Transnational parents are migrant mothers and fathers who have at least one child left behind in the home country. Despite their non-negligible prevalence in many destination countries, scarcity of data on the topic has caused a lack of attention to this phenomenon in both policy and scholarship. In particular, little is known about how the interplay between migration and family relations at a distance affects the individual well-being of both migrant parents and their left-behind children, especially in a European context. This article evaluates the subjective well-being of migrant couples currently residing in Italy who have children left behind, compared with childless migrants and with migrant parents living with their children in Italy. Multivariate logistic regression applied to individual-level data from Istat's Survey on Social condition and integration of foreign citizens, 2011–2012, shows that transnational parents experienced lower levels of self-rated health compared with migrants with different family statuses and that the well-being loss associated with transnational parenthood is strongly gendered. Controlling for individual characteristics, socio-economic conditions, the presence of minor children, and migration background, our analysis demonstrates that men's subjective wellbeing did not vary based on their family status while transnational mothers experienced significantly lower well-being compared with childless migrant women. Our research suggests the need for adopting a transnational approach to migration starting from data gathering, for instance through the design and implementation of multi-sited and retrospective surveys.

跨国父母是至少有一个孩子留在本国的移民父母。尽管它们在许多目的地国家的流行程度不容忽视，但有关该主题的数据稀缺导致政策和学术都缺乏对这一现象的关注。特别是，人们对移民与远距离家庭关系之间的相互作用如何影响移民父母及其留守子女的个人福祉知之甚少，尤其是在欧洲背景下。本文评估了目前居住在意大利的留守儿童的移民夫妇与无子女移民以及与孩子一起生活在意大利的移民父母的主观幸福感。多变量逻辑回归应用于来自 Istat' 的个体水平数据 s 2011-2012 年外国公民社会状况和融合调查显示，与具有不同家庭地位的移民相比，跨国父母的自评健康水平较低，并且与跨国父母身份相关的幸福感损失具有强烈的性别差异。控制个人特征、社会经济条件、未成年子女的存在和移民背景，我们的分析表明，男性的主观幸福感并未因家庭状况而异，而跨国母亲的幸福感明显低于无子女移民女性。我们的研究表明，需要从数据收集开始采用跨国移民方法，例如通过设计和实施多地点和回顾性调查。