Relative deprivation, social exclusion, and quality of life among Chinese internal migrants

The predictors of social exclusion in Afghan immigrants in Türkiye

Immigrants may experience many psychosocial problems when migrating from a home to a host country, including social isolation. Social exclusion is also important among the problems experienced by immigrants. This study aims to determine the factors affecting Afghan immigrants' perceived social exclusion in Türkiye. Accordingly, a cross-sectional study was conducted on 211 Afghan immigrants (Mage = 30.66, SD = 9), 24% of whom were females. The socio-demographic information form, social exclusion scale, self-esteem rating scale, and life satisfaction scale were used to collect data in this study. The findings showed that Turkish language proficiency, the length of residence in Türkiye, working status in Türkiye, life satisfaction, and negative self-esteem were predictor factors for social exclusion. Considering the results, suggestions to decision-makers and mental health professionals to reduce the perceived social exclusion of Afghan immigrants are discussed.

Generate Greater Gratitude When Being Help? A Study of the Psychological Mechanism of Gratitude for Chinese Poor College Students

The Chinese government has invested much money to help poor college students complete their studies, but the gratitude of the recipients remains to be further studied. This study proposed a parallel mediation model and used questionnaires to investigate 260 thousand college students of China to examine the impact of the level of social support on poor college students' gratitude and the mediating role played by social responsibility and relative deprivation. The results showed that social support positively predicted the gratitude level of poor college students; social responsibility and relative deprivation mediated the relationship between social support and gratitude; gender, school type and difficulty level had a significant influence on gratitude level. In short, education to improve the sense of gratitude of poor college students can be summarized as "two increases and one decrease": increase social support, enhance social responsibility, and reduce relative deprivation.

The Residential Environment and Health and Well-Being of Chinese Migrant Populations: A Systematic Review

China's internal migrants suffer from marginalised housing conditions, poor neighbourhood environments and residential segregation, which may have significant implications on health and well-being. Echoing recent calls for interdisciplinary research on migrant health and well-being, this study examines the associations and mechanisms of the impact of the residential environment on the health and well-being of Chinese migrants. We found that most of the relevant studies supported the "healthy migration effect", but the phenomenon was only applicable to migrants' self-reported physical health rather than mental health. The subjective well-being of migrants is lower than that of urban migrants. There is a debate between the effectiveness of residential environmental improvements and the ineffectiveness of residential environmental improvements in terms of the impact of the neighbourhood environment on migrants' health and well-being. Housing conditions and the neighbourhood's physical and social environment can enhance migrants' health and well-being by strengthening place attachment and social cohesion, building localised social capital and gaining neighbourhood social support. Residential segregation on the neighbourhood scale affects the health outcomes of migrant populations through the mechanism of relative deprivation. Our studies build a vivid and comprehensive picture of research to understand migration, urban life and health and well-being.

A study assessing the impact of income relative deprivation and cooperative membership on rural residents' health: A pathway towards improving the health status of rural residents

Rural residents' health status is related to their happiness, socioeconomic status, personal development, and the ideals of living, but individual income relative deprivation has a negative impact on their health. Hence, this study aimed to examine that how to alleviate the negative impact of income relative deprivation on rural residents' health. Based on a literature review, it is the first study to propose that cooperative membership could help alleviate the adverse effects of income relative deprivation on rural residents' health. It survey data from 466 farm households in Shandong Province in China and employs an endogenous switching probit model to solve the endogenous problems. The results show that relative deprivation positively affects farmers' membership in a cooperative but negatively impacts their health. More importantly, the results indicate that membership in a cooperative improves farmers' health and alleviates the adverse effects of relative deprivation. These findings not only expand the empirical research on the positive impact of relative deprivation but also provide a new pathway towards improving the negative impact of income relative deprivation on rural residents' health. That is, the government should guide smallholder farmers to join professional cooperatives and encourage the development of 'multi-functional' cooperatives to play a greater role in improving rural residents' health.

Association of migration status with quality of life among rural and urban adults with rare diseases: A cross-sectional study from China

Background

A considerable proportion of rare disease patients decide to migrate to access a definitive diagnosis or appropriate care, which could affect their quality of life in a long term.

Objective

To compare quality of life (QoL) between migrants and residents and explore the possible mechanism of how migration influence the QoL among rural and urban adults with rare diseases, respectively.

