Psychological strains and psychological distress among Chinese rural migrant workers

Abstract

This research note reports on a study that examined the psychological strains among migrant workers in China, and the potential negative life impact of these strains. It was hypothesized that psychological strains, resulting from social and psychological conflicts (value strain, aspiration strain, deprivation strain and coping strain), would be associated with greater psychological distress. Most of the sampled migrant workers experienced at least one of four types of strain. Independently, greater levels of all four types of strain were related to elevated self-reported psychological distress. Regression analyses showed that coping strain was the strongest predictor of psychological distress, whereas deprivation strain was not predictive when other types of strain were simultaneously considered. It is concluded that further research regarding the combined impact of social and personal factors in impacting both healthy and unhealthy psychological outcomes within the population of migrant workers in China is needed.

Keywords

strain China migrant workers stress

Introduction

China’s economy has been developing and growing rapidly further to the introduction of the historical “reform and open door” policy in 1978. The supply of cheap labor was a vital factor that boosted China’s economic boom: it was sustained in large part by migrant workers from rural China. There were 277.5 million rural people working in cities in 2015 (NBSPRC, 2016).

Moving from a rural to an urban area can be life-changing and problematic for migrants. Most previous studies on Chinese rural migrant workers have been focused mainly on living conditions, working conditions, income and class mobility (Tian and Xu, 2015; Wang et al., 2015; Zhang and Xie, 2016). However, there has been growing concern about migrant workers’ mental condition and psychological well-being (He and Wong, 2013; Lau et al., 2012; Li et al., 2007; Wong et al., 2010). Specifically, severe challenges and problems faced by migrant workers could potentially lead to elevated psychological distress, which can be described as cognitive, behavioral or emotional symptoms experienced by those with a wide range of mental and psychological struggles that lead to mental suffering, psychological discomfort and unsettled feelings which interfere with daily activities (Marchand et al., 2012).

If these radical and rapid changes in life and work environments have been as challenging for migrant workers as these authors above have noted, then it may be reasonable to speculate, based on the “Strain Theory of Suicide and Mental Disorder,” that those who encounter more strain from such life experiences would potentially also exhibit greater psychological distress. Strain, as an explanation (not as a specific concept), can be traced back to theories of “Anomie and Lack of Social Integration” (Durkheim, 1951), as well as the “Strain Theory of Deviance and Crime” (Agnew. 2000; Merton. 1968). These prior notions have considered and emphasized the importance of social strain in explaining society’s structural influence on an individual’s actions. In this respect, the more recently developed Strain Theory of Suicide and Mental Disorder (Zhang et al., 2009, 2011) proposes that psychological strains (which result from competing and conflicting pressures in life) usually precede psychological distress and, in extremely difficult situations, may lead to suicide.

There are four kinds of strain considered in this theory: value strain, aspiration strain, deprivation strain and coping strain (Zhang, 2012; Zhang et al., 2014). These four strains are the results of four unique types of conflict. Value strain emerges from the conflict between different values; in China, this strain refers mainly to the conflict between Confucian culture and modern culture. Aspiration strain occurs when an individual fails to get what they desire (e.g., money, jobs, reputation or social status). More specifically, it is the result of conflict between the goal in attaining these desires, and the reality that often does not meet the lofty aspirations. Deprivation strain stems mainly from the perception that others with a similar background or within a comparable social group have attained comparatively greater resources. It is relative deprivation and thus is about “perceived inequity” rather than being “impoverished.” Finally, coping strain is the result of poor coping skills in dealing with life’s challenges and difficulties (Zhang, 2012; Zhang et al., 2016; Zhang and Tao, 2013).

Using the Strain Theory of Suicide and Mental Disorders, several previous studies have linked all four types of strain with psychological issues and suicide among rural Chinese populations (Zhang and Jia, 2011; Zhang and Lin, 2014; Zhang and Wang, 2012). However, strain and its potential psychological outcomes have not been investigated among migrant workers in China. The present study was therefore designed to examine the relationship between strain and psychological distress among this population. The hypotheses for the study were:

All four types of strain (value, aspiration, deprivation, coping) are present among migrant workers; and

Elevated levels of each type of strain will be independently linked to greater psychological distress among migrant workers.

