A Bibliometric Review of Research on Children and Adolescents' Mental Health Following Parental Migration

Growing tendencies in parental migration highlight the importance of safeguarding the health and well-being of children who are left behind. Our research intended to focus on the growing mental health issues faced by children and adolescents (CAA) following parental migration, in extreme cases, potentially leading to psychological challenges and suicide. Using a database of 425 English-language publications from Scopus and Web of Science, published between 1972 and 2025 (as of 23rd March 2025), we employ descriptive and bibliometric analyses. Our findings highlight three distinct evolutionary periods, with a notable increase in the third (2015-2025). The influential journals in this field are Social Science and Medicine, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, Children and Youth Services Review, and Journal of Youth and Adolescence. The domain's intellectual structure is mapped into eight clusters using network visualisation. These clusters cover topics such as "Health Impact of Migration", "Health and Age", "Migrant Mobility", "Parent-Child Relations", "Wellbeing", and "Socioeconomic Status". The recent trends identified in the three domains, Family Dynamics, Mental Health and Well-being, and Social Exclusion, demonstrate the multidimensional nature of migration's impact on CAA. The findings helped us to provide future research directions, ranging from the longitudinal impact of parental migration to policy implications on CAA. This work bridges gaps in the literature, highlighting the leading journals and the interdisciplinary structure of the research domain, and proposes future research directions to better understand and address CAA's mental health challenges related to parental migration.