ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the relationship between elder abuse and mental health, and the modifying effect of social support between them in rural area. Methods A multi-stage stratified random sampling method was used to select 1 418 elderly people aged 60 years and above from rural areas of Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan in Hunan Province. Logistic regression model was established to test the relationship among the variables. Results After controlling the basic characteristic variables, when the abuse experience, mental abuse, care neglected, chronicity and multiplicity of abuse increased by one unit,the level of mental health decreased by 21.4%(OR=2.14,95% CI:1.49-2.83, P=0.001)、34.2%(OR=3.42,95% CI:1.53-4.26, P<0.001)、17.8%(OR=1.78,95% CI:1.36-2.41, P=0.001)、25.4%(OR=2.54,95% CI:1.68-2.93, P<0.001) and 13.7%(OR=1.37,95% CI:1.15-2.37, P=0.001), respectively. After social support variables were added, the negative impact coefficient of abuse on mental health decreased. However, it had no statistical significance among the male elderly. Subjective support had greater moderating effect than objective support. Conclusions Abuse is a risk factor for mental health among the elderly. High level of social support can reduce the negative impact of abuse on the mental health among female elderly.
ABSTRACT
Objective: This paper aims at exploring the impacts of social stigma and discriminatory experience on mental health of the new generation migrant workers, thereby simultaneously examining the function of several me-diating effects among them. Methods: Adopting the quota sampling methods, a total of 815 new generation migrant workers were selected from Changsha, Xiangtan, Ningbo, Hangzhou and Shenzhen to complete survey questionnaire. The Structural Equation Models ( SEM) was established to examine the relationship between several determinants and mediating factors thereof. Results: The results of the survey showed that: (1) The social stigma and discriminatory experience had direct negative effects on mental health. (2 ) The expectation-reality discrepancy and coping style have partial mediating effects on mental health as per perceived social stigma and discriminatory experiences. (3) The full preparation prior to the migration presents significantly positive correlation with the active coping skills of the new generation migrant workers, which were positively related to their mental health and psychological adaptability. (4) The negative coping style has a significantly negative correlation with mental health, and can predict the mental health status among the new generation migrant workers. Conclusions: Creating a fair competition environment, es-tablishing a migration training mechanism to improve the coping skills of the new generation migrant workers and mak-ing the full preparations for the migration are beneficial to the improvement of those workers’ mental health.