Effects of changes in physical and sedentary behaviors on mental health and life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from China.

BACKGROUND: While restriction measures are critical in containing the COVID-19 outbreak, limited studies have investigated the behavioral and psychological impact of these measures. This study aimed to investigate the effects of physical and sedentary behavioral changes and online behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and life satisfaction among the Chinese population. METHODS: The data were obtained from a cross-sectional survey of 2145 residents aged between 18 and 80 in Hubei province, China between March 23, 2020, and April 9, 2020. RESULTS: Participants who had high frequencies of physical activities before or during the COVID-19 outbreak exhibited higher levels of life satisfaction. Participants who increased their sitting time during the pandemic or kept sitting for more than eight hours before and during the pandemic reported worse mental health than those who maintained less sedentary behavior. Besides, participants who used the Internet for information seeking, communication, and entertainment more frequently reported better mental health and life satisfaction. In contrast, there was a positive association between commercial use of the Internet and symptoms of mental disorders. CONCLUSION: Given the link between physical and sedentary behavioral changes with worse mental wellbeing, strategies to reduce sedentariness and increase physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic are needed.

Is ethnic representation in an industrial cluster related to earnings of co-ethnic employers and employees?

Our study expands understanding of the ways in which ethnic embeddedness is related to the earnings of co-ethnic members by exploring the relationship between ethnic representation in an industry cluster and the earnings of co-ethnic employers and employees working there. Drawing from the 2011 Canadian Household Survey, our findings confirm the relationship. However, the relationship is different for employers and employees, and sometimes opposite. Specifically, a larger portion of Chinese ethnic economies in an industry cluster is negatively related to the earnings of Chinese employers, but is not related to the earnings of Chinese employees. A larger portion of employment niches in an industry cluster is negatively related to the earnings of Chinese employers, but positively related to the earnings of Chinese employees.

Notre étude examine le lien entre l'enracinement ethnique et les gains en explorant la relation entre la représentation ethnique dans un domaine industriel et les gains des employeurs et des employés coethniques qui y travaillent. En analysant les données de l'Enquête auprès des ménages canadiens de 2011, notre étude confirme la relation. Cependant, la relation est différente pour les employeurs et les employés, et parfois opposée. Plus précisément, une plus grande partie des économies ethniques chinoises dans un secteur industriel est négativement corrélée aux gains des employeurs chinois, mais n'est pas liée aux gains des employés chinois. Une plus grande partie des niches d'emploi dans une grappe industrielle est liée négativement aux revenus des employeurs chinois, mais positivement liée aux revenus des employés chinois.

Spousal migration and married adults' psychological distress in rural China: The roles of intimacy, autonomy and responsibility.

Spousal separation due to migration is a prevalent phenomenon in the developing world, but its psychological consequences for left-behind partners are largely understudied. Using data from 2010, 2012 and 2014 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this paper first examined whether spousal migration causes rural married adults any psychological distress; this finding was then advanced by testing the mechanisms that could potentially explain the linkage between these two variables. Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) for multivalued treatment effect models and paired Propensity Score Matching (PSM) have been used to correct the potential selection bias of spousal migration. The results show that prolonged spousal separation through migration increases the depressive symptoms of married adults in rural China, and the detrimental effects on left-behind spouses' psychological well-being can be explained by the reduced level of emotional intimacy between husband and wife, and partially by women becoming the master of the household. Considering that being the master of the household is accompanied by elevated stress levels associated with increasing family responsibilities, further examination showed that economic resources can buffer the negative effect associated with being the master of the household when the spouse migrates. However, we did not find that time use is an effective mechanism to link spousal migration and left-behind spouses' well-being.