revealed a pattern of differentiated intergenerational transmission. A consistent finding was strong continuity in family evaluations: satisfaction with parenting in the primary family robustly predicted satisfaction with parenting in the current family. The pathways to motivation, however, diverged by motivational domain. For instrumental/obligational motivation, satisfaction with parenting in the primary family showed a positive direct association, whereas satisfaction with parenting in the current family exhibited a negative direct association. For emotional/relational motivation, neither source of satisfaction had a significant direct effect. Collectively, these results suggest that the legacy of early separation is not transferred wholesale into later parenting motives but is refracted into domain-specific motivational pathways. Policy efforts targeting adults with left-behind histories should therefore move beyond uniform approaches and combine (a) foundational supports that stabilize family conditions with (b) targeted interventions that strengthen relational-emotional capacities and family-system functioning.