BOONE—China is experiencing a rise in youth violence, related in part to the country’s growing economy, according to Daniel Leitch, an assistant professor in Appalachian State University’s Reich College of Education. Leitch recently participated in a U.S.-China forum on at-risk youth held in Beijing.

“The rapid social changes brought about by economic development in China are fragmenting their social structure,” Leitch said. “They have a migration of people from the western part of the country to cities in the eastern part of the country because of the economic development there.”

Leitch has a background in international at-risk youth. He has conducted research in Latvia on transitional programs for incarcerated youth, with a focus on less punitive measures for dealing with delinquency, prison-to-community transition and alternatives to incarceration.

Leitch said that as farmers move from villages to the cities for jobs, they often leave their children behind. It estimated that approximately 50 million children have been left behind in their villages with caretakers while their parents look for work in the cities. Another 20 million children travel with their parents to eastern cities but don’t possess the proper paperwork needed to enroll in government schools. The parents work long hours in factories leaving the children mostly unsupervised.

Also, the population shift often disrupts schools. Small schools close and are consolidated into larger, centralized schools which forces students to leave their villages and live in boarding houses. Students in the boarding houses experience high delinquency rates.

Technology also has contributed to the growing numbers of at-risk youth, Leitch said. “China’s youth have embraced a global youth subculture accessed through the Internet.” While China’s youth subculture is similar to that in the United States, it is growing more rapidly and creating problems faster than the country can develop strategies to deal with them, he said.

China’s young people also lack the previous generation’s unquestioning acceptance of authority and they resent and resist the current educational system based on competition, examinations and punitive interventions.

Leitch expects to participate in future discussions on dealing with China’s at-risk youth. “The process of reform will likely involve educational institutions, the justice system, and the emerging non-government organization sector,” he said. “Appalachian, with its many community partnerships, possesses a wealth of assets relevant to promoting positive youth development in China.”

Forum organizers included Beijing Normal University, China International Conference Center for Science and Technology, and Global Interactions Inc. Academics, teachers, juvenile justice officials, educational administrators, lawyers, advocates, and students from China, the United States, Canada and Great Britain attended the forum.

Leitch’s trip was supported by Appalachian’s Reich College of Education, Department of Language, Reading and Exceptionalities and Office of International Education and Development.

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