Article

Impact of Occupation and Family Burden on Psychological Adjustment in Returning Migrants

Qiang Ren1, Tingting Wang2, Jianfa Shen3, Wenfei Winnie Wang4, Yu Zhu5,6

1Center for Social Research, Peking University, Beijing, China; 2Department of Sociology, Peking University, Beijing, China; 3 Department of Geography and Resource Management, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China; 4 School of Geographic Science, University of Bristol, UK; 5School of Geography, Fujian Normal University, China; 6Asian Demographic Research Institute, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China.

ABSTRACT

Background: Recently, increasing returning migrants in China accompany the massive rural-urban migration, but little information on mental health is available.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2,100 households from seven provinces to examine the effect of return migration on mental health and its association with entrepreneurial experience, occupation, and family burden compared with local rural non-migrants. The 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) was used to measure mental health status, and factor scores were extracted through factor analysis to gauge three sub-domains of loss of confidence, social dysfunction, and anxiety. A general linear regression model was used to analyze the data for the association.

Results: Returning migrants were more likely to have elevated levels of anxiety compared with rural non-migrants when adjusting for social and demographic variables. Entrepreneurial experiences reduced loss of confidence and social dysfunction but increased anxiety; started but not currently running a business, and having older adults at home to care seemed growing concern in returning migrants but not in the rural non-migrants. 

Conclusion: Our study supports the salmon bias effect, but that occupation, entrepreneurship, and family burden may have non-negligible impacts on the anxiety in returning migrants. The findings may have implications for promoting social integration for returning migrants.
KEYWORDS
Return migration, mental health, occupational health, family burden, general health questionare-12
Funding support
The Economic and Social Research Council of the UK (ESRC, ES/L005700/1) funded the research project- Impact of return migration on rural economic development in China, with implications for Vietnam.

Copyright © 2020 by Global Clinical and Translational Research

How to cite this article:

Ren, Q Wang T, Shen J, Wang WW, Zhu Y. Impact of Occupation and Family Burden on Psychological Adjustment in Returning Migrants. Glob Clin Transl Res. 2020;2(2):16-26.DOI: 10.36316/gcatr.02.0026.

References

1.       Ren Y. Urbanization consisting of "going into the city" and "returning home". Jiangsu Social Sciences. 2010;3:108-12.

2.       Li C. Urban and rural immigrants and social mobility. Jiangsu Social Sciences. 2007(2):88-94.

3.       Cai H, Wang JA. A study on migrant workers' permanent migration Intentions. Sociological Research. 2007;6:86-113.

4.       Zhou H. The trend of family migration and its influencing factors in China's population migration. Population Research. 2004;28(6):60-9.

5.       Duan C, Liu T, Lu L. Research on current population flow situation and its impact in China. Shandong Social Sciences. 2017;9:63-9.

6.       Wang WW, Fan CC. Success or failure: selectivity and reasons for return migration in Sichuan and Anhui, China. Environment and Planning A. 2006;38:939-58.

7.       Zhao Y. Causes and consequences of return migration: recent evidence from China. Journal of Comparative Economics. 2002;30(2):376-94.

8.       Chan KW. The global financial crisis and migrant workers in China: ‘there is no future as a labourer; returning to the village has no meaning’. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 2010;34(3):659-77.

9.       Zhang H. The Analysis on Wishes of Returned Migrant Workers about Entrepreneurship and the Study of Policy Supp-orting System in Jiangxi Province (Doctoral dissertation). 2010: Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics.

10.    Han J, Cui CY. Returning migrants and entrepreneurship: based on empirical study on a survey of "a hundred counties" in China. In Han L edited, Research on the Strategy of Migrant Workers in China. 2009, P181-220. Shanghai: Far East Publishing House.

11.    Wang WW, Fan CC. Success or failure: selectivity and reasons of return migration in Sichuan and Anhui, China. Environment and Planning A. 2006;38:939-58.

12.    Miao D, Liang Z, Wu Y. Interprovincial return migration in China: Individual and contextual determinants in Sichuan province in the 1990s. Environment and Planning A. 2013; 45(12):2939-58.

13.    Miao D, Liang Z, Wu Y. Interprovincial return migration in China: individual and contextual determinants in Sichuan province in the 1990S. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space. 2013;45(12):2939-58.

