IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v59y2013i2p114-122.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A comparison of female migrant workers’ mental health in four cities in China

Author

Listed:
  • Xuesong He
  • Daniel Fu Keung Wong

Abstract

Background: There are approximately 47.5 million female migrant workers living in major cities in China. Numerous studies have documented the marginalized living conditions confronting migrant workers in cities, such as employment difficulties, unjustifiably demanding working conditions, lack of medical insurance and social provision, poor housing conditions, unfavourable educational arrangements for migrant children, and discrimination by urban residents. In addition, female migrant workers may suffer from discrimination, exploitation and oppression. Aim: This study aimed to explore the difficulties and perceived meaningfulness of migration and their effect on the mental health status of female migrant workers in Shanghai, Kunshan, Dongguan and Shenzhen. Methods: A total of 959 female migrant workers from 12 factories completed the questionnaires, which included the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Migration Stress Scale and the Meaning in Migration Scale. Results: The findings indicate that 24% of female migrant workers could be classified as having poor mental health and the percentage in Shenzhen (35%) was far greater than in the three other cities in China. ‘Financial and employment-related difficulties’, ‘cultural differences’, gender-specific stressors and ‘better future for self and children’ significantly accounted for the mental health outcomes of female migrant workers. Conclusion: Recommendations for policy change and service initiatives targeted at improving the mental health of female migrant workers are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Xuesong He & Daniel Fu Keung Wong, 2013. "A comparison of female migrant workers’ mental health in four cities in China," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 59(2), pages 114-122, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:59:y:2013:i:2:p:114-122
    DOI: 10.1177/0020764011423467
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764011423467
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0020764011423467?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yang Gao & Lisha Fu & Yang Shen, 2024. "The Impact of Urban Migration on the Mental Well-Being of Young Women: Analyzing the Roles of Neighborhood Safety and Subjective Socioeconomic Status in Shaping Resilience against Life Stressors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-12, June.
    2. Ly Huynh, 2022. "Vietnamese Women Rural Migrants’ Social Vulnerability Under the Lens of Hegemonic Masculinities and Confucianism," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1855-1874, December.
    3. Yuanyuan Zhu & Yukuan Wang & Bin Fu & Qin Liu & Ming Li & Kun Yan, 2021. "How Are Rural Youths’ Agricultural Skills? Empirical Results and Implications in Southwest China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-17, September.
    4. Qian Zhao & Yuxin Huang & Mei Sun & Ying Li & Lisa L. Lommel, 2022. "Risk Factors Associated with Intimate Partner Violence against Chinese Women: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-16, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:59:y:2013:i:2:p:114-122. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.