Effect of an Internet-based mental health promotion intervention among immigrant Chinese women: A quasi-experimental study

Abstract

BackgroundOwing to a lack of social support, child-rearing Chinese women in Japan experience mental health disorders, such as depression and parenting stress. Effective interventions to improve the mental health of these women are lacking. This study aimed to develop an Internet-based mental health promotion intervention for this subsection of the population and evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. MethodsWe used a quasi-experimental pre- and post-test design whereby the results of the intervention group were compared with those of a control group. Seventy-three child-rearing women were recruited from online groups of Chinese residents in Japan. In the Internet-based intervention, participants utilised an information provision application and attended online parenting workshops. The intervention group participated in the online workshops once a week for six weeks and accessed the application, whereas the control group did not. The outcome measures included the levels of mental health distress, depression, social support, and parenting stress. Data were collected from February to April 2022. Data analysis was performed using repeated-measures analysis of variance. ResultsMental health distress (F = 16.478, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.210) and depression (F = 13.078, p = 0.001, η2 = 0.174) were significantly affected in the intervention group compared with the control group. There were no significant differences in social support and parenting stress between the groups. The Internet-based mental health promotion intervention was highly appraised by the participants. ConclusionsThis study developed an Internet-based mental health promotion intervention that involved an information provision application and parenting workshops. The intervention significantly reduced the mental health distress and depression of Chinese women in Japan but did not affect social support and parenting stress. The findings suggest that this intervention could be applied to foreign women with multicultural backgrounds in diverse settings to improve their psychological well-being.