Methods

A cross-sectional study at national level was conducted in a study sample of 1,150 adult patients in China. Migration was defined as being away from one's original place of residence for at least 12 months. Patients who remained in their place of residence in the past 12 months ("resident") were treated as a comparison group for "migrants". Original area of residence (rural vs. urban) for both residents and migrants was used for comparison. The brief version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life instrument was used to measure QoL. Multiple linear regression analyses were adopted to assess the direct association between migration status and QoL after controlling for the confounders that affect QoL. The indirect associations between migration status and QoL, mediated by potential mediators including number of family members living together, individual income, catastrophic health expenditure, and social support, were estimated using the mediation model.

Results

Among the group of rural participants, migration was directly associated with physical QoL (β = 5.07, 95% CI 2.01-8.13) and environmental QoL (3.95, 1.37-6.53), indirectly associated with physical QoL (0.58, 0.05-1.28) and social QoL (0.50, 0.01-1.16) via individual income, and also indirectly associated with environmental QoL (-0.47, -1.12 to -0.50) via tangible support. On the other hand, neither direct nor indirect associations of migration with four domain scores of QoL were significant among the group of urban participants.

Conclusion

Among rural adults with rare diseases, migration was found to have positive direct effect on physical and environmental QoL, positive indirect effect on physical and social QoL through increased individual income, and negative indirect effect on environmental QoL via reduced tangible support. By contrast, neither direct nor indirect associations of migration with QoL were significant among the group of urban participants.

Factors affecting social isolation among the young adults in South Korea: A cross-sectional analysis

The recent increase in lonely deaths among young people has emphasized the emergence of social isolation as a social problem. This study investigated the issue of social isolation by examining multidimensional factors that affect social isolation and evaluating the subjective and objective dimensions of young adults. Data for this study were collected for 8 days (February 7-14, 2022) through an online questionnaire survey by a professional survey agency, based on proportional allocation of the young adult population (age 19-39 years); data from 521 young adults were analyzed. Regression analysis was performed using SPSS to identify multidimensional factors (relative deprivation, future outlook, depression, self-esteem, social skills, experience of violence, and online activity) that affect social isolation and showed that: (1) among sociodemographic characteristics, higher age and unemployment were associated with greater social isolation; (2) sociopsychological characteristics, such as higher levels of relative deprivation and depression, more negative future outlook, and lower self-esteem, all correlated with greater social isolation; and (3) among relationship characteristics, lower social skills and a stronger history of experiencing violence were linked to greater social isolation. These results highlight the need for a customized support system at the national level that takes into account the developmental tasks of young adults as a preventive strategy to solve the problem of social isolation of young adults and to devise various strategies to provide them with mental health services.

Relative deprivation, depression and quality of life among adults in Shandong Province, China: A conditional process analysis based on social support

BACKGROUND

Relative deprivation has been confirmed as one of the pathways underlying the link between income inequality and health. However, the mechanism between relative deprivation and health was still unclear. This study aimed to test the mediating role of depression and the moderating role of social support in the association between relative deprivation and quality of life.

METHODS

Data were collected from the 2020 Household Health Interview Survey in Taian City, Shandong province. In total, 8496 adults were included to complete the measures of relative deprivation, depressive symptoms, perceived social support, and quality of life.

RESULTS

Relative deprivation was negatively associated with quality of life, and depressive symptoms could mediate this association. Furthermore, the direct effect of relative deprivation on quality of life and the indirect effect of depressive symptoms in this relationship were moderated by perceived social support. Both these two effects were stronger for individuals with a low level of perceived social support.

LIMITATIONS

Data are cross-sectional, and causal conclusions cannot be drawn. All measures were based on participant self-report.

CONCLUSIONS

Personal relative deprivation has negative effects on quality of life. Social support moderated the direct effect of relative deprivation and the mediating effect of depressive symptoms on quality of life. For individuals with a high level of relative deprivation, particularly those with a low level of social support, interventions tailoring psychological services and community-based activities could be designed to reduce relative deprivation and promote social support for disadvantaged individuals.

Index of multiple deprivation contributed to common psychiatric disorders: A systematic review and comprehensive analysis

BACKGROUND

Limited studies have been conducted to explore the interaction effects of social environmental and genetic factors on the risks of common psychiatric disorders.

METHODS

56,613-106,695 individuals were collected from the UK Biobank cohort. Logistic or liner regression models were first used to evaluate the associations of index of multiple deprivation (IMD) with bipolar disorder (BD), depression and anxiety in UK Biobank cohort. Then, for the significant IMD associated with BD, depression and anxiety, genome-wide gene-environment interaction study (GWEIS) was performed by PLINK 2.0.

RESULT

Totally, the higher levels of IMD were significantly associated with higher risks of BD, depression and anxiety. For BD, GWEIS identified multiple significant SNPs interacting with IMD, such as rs75182167 for income and rs111841503 for education. For depression and anxiety, GWEIS found significant SNPs interacting with income and education, such as rs147013419 for income and rs142366753 for education.