14.    Xu H. Return migration, occupational change, and self-employment: the case of Wuwei County. China Perspectives [Internet]. 2010.

Available from:http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/5343.

15.    Ren Y, Shi W. Determinants and effects of return migration in China. Population Research. 2017;41(2):71-83.

16.    Jin L. Migration, Relative deprivation, and psychological well-being in China. American Behavioral Scientist. 2016;60 (5-6):750-70.

17.    Kafle K, Benfica R, Winters P. Does relative deprivation induce migration? Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa. IFAD RESEARCH SERIES; 2018.

18.    Stark O, Wang YQ. A Theory of migration as a response to relative deprivation. University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF); 2000.

19.    Fennelly K. The "healthy migrant" effect. Minn Med. 2007;90 (3):51-3.

20.    Puschmann P, Donrovich R, Matthijs K. Salmon Bias or Red Herring? : Comparing adult mortality risks (Ages 30-90) between natives and internal migrants: stayers, returnees and movers in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 1850-1940. Hum Nat. 2017;28(4):481-99.

21.    White M. International Handbook of Migration and Population Distribution: Spinger; 2016.

22.    Qi Y, Niu J, Mason W, Treman D. China's internal migration and health selection effect. Population Research. 2012;36 (1):102-12.

23.    Buttner EH. Entrepreneurial stress: is it hazardous to your health? Journal of Managerial Issues. 1992;4(2):223-40

24.    Lewin-Epstein N, Yuchtman-Yaar E. Health risks of self-employment. Work & Occupations. 1991;Work & Occupations (18):3.

25.    Loukissa DA. Family burden in chronic mental illness: a review of research studies. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 1995; 21(2):248-55.

26.    Bradley D, Roberts J. Self‐employment and job satisfaction: investigating the role of self‐efficacy, depression, and seniority. Journal of Small Business Management. 2004; 42(1):37-58.

27.    Hundley G. Why and when are the self‐employed more satisfied with their work? Industrial Relations A Journal of Eco-nomy & Society 2001;40(2):293–316.

28.    Noonan AE, Tennstedt SL. Meaning in caregiving and its contribution to caregiver well-being. Gerontologist. 1997;37 (6): 785-94.

29.    Romppel M, Braehler E, Roth M, Glaesmer H. What is the general health questionnaire-12 assessing? dimensionality and psychometric properties of the General Health Questionnaire-12 in a large scale German population sample. Compr Psychiatry. 2013;54(4):406-13.

30.    Goldberg DP, Hillier VF. A scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire. Psychol Med. 1979;9(1):139-45.

31.    Goldberg DP, Blackwell B. Psychiatric illness in general practice: a detailed study using a new method of case identification. The British Medical Journal. 1970;2 (5707): 439-43.

32.    Chen CS, Tsang HY, Chong MY, Tang TC. Validation of the Chinese Health Questionnaire (CHQ-12) in community elders. Kaohsiung J Med Sci. 2000;16(11):559-65.

33.    Liang Y, Wang L, Yin X. The factor structure of the 12-item general health questionnaire (GHQ-12) in young Chinese civil servants. Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2016;14(1):136.

34.    Goldberg D, Williams PA. A User's Guide to the General Health Questionnaire. Windsor, UK.: NFER-Nelson; 1988.

35.    Jackson C. The general health questionnaire. Occupational Medicine. 2007;57(1):79.

36.    Goldberg DP. The detection of psychiatric illness by questionnaire; a technique for the identification and assess-ment of non-psychotic psychiatric illness. London, New York,: Oxford University Press; 1972. xii, 156 p. p.

37.    Graetz B. Multidimensional properties of the General Health Questionnaire. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 1991;26 (3):132-8.

38.    Friedman J. The relationships between the housing arrangements and subjective wellbeing of rural-to-urban migrants in China. The 10th IZA Annual Migration Meeting (AM²) and 4th Migration Topic Week; Jerusalem, Israel, June 3-7,2013.

39.    Guan M, Han B. Factor Structures of General Health Questionnaire-12 within the number of kins among the rural residents in China. Frontiers in Psychology. 2019;10 (1774).

40.    Lundin A, Åhs J, Åsbring N, Kosidou K, Dal H, Tinghög P, et al. Discriminant validity of the 12-item version of the general health questionnaire in a Swedish case-control study. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry. 2017;71(3):171-9.