Gender, Victimization, and Adolescent Psychological Health in the Context of Migration

Abstract

Although gender has become a key dimension in migration research, previous scholarship has largely focused on adult rather than child migrants. Even less attention has been paid to the role of gender in migration-related child health. By comparing rural migrant and urban-born adolescents in the largest city in south China, this study assessed gender differences in psychological health and whether such differences were informed by socially induced victimization stressors and stress-moderation mechanisms related to the social relationships that link migrants to their host cities (local ties) and home villages (translocal ties). Victimization was more strongly correlated with suboptimal psychological health in girls versus boys across the migrant and urban-born samples. Local and translocal ties directly increased the psychological health and buffered the deleterious effect of victimization for migrant girls; yet, the roles of these ties were less notable in migrant boys. These results indicate gendered susceptibility to social stress in migrant adolescents.