Asia Research Institute, Office 7.39, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, #07-01 AS8, 119260, Singapore.
Child Abuse Negl. 2020 Jan;99:104265. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104265. Epub 2019 Nov 19.
Post-migration experiences of discriminatory abuse and poverty have been recognized as key risk factors for psychopathology and health problems among children. However, little research has explored these associations among children participating in the internal migration process. Building on the stress and coping framework (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), this study investigated the influence of discriminatory abuse and poverty on depressive symptoms and health problems in a group of Chinese migrant children. It also examined how a culturally based meaning-focused coping, as measured by Chinese beliefs about adversity scale, moderates the stress-distress associations.
A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1714 migrant youth (Mean Age = 13; Range = 10-16; 45.6 % Female).
The latent variable interaction structural equation modeling was conducted to explore the main and interaction effects among studied variables.
High prevalence of depressive symptoms (49.6 %) was found for this sample. More than 90% of respondents reported on an average of 0-2 days as being sick over the past 30 days. Migrant youth were found to experience moderate levels of discriminatory abuse (M = 1.29, SD = 0.51; Range = 1-4) and economic stress (M = 1.38, SD = 1.25; Range = 1-4). The findings further revealed that discriminatory abuse and economic stress possessed severe consequences on their mental and physical health. The meaning-focused coping strategy weakened the relationship between discriminatory abuse and depressive symptoms (β=-0.07, p<.001). Among migrant youth who encountered discriminatory abuse those who adhered more to meaning-focused coping reported less depressive symptoms.
Findings shed light on the protective role of cultural factors in stress management for young people from migrant backgrounds.
歧视性虐待和贫困的迁移后经历已被认为是儿童精神病理学和健康问题的关键风险因素。然而，很少有研究探讨过参与国内迁移过程的儿童中存在的这些关联。本研究基于应激与应对框架（Lazarus 和 Folkman，1984），探讨了歧视性虐待和贫困对一组中国移民儿童抑郁症状和健康问题的影响。它还研究了中国逆境观念量表衡量的基于文化的以意义为中心的应对方式如何调节压力与压力的关联。
对 1714 名移民青少年（平均年龄=13；范围=10-16；45.6%为女性）进行了横断面研究。
采用潜在变量交互结构方程模型探讨了研究变量之间的主要和交互效应。
该样本中发现抑郁症状的高患病率（49.6%）。超过 90%的受访者报告过去 30 天平均有 0-2 天生病。移民青少年经历中度歧视性虐待（M=1.29，SD=0.51；范围=1-4）和经济压力（M=1.38，SD=1.25；范围=1-4）。研究结果进一步表明，歧视性虐待和经济压力对他们的身心健康产生了严重后果。以意义为中心的应对策略削弱了歧视性虐待与抑郁症状之间的关系（β=-0.07，p<.001）。在遇到歧视性虐待的移民青少年中，那些更坚持以意义为中心的应对方式的人报告的抑郁症状较少。
研究结果揭示了文化因素在移民背景的年轻人压力管理中的保护作用。