CONCLUSION

Social environmental deprivations contributed to the risks of psychiatric disorders. Besides, we reported multiple candidate genetic loci interacting with IMD, providing novel insights into the biological mechanism.

Perceived stress and life satisfaction among elderly migrants in China: A moderated mediation model

Objective

Our study aims to test whether anxiety mediated the association between perceived stress and life satisfaction and whether the mediating effect was moderated by resilience among elderly migrants in China.

Methods

We used self-reported data collected from 654 elderly migrants in Nanjing. Regression analyses using bootstrapping methods were conducted to explore the mediating and moderating effects.

Results

The results showed that anxiety mediated the relationship between perceived stress and life satisfaction (indirect effect = -0.040, CI [-0.066, -0.017]). Moreover, moderated mediated analysis indicated that resilience moderated the path between anxiety and life satisfaction (moderating effect = 0.034, 95% CI [0.021, 0.048]). In particular, anxiety had a negative impact on life satisfaction only for Chinese elderly migrants with lower resilience.

Conclusion

Our study suggests that perceived stress could reduce life satisfaction among elderly migrants as their anxiety levels increase. Fortunately, elderly migrants' resilience could undermine this negative effect.

Associations Between Relative Deprivation and Life Satisfaction During the COVID-19 Lockdown: Results of Serial Mediation Analyses

With the COVID-19 pandemic, life satisfaction among college students has become a key issue at universities and in society. The current study explores the effects of belief in a just world and resilience on the relationship between relative deprivation and life satisfaction. A total of 787 college students from universities in China completed online questionnaires. Results showed that relative deprivation was negatively correlated with life satisfaction. Belief in a just world and resilience separately mediated the relationship between relative deprivation and life satisfaction. Moreover, a serial mediating effect of belief in a just world and resilience was observed between relative deprivation and life satisfaction. These findings suggest that relative deprivation may impair individuals' beliefs in a just world. Moreover, less belief in a just world may lower resilience and consequently decrease life satisfaction. This study enriches the research field of relative deprivation theory in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and provides a new interpretation and intervention perspective for improving college students' life satisfaction.

Network Analysis of Time Use and Depressive Symptoms Among Emerging Adults: Findings From the Guizhou Population Health Cohort Study

Background

To date, the relationship between diverse time use behaviors and depression status among emerging adults have not been disentangled in the literature. Therefore, if and how the time displacement mechanism activates depressive symptoms among emerging adults remains unclear.

Methods

To fill this gap in the literature, we employed a network analysis to make estimations. The emerging adult sample (N = 1,811) was collected by the Guizhou Population Health Cohort Study. Time use behaviors were measured by an adaption of the self-administered International Physical Activity Questionnaire, and depressive symptoms were assessed using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).

Results

The results revealed that the time displacement mechanism of emerging adults differed from that of adolescents. Sleep duration was not crowded out by other activities, while the time spent on computer use was found to be negatively related to time spent on heavy work activities. Moreover, computer use behavior triggered three depressive symptoms ("Anhedonia," "Guilt," and "Motor"), but inhibited "Suicide." The results of the directed acyclic graph revealed that females and heavy drinkers were at risk of depression.

Limitations

The study sample was confined to only one province, which may limit its generalizability. The cross-sectional design impeded the ability to draw causal inferences.

Conclusion

Our results enhance the current understanding of the internal mechanism of how time use behaviors influence depressive symptoms among emerging adults.

Family Support and Social Support Associated with National Essential Public Health Services Utilization among Older Migrants in China: A Gender Perspective

China provides National Essential Public Health Services (NEPHS) free of charge to all citizens to ensure access to essential health services. The present study aimed to explore the associations between different sources of support and NEPHS service utilization among older migrants in China with a gender perspective. We used a national cross-sectional dataset derived from the 2015 China Migrants Dynamic Survey. Participants were included if they were aged ≥60 years and without household registration at the residence. Among 1989 participants, 35.2% enrolled in a free physical examination in the past year: 34.6% for males and 35.9% for females. Among male participants, having more local friends (OR = 1.47, 95% CI: 1.09, 1.99) and having insurance at the residence (OR = 1.75, 95% CI: 1.03, 2.96) were associated with enrolment in a free physical examination after controlling for age, education, and self-reported health status. Two additional factors, marital status and family structure, were found for female participants to be associated with enrolment in a free physical examination. NEPHS service utilization was far from satisfactory among older migrants in China, and both family support and social support played a role in it. There are common and unique factors associated with NEPHS service utilization in terms of gender.