Depressive symptoms in Chinese immigrant mothers: Relations with perceptions of social status and interpersonal support.

Abstract

Objectives: The present study examined how English proficiency, aspects of social status (education, income, and shifts in subjective social status), and interpersonal support were directly and indirectly associated with variations in depressive symptoms among Chinese immigrant mothers. Method: Individual semistructured interviews and questionnaires were administered to 257 first-generation Chinese immigrant mothers in the United States (Mage = 37.87 years). Participants reported on their English proficiency, perceived shifts in subjective social status, income, education, and levels of interpersonal support. Depressive symptoms were assessed through semistructured individual interviews using a measure previously developed and validated with Chinese American immigrant adults. Results: Path analyses indicated that participants’ perceived upward shifts in subjective social status, higher levels of interpersonal support, and higher annual household income were associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Associations between English proficiency and participants’ depressive symptoms were mediated by shifts in subjective social status, income, and interpersonal support. Conclusion: Chinese immigrant mothers’ perceptions of postmigration changes in subjective social status and the availability of interpersonal support play important roles in their mental health, even accounting for objective indicators of socioeconomic status.

Examining the relation between the subjective and objective social status with health reported needs and health-seeking behaviour in Dande, Angola

“…Our results support previous findings of an association between SES indicators and health-related issues and showed that SSS influence health needs reporting and health-seeking behaviour above and beyond traditional SES indicators [65][66][67].…”

Language proficiency and mental disorders among migrants: A systematic review

“…Four of the papers reviewed [63][64][65][66] did not find any significant association between LP and mental disorders. No significant relationships between LP and depressive symptoms severity were found among elderly Korean immigrants living in Canada [63] or female Asian immigrants residing in Korea after an international marriage [64].…”

“…No significant relationships between LP and depressive symptoms severity were found among elderly Korean immigrants living in Canada [63] or female Asian immigrants residing in Korea after an international marriage [64]. No direct relationship was found between LP and depressive symptoms in Chinese mothers living with their children in the United States, even though LP was found to exert an indirect effect (mediated by economic and social factors) on depressive symptoms [66]. One other study did not find any significant relationships between LP and the prevalence of PTSD and grief-related symptoms [65].…”

“…Both men and women with better LP showed an increased risk of SUD [66]. Eight more studies were based on women-only samples [26,29,36,41,42,46,53,56]: one of them found a negative correlation between LP and AD prevalence rates [29]; one of them found that LP was negatively related with postpartum depression prevalence [56]; two of them found that LP negatively correlated with depression severity [26,36]; three studies did not find any correlations between LP and depression severity [41,42,53]; and one found that greater LP predicted more pronounced anxiety symptoms [46]. Two more studies were unbalanced, with more than 75% female participants [47,61].…”

Self‐Regulatory Development in Children from Chinese Immigrant Families: Evidence for Commonality and Specificity

“…For example, while the associations between higher family SES and better executive function in children have been consistently demonstrated across sociocultural groups Obradovi c & Willoughby, 2019), investigations of family SES and selfregulation among immigrant families from any Asian American ethnic group are limited and indicate mixed or nonsignificant associations between family SES, EF, and other indicators of children's self-regulation, such as effortful control and behavioral regulation (Chen, Zhou, Main, & Lee, 2015 ;Chen et al, 2015;Liew, Kwok, Chang, Chang, & Yeh, 2014;Williams, Uchikoshi, Bunge, & Zhou, 2019). Furthermore, while family SES is commonly operationalized as a composite variable of household income and education, previous studies with Chinese immigrant families indicate that income and education level are dissociable aspects of social status that have distinct associations with socioemotional processes (Chen, Zhang, Liu, & Wang, 2020;Chen & Zhou, 2019).…”