Methodology

Sample

Data were collected as part of a research program in 2012 which was designed to investigate the overall situation of migrant workers. Respondents were conveniently selected from their rural villages by graduate student assistants during a period when workers would return home for the Chinese (Lunar) New Year. Potential participants were identified with the question “Have you ever been working in cities for more than three months in the last three years?” Written informed consent was gained from those who responded “yes” to this question, in accordance with the protocol approved by the Institutional Review Board of the university where the principal investigator of the project was affiliated. The total sample for the study consisted of 3,415 workers from 26 provinces in China.

Administration of the questionnaire

Well-trained graduate students from the Sociology Department of a key university in central China were hired to assist in the data collection. These graduate students were originally from rural areas themselves, and had also returned to their home villages for the New Year. As previous rural residents they had much experience in talking to and dealing with those who were born and raised in the same rural villages. This arrangement was intended at increasing the comfort and trust of migrant workers, which should lead to encourage their participation and generate valid responses. A total of 4,000 questionnaires were distributed and, after a check on the quality of the responses, 3,415 were selected as valid for the study, for a response rate of 85.4 percent.

Measures and variables

All data were collected by means of a structured survey with several modules via face-to-face interviews. Demographic questions were asked initially, followed by questions regarding the four types of strains: value, aspiration, deprivation and coping. These latter questions were developed for the purpose of this study because no previous studies on strains among migrant workers in China have been carried out. Scoring consisted of the mean score for each type of strain; a higher score for each subscale represented greater levels of that type of strain.

Value strain was measured by two statements which explored the conflict between traditionalism and modernity. Greater discrepancy between these divergent cultural positions was considered to represent elevated value strain. Using a five-point Likert-type scale, both questions required respondents to indicate the level of congruency with their reality (1 = “totally congruent,” 2 = “congruent,” 3 = “neutral,” 4 = “incongruent,” 5 = “totally incongruent”): The statements were: “I value my privacy very much” and “I think it is all the same to give birth to a boy or a girl.”

Four questions were used to tap into aspiration strain. Higher aspiration strain would be represented by greater disparity between what an individual would like to attain and what they have attained. Two questions asked participants how satisfied (1 = “very satisfied,” 2 = “satisfied,” 3 = “neutral,” 4 = “dissatisfied,” 5 = “very dissatisfied”) they were about income: “Are you satisfied with your own income?” and “Are you satisfied with your family’s income?.” The third question asked about perceived differences in socio-economic status: “How do you rate your social–economic status comparing it three years ago?” Response options were a five-point Likert-type scale (1 = “increased a lot,” 2 = “increased a little,” 3 = “all the same,” 4 = “declined a little,” 5 = “declined a lot”). The last question asked: “How do you feel about your life?” with five response options (1 = “very happy,” 2 = “pretty happy,” 3 = “neutral,” 4 = “pretty unhappy,” 5 = “very unhappy”).

Deprivation strain was measured using five questions about relative comparisons of the respondent to similar others, regarding economic status, rights and opportunities. This strain was believed to emanate from the intuitive feelings of inequity compared with city residents. Respondents were asked to rate how much they agreed with each item (1 = “totally disagree,” 2 = “disagree,” 3 = “neutral,” 4 = “agree,” 5 = “totally agree”). The five items were: (a) City people get more benefits than they deserve; (b) City people exploit rural people economically; (c) Most of the rich in our society hold ill-gotten wealth; (d) Children get the same opportunities to go to university if they are smart and hard-working enough, whatever their family background is; and (e) The children of rural people and city people share the same chances to become successful and rich.

Questions about coping strain were designed to investigate strain resulting from the difficulties and failures when coping with problems encountered in daily life. Coping strain was measured by nine questions and respondents were asked to select a response that indicated how often they engaged in that particular type of action (1 = “very often,” 2 = “often,” 3 = “neutral,” 4 = “occasionally,” 5 = “never”). The items included: (a) I don’t accept work assigned to me; (b) I quarrel with the manager; (c) I communicate with my colleagues; (d) My colleagues and I help each other when we have problems; (e) I do not have any close friends at work; (f) I feel lonely; (g) I have conflicts with my direct manager; (h) I have meals and spend my recreation time with my manager; and (i) I have a personal relationship with my manager.

The key outcome variable in this study was psychological distress, which was quantified through the mean score of ten statements. For each item, participants were asked to indicate the frequency of experiencing psychological complications, using a four-point Likert-type scale (1 = “never,” 2 = “occasionally,” 3 = “often,” 4 = “all the time”). All items were selected on the basis of face validity criteria, and included the following statements: (a) I suffer from insomnia because of stress; (b) I always feel pressured; (c) I can concentrate when working; (d) I feel that I’m useless in daily life; (e) I can handle my own problems; (f) I can make right decisions when I should; (g) Basically, I feel happy; (h) I enjoy my daily life; (i) I have no confidence in myself; and (j) I think of myself as worthless. Statements 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 were reverse keyed so that a higher score represented greater psychological distress.

