IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0274669.html

Association between socioeconomic status and mental health among China’s migrant workers: A moderated mediation model

Author

Listed:
  • Yubo Shao
  • Huang Ying
  • Xiaoming Li
  • Lian Tong

Abstract

Mental health problems are prevalent among China’s internal migrant workers. However, research on the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and mental health is insufficient. Therefore, this study, utilizing the China’s National Dynamic Monitoring Survey data from a sample of 15,997 migrant workers aged 15–59 years to explore differences in the relationship between migrants’ objective and subjective SES and mental health status in 2015. Both the mediating effect of perceived interpersonal discrimination and the moderating effect of age were examined through structural equation modeling. The results indicated that subjective SES has a stronger direct relationship with mental health than objective SES. Perceived interpersonal discrimination mediated the association between subjective SES and mental health. Furthermore, a much stronger relationship was found between subjective SES and perceived interpersonal discrimination among migrants older than 24 years of age than younger migrant groups. The results showed that, compared with traditional objective SES indicators, subjective SES could be a more sensitive index for identifying those migrant workers with a high risk of mental health problems. In addition, reducing interpersonal discrimination toward migrants can alleviate their mental health problems. And we should pay more attention to older migrant workers since they are more likely to prone to interpersonal discrimination and mental health issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Yubo Shao & Huang Ying & Xiaoming Li & Lian Tong, 2022. "Association between socioeconomic status and mental health among China’s migrant workers: A moderated mediation model," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(9), pages 1-15, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0274669
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274669
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0274669
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0274669&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0274669?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jason R. D. Rarick & Carly Tubbs Dolan & Wen‐Jui Han & Jun Wen, 2018. "Relations Between Socioeconomic Status, Subjective Social Status, and Health in Shanghai, China," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 99(1), pages 390-405, March.
    2. Dong, Xiao-yuan & Bowles, Paul, 2002. "Segmentation and discrimination in China's emerging industrial labor market," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(2-3), pages 170-196.
    3. Meng, Xin & Zhang, Junsen, 2001. "The Two-Tier Labor Market in Urban China: Occupational Segregation and Wage Differentials between Urban Residents and Rural Migrants in Shanghai," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 485-504, September.
    4. Lee, Leng, 2012. "Decomposing wage differentials between migrant workers and urban workers in urban China's labor markets," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 461-470.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. 岩﨑, 一郎 & Iwasaki, Ichiro & 馬, 欣欣 & Ma, Xin Xin, 2019. "現代中国における男女賃金格差: メタ分析による接近," Discussion Paper Series 689, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    2. Iwasaki, Ichiro & Ma, Xinxin, 2020. "Gender Wage Gap in China: A Large Meta-Analysis," CEI Research Paper Series 2020-5, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    3. Ichiro Iwasaki & Xinxin Ma, 2020. "Gender wage gap in China: a large meta-analysis," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 54(1), pages 1-19, December.
    4. Chen, Yiu Por (Vincent) & Zhang, Yuan, 2018. "A decomposition method on employment and wage discrimination and its application in urban China (2002–2013)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 1-12.
    5. Zhipeng Gao & Zhenyu Wang & Mi Zhou, 2023. "Is China’s Urbanization Inclusive?—Comparative Research Based on Machine Learning Algorithms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-16, February.
    6. Yi CHEN & Sylvie DEMURGER & Martin FOURNIER, 2004. "Différentiels salariaux, segmentation et discrimination à l’égard des femmes sur le marché du travail chinois," Working Papers 200426, CERDI.
    7. David Dollar & Benjamin F. Jones, 2013. "China: An Institutional View of an Unusual Macroeconomy," NBER Working Papers 19662, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Haining Wang & Fei Guo & Zhiming Cheng, 2015. "A distributional analysis of wage discrimination against migrant workers in China’s urban labour market," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(13), pages 2383-2403, October.
    9. Siddique Abu Bakkar, 2020. "Identity-based Earning Discrimination among Chinese People," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Paradigm & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-42, January.
    10. Chen, Yi & Demurger, Sylvie & Fournier, Martin, 2005. "Earnings Differentials and Ownership Structure in Chinese Enterprises," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(4), pages 933-958, July.
    11. Vahan Sargsyan, 2015. "Differential Treatment in the Chinese Labor Market. Is Hukou Type the Only Problem?," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp548, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    12. Zhong Zhao, 2005. "Migration, Labor Market Flexibility, and Wage Determination in China: A Review," Labor and Demography 0507009, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Juan Yang & Sylvie Demurger & Shi Li, 2011. "Do Employees in the Public Sector Still Enjoy Earnings Advantages?," University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP) Working Papers 201118, University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP).
    14. Debayan Pakrashi & Paul Frijters, 2017. "Migration and Discrimination in Urban China: A Decomposition Approach," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(4), pages 821-840, December.
    15. Yuling Cui & Daehoon Nahm & Massimiliano Tani, 2017. "Employment Choice And Ownership Structure In Transitional China," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 62(02), pages 325-344, June.
    16. Yu CHEN & Sylvie DEMURGER & Martin FOURNIER, 2003. "Wage Differentials and Ownership Structure in Chinese Enterprises," Working Papers 200320, CERDI.
    17. Thomas Vendryes & Jiaqi Zhan, 2023. "Hukou-Based Discrimination, Dialects and City Characteristics," Working Papers hal-04247417, HAL.
    18. Yang LIU & Keisuke KAWATA, 2015. "Labor Market and the Native-Immigrant Wage Gap: Evidence from urban China," Discussion papers 15142, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    19. Sylvie Dmurger & Martin Fournier & Li Shi & Wei Zhong, 2006. "Economic Liberalization with Rising Segmentation in China's Urban Labor Market," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 5(3), pages 58-101, Fall.
    20. Lee, Leng, 2012. "Decomposing wage differentials between migrant workers and urban workers in urban China's labor markets," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 461-470.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0274669. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.