AB012. ‘Care for Our Future Scholars’: prevalence and psychosocial correlates of mental health of mainland Chinese PhD students in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, social distancing has been adopted in order to minimise the spread of COVID-19. This study aims to examine the changes in physical health, mental health, and social well-being experienced by local residents who were homebound during the pandemic. An online questionnaire in both Chinese and English versions was completed by 590 eligible participants from 24 April to 13 May 2020. The questionnaire found that individuals aged 18 to 25 years spent more time resting and relaxing but experienced more physical strain. Working status was associated with social contact, with participants working full-time jobs scoring higher in “maintaining social communication via electronic means” and “avoiding social activities outside the home”. Additionally, approximately one third of the participants (29.7%) had moderate to severe depression, and participants aged 18 to 25 were found to have higher scores in PHQ-9. Changes in physical health and social contact were significantly associated with developing depressive symptoms. From the results, it is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to exert a negative impact on the mental health status of individuals.

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Stigma, Discrimination, and Hate Crimes in Chinese-Speaking World amid Covid-19 Pandemic

Asian Journal of Criminology ◽

10.1007/s11417-020-09339-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jianhua Xu ◽

Guyu Sun ◽

Wei Cao ◽

Wenyuan Fan ◽

Zhihao Pan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Data Mining ◽

Hong Kong ◽

Political Ideology ◽

Chinese Population ◽

Early Stage ◽

Chinese Language ◽

Hate Crimes ◽

Overseas Chinese ◽

Mainland Chinese ◽

Media Reports

AbstractThe Covid-19 pandemic has given rise to stigma, discrimination, and even hate crimes against various populations in the Chinese language–speaking world. Using interview data with victims, online observation, and the data mining of media reports, this paper investigated the changing targets of stigma from the outbreak of Covid-19 to early April 2020 when China had largely contained the first wave of Covid-19 within its border. We found that at the early stage of the pandemic, stigma was inflicted by some non-Hubei Chinese population onto Wuhan and Hubei residents, by some Hong Kong and Taiwan residents onto mainland Chinese, and by some Westerners towards overseas Chinese. With the number of cases outside China surpassing that in China, stigmatization was imposed by some Chinese onto Africans in China. We further explore how various factors, such as the fear of infection, food and mask culture, political ideology, and racism, affected the stigmatization of different victim groups. This study not only improved our understanding of how stigmatization happened in the Chinese-speaking world amid Covid-19 but also contributes to the literature of how sociopolitical factors may affect the production of hate crimes.

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Differences between Chinese Adolescent Immigrants and Adolescent Non-Immigrants in Hong Kong: Perceived Psychosocial Attributes, School Environment and Characteristics of Hong Kong Adolescents

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18073739 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (7) ◽

pp. 3739

Author(s):

Hechao Jiang ◽

Daniel T. L. Shek ◽

Moon Y. M. Law

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Psychosocial Development ◽

School Environment ◽

Social Trust ◽

Moral Character ◽

Mainland Chinese ◽

Adolescent Immigrants ◽

Chinese Adolescent ◽

Hong Kong Adolescents ◽

The Impact

Although the impact of immigration on adolescent developmental outcomes has received extensive scholarly attention, the impact of internal migration, particularly in the Chinese context, on adolescents’ psychosocial development has not been scientifically investigated. This study examined whether mainland Chinese adolescent immigrants (N = 590) and adolescent non-immigrants (n = 1798) differed on: (a) psychosocial attributes indexed by character traits, well-being, social behavior, and views on child development, (b) perceived school environment, and (c) perceptions of characteristics of Hong Kong adolescents. Consistent with the healthy migration hypothesis, Hong Kong adolescents and mainland Chinese adolescent immigrants did not differ on most of the outcomes; Chinese adolescent immigrants showed higher perceived moral character, empathy, and social trust than did Hong Kong adolescent non-immigrants. Chinese adolescent immigrants also showed more favorable perceptions of the school environment and moral character, social trust and social responsibility of adolescents in Hong Kong. This pioneer Chinese study provides support for the healthy immigration hypothesis (immigration paradox hypothesis) but not the immigration morbidity hypothesis within the specific sociocultural context of Hong Kong in China.

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