Findings

Initially, comparisons were made between males and females across all key variables. As shown in Table 1, the sample mean age was 36.14 (SD = 10.01) with a range of 22 to 77. In addition, 59.6 percent were male migrant workers whose mean age was 36.94 (SD = 10.36), while 40.37 percent were females with an average age of 34.97(SD = 9.48). The age distribution between genders was significantly different in this sample (p < 0.001).

Table 1.

Profile of the sample by gender.

Variables	Total (n = 3215)	Male (n = 1917)	Female (n = 1298)	t/χ2	p
Age*	36.14 (10.01)	36.94 (10.36)	34.97 (9.48)	5.548	<0.001
Political affiliation				3.271	0.001
Non-Communist Party of China (0)	2,880 (91.8%)	1,689 (90.6%)	1,191 (93.7%)
Communist Party of China (1)	256 (8.2%)	176 (9.4%)	80 (6.3%)
Religious beliefs (any)				–1.473	0.141
No (0)	2,595 (81.6%)	1,782 (82.4%)	1,032 (80.3%)
Yes (1)	587 (18.4%)	334 (17.6%)	253 (19.7%)
Ethnicity				1.326	0.185
Non-Han (0)	241 (7.5%)	134 (7%)	107 (8.2%)
Han (1)	2,972 (92.5%)	1,782 (93%)	1,190 (91.8%)
Value strain*	2.08 ± 0.789	2.12 ± 0.789	2.03 ± 0.785	3.080	0.002
Aspiration strain*	2.74 ± 0.608	2.74 ± 0.623	2.73 ± 0.585	0.297	0.767
Deprivation strain*	2.84 ± 0.696	2.87 ± 0.713	2.81 ± 0.669	2.691	0.007
Coping strain*	2.49 ± 0.510	2.49 ± 0.525	2.49 ± 0.482	–0.157	0.878
Psychological distress*	1.91 ± 0.371	1.90 ± 0.378	1.93 ± 0.258	–2.220	0.026

Mean and standard deviation.

With respect to political affiliation, only 8.2 percent (N = 256) of the respondents were members of the Communist Party of China (CPC), but membership in the CPC was significantly higher among males (p = 0.001). Only 18.4 percent (N = 587) held some religious beliefs (with Christian beliefs being the single largest group), but no gender difference was detected in this sample. Similarly, there was no gender difference in ethnicity, which overall was overwhelmingly (95.2 percent) Han. When comparing strains, male migrant workers showed greater value strain and deprivation strain, but there were no gender differences for aspiration strain or coping strain. Finally, female workers reported slightly higher levels of psychological distress than male workers.

Table 2 presents the results of the bi-variate analyses of psychological distress in relation to key demographic and strain variables. Age was negatively related to psychological distress in the present sample (r = –0.053), indicating that younger migrant workers suffered more psychological distress. The term, “young migrant workers,” refers to those below 30 years old and currently represents the major segment of migrant workers in China. Psychological distress was also positively related with religious beliefs, where those migrant workers who reported holding religious beliefs of any type were more likely to experience psychological distress (p < 0.001). Neither ethnicity nor political affiliation were associated with psychological distress.

Table 2.

Bi-variate analyses of psychological distress on key variables.

Variables	Number of responses (n(total) = 3215)	Psychological distress mean (SD)	Statistics	p
Age	3,178		R = −0.053	0.003
Political affiliation			T = 1.325	0.185
Non-Communist Party of China	2,880	1.91 (0.370)
Communist Party of China	256	1.89 (0.382)
Religious beliefs (any)			T = −4.14	<0.001
No	2,595	1.90 (0.366)
Yes	587	1.97 (0.385)
Ethnicity			T = 1.091	0.275
Non-Han	241	1.93 (0.358)
Han	2,972	1.91 (0.372)
Value strain	3,211	2.91 (0.513)	r = 0.109	<0.001
Aspiration strain	3,209	2.74 (0.608)	r = 0.151	<0.001
Deprivation strain	3,214	2.84 (0.696)	r = 0.115	<0.001
Coping strain	2,338	3.03 (0.482)	r = 0.310	<0.001

With regard to the key independent variables of strain, all four types of strain were associated with psychological distress. However, it should be noted that generally the strength of the correlations was not strong. Among the four strains, coping strain showed the greatest average psychological distress score and the strongest correlation. This suggests that coping strain may be the most relevant type of strain in understanding psychological distress among migrant workers.

