Mental wellbeing and resilience amongst migrant workers from service industries in Shenzhen city: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective To explore mental well-being and the relationship with resilience amongst younger and older migrant workers from service industries in Shenzhen. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in Shenzhen city,a total of 1 979 rural-to-urban migrant workers were recruited from the community by the method of respondent-driven sampling. Mental wellbeing and resilience was measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(CES-D), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale(CD-RISC) and Perceived Social Support Scale(PSSS). The scores of depression, anxiety and resilience between younger and older migrant workers were compared,and multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify independent factors associated with depression and anxiety in these two groups respectively. Results Younger migrant group showed higher scores of positive emotion subscale of CES-D ((5.04±2.41) ∶ (4.53±2.33) ; t=4.567,P=0.000) , as well as total scores ((82.94± 16.82) ∶ (79.87 ± 17.99) ; t=3.720,P=0.000), tenacity((42.57 ± 9.26) ∶ (41.17 ± 9.72) ; t=3.119,P=0.002), strength ((27.93±5.86) ∶ (26.60±6.34) ; t=4.592,P=0.000) and optimism ((12.44±2.91) ∶ (12.10±3.14) ; t= 2.364,P=0.018) of CD-RISC compared to older group. Linear regression analysis showed factors that were independently negatively associated with depression and anxiety in younger migrants included tenacity and strength,and strength contributed most to depression (standard coefficient β=- 0.376, R2=0.123). Whereas strength was negatively associated with depression (standard coefficient β=- 0.298, R2=0.069) and anxiety (standard coefficient β=-0.089, R2=0.022) in older migrants. Conclusions The general mental wellbeing between younger and older migrants may be equal. The resilience is better in younger migrants and predicts depression and anxiety. Efforts to enhance the resilience may be useful to promote mental wellbeing among younger migrant workers. Key words: Depression; Anxiety; Resilience; Residentialmobility