A multiple regression analysis was also conducted using demographic variables and the four types of strains as predictors, and with psychological distress as the dependent variable. As can be seen in Table 3, while the adjusted R² of the model was not strong, it was statistically significant. The value of Durbin–Watson in this model was 1.420, which suggests that the regression model has no serial correlation; and VIF (Variance Inflating Factor) values of independent variables were all around 1.01, which indicates a lack of multicollinearity among the predictors. Overall, the regression analysis confirmed that psychological distress was predicted by gender and religion, as well as value strain, aspiration strain and coping strain. Deprivation strain was not statistically significant in the regression analysis, unlike in the correlation analysis. Thus, deprivation strain by itself is related to psychological distress, but it is less predictive when simultaneously considered with other types of strain.

Table 3.

Regression results of the effects of psychological strains on the measured psychological distress.

	Unstandardized coefficients		T	p	95.0% confidence interval for B		Standardized coefficients
	B	Std. Error	T	p	Lower bound	Upper bound	Beta
Gender (female)	0.033	0.015	15.44	0.029	0.003	0.063	0.044
Age	−0.001	0.001	−1.80	0.072	−0.003	0.000	−0.036
Political affiliation (CPC)	0.039	0.027	1.45	0.147	−0.014	0.092	0.029
Religious beliefs (Yes)	0.056	0.020	2.87	0.004	0.018	0.095	0.058
Ethnicity (Han)	−0.013	0.027	−0.46	0.642	−0.066	0.041	−0.009
Value strain	0.034	0.010	3.47	0.001	0.015	0.053	0.071
Aspiration strain	0.065	0.013	5.21	<0.001	0.041	0.090	0.106
Deprivation strain	0.021	0.011	1.90	0.057	−0.001	0.042	0.039
Coping strain	0.202	0.015	13.25	<0.001	0.172	0.232	0.275
Constant	1.11	0.072	15.44	<0.001	0.966	1.247
Adjusted R²				0.118
p				<0.001
Std. error estimate				0.352

Discussion and conclusion

The initial findings of the current study showed that there were key demographic factors that identify elevated risk for psychological distress among rural migrant workers in China. It should be noted that the present study did not use a comparison group of non-migrant workers; thus, the comparison is focused only within the population of migrant workers themselves. That is to say, the outcomes are intended to identify which factors are predictive of greater psychological distress among migrant workers, rather than which factors are greater compared to any other category of workers. In this respect, the outcomes did show that those migrant workers who are younger, female and hold religious beliefs were more likely to show elevated psychological distress. It is possible that migrant workers who are younger and female are rendered more vulnerable because of their relatively lower social position and are thus more likely to receive lower pay, face more difficult working conditions, and have greater challenges than other older male workers. In addition, previous research in China has linked religious belief with negative psychological outcomes (Zhang et al., 2011; Zhang and Xu, 2007). Those who hold religious beliefs may be further stigmatized or ostracized, which could compound the problems already experienced by migrant workers.

Strains have a definite and significant impact on psychological distress, although not all to the same extent. The evidence supports the conclusion that, even after consideration of demographic factors, all four types of strain independently showed positive relationships with psychological distress among participants. Coping strain had the greatest impact on psychological distress. Aspiration and value strains were as also significant predictors of psychological distress, although not to the extent of coping strains. A slightly different pattern was found for deprivation strain, however. On its own, this type of strain was related to psychological distress, but was not predictive when the other strains were considered simultaneously.

Strains are the result of different individual elements that are shaped by situational factors on both micro and macro levels. While the link to psychological distress might appear as a personal outcome, the strains must be viewed as a more interactive “social strain” process between, in this case, migrant workers and their social and contextual experiences. As such, the current research was limited in that it only examined a small portion of potential influences. Further research is clearly needed to expand on the combined social and personal factors. Expansion on this current line of research should undoubtedly point toward further efforts with the goal of not only improving the working conditions of migrant workers in China, but also of enhancing the personal and social well-being and health of this population.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest to exist with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this paper.

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from the “Research on Speeding up the Citizenization of Agricultural Population under the Background of New Urbanization” (Approval number: 18VSJ065).

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