The Association Between Sexual Harassment and Mental Health Among Chinese College Students: Do Gender and Social Support Matter?

Objectives: This study examined the association between sexual harassment (SH) and college students' mental health in the Chinese context and its gender differences, exploring the moderating role of social support. Methods: Data were from the Third Survey of Chinese Women's Social Status and included 5,032 college students. We employed the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models with interaction terms to report the moderating effects of gender and social support on the association between SH and mental health. Results: Gender harassment and unwelcome sexual attention were negatively associated with mental health among all students, with no observed gender difference. Financial and large-scale emotional support moderated the association between unwelcome sexual attention and women's mental health but were not buffer factors for men. Learning support aggravated the adverse association between gender harassment and men's mental health. Conclusion: SH is a significant trigger for men's and women's mental health problems. When they are subjected to SH, financial and emotional support are protective resources for women, but learning support is risky for men.

Work experiences, resources, and beliefs among vulnerable subgroups of mental health care users.

BACKGROUND: People with mental illness may have difficulties related to work and employment, especially if they experience additional difficult life situations. OBJECTIVE: To explore how subgroups with mental illness and additional adversities perceived their situation with respect to work and employment prospects. METHODS: Three subgroups were included, exposed to an additional difficult life situation: i) psychosis interrupting their career development at young age (n = 46), ii) having a history of substance use disorder (SUD) (= 57) or iii) having recently immigrated (n = 39). They responded to questionnaires addressing sociodemographics, work-related factors, everyday activity, and well-being. A professional assessed their level of functioning and symptom severity. RESULTS: The young people with psychosis had a low education level, little work experience, the poorest worker role resources, and a low level of functioning, but a high quality of life. The SUD group had the fewest work experiences, were the least satisfied with work experiences, and had the lowest activity level, but had the least severe psychiatric symptoms. The immigrant group had severe psychiatric symptoms, but high ratings on work experiences, work resources, and activity level. CONCLUSIONS: Each group presented unique assets and limitations pertaining to work and employment, suggesting that they also needed unique support measures.

A cross-sectional study addressing the importance of work and other everyday activities for well-being among people with mental illness: does additional vulnerability matter?

BACKGROUND: Work and other everyday activities are beneficial for well-being among people with mental illness, but poor circumstances can create detrimental effects, possibly aggravated by additional vulnerabilities linked with their mental illness. This study aimed to investigate how activity factors were related to well-being and functioning among three vulnerable groups using outpatient mental health care - young people with psychosis, people with a history of substance use disorder (SUD), and immigrants with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - while controlling for vulnerability group, age and gender. METHODS: Participants represented the three types of vulnerability (n = 46/57/39). Data collection, using self-report and interviewer-rated questionnaires, concerned aspects of everyday activity (work experiences; views of the worker role; satisfaction with everyday occupations; activity level), well-being (quality of life: life and health; quality of life: environmental aspects; recovery) and functioning (psychosocial functioning; symptom severity). Spearman correlations and General Linear Modelling were used. RESULTS: Activity satisfaction was positive (p < 0.001) but recent work experience negative (p = 0.015) for the life and health aspect of quality of life. Activity satisfaction was positive for the environmental aspects of quality of life (p < 0.001). Resources for having a worker role (p < 0.001) and belief in having a future worker role (p = 0.007) were positively associated with better recovery. Activity level (p = 0.001) and resources for having a worker role (p = 0.004) showed positive associations with psychosocial functioning. Belief in a future worker role (p = 0.011) was related with symptom level. Women had less severe symptoms in the young group with psychosis. Regarding vulnerability group, young people with psychosis perceived better quality of life; those with a history of SUD had less severe psychiatric symptoms; and the recent immigrants with PTSD had the highest level of psychosocial functioning. CONCLUSION: Work experience may not be conducive to well-being in itself; it is satisfaction with work and other activities that matters, and worker and employer expectations need alignment. No vulnerability group seemed consistently more disadvantaged regarding well-being and functioning, but the fact that differences existed is vital to acknowledge in activity-based rehabilitation. Inquiring about meaningful activities and providing opportunities for executing them would be a fruitful way of support.

Reacting to social discrimination? Men's individual and social risk behaviors in the context of a male marriage squeeze in rural China.

RATIONALE: In China, a large number of men are being squeezed out of the marriage market due to a shortage of marriageable women. Previous research has largely discussed the consequences of gender imbalances and focused on the behavior of marriage-squeezed men that threatens public safety. No empirical studies explored the impact of the social environment on risky behaviors of marriage-squeezed men. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this paper is to examine whether social discrimination is associated with marriage-squeezed men's engagement in the behaviors that threaten their own wellbeing and community safety. METHOD: Using individual-level data collected in Chaohu City, Anhui, this study employed binary logistic regression and linear regression to examine the impacts of discrimination on alcohol use disorder and suicidal ideation, respectively. Ordinary least squares regression was performed to predict the effects of discrimination on gambling and verbal conflict based on village-level data collected in 380 villages across 18 provinces in China. RESULTS: The results showed that self-reported discrimination was positively associated with incidence of alcohol use disorder and suicidal ideation among marriage-squeezed men; villagers' discrimination was also positively associated with the number of marriage-squeezed men in the village who often gambled or were in conflict with others. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence suggests that social discrimination is one important mechanism that triggers marriage-squeezed men to engage in risky behaviors that threaten self- and community safety. Commonly held stereotypes about rural bachelors is one of the reasons that causes marriage-squeezed men to pose a threat to public safety. It is necessary to develop and implement policies aimed at creating a friendly and tolerant social environment for marriage-squeezed men.

Understanding Bachelorhood in Poverty-stricken and High Sex Ratio Settings: An Exploratory Study in Rural Shaanxi, China.

Coupled with the social practice of female hypergamy, the male surplus within the never-married population means that today's Chinese marriage market is extremely tight in particular for men from a rural background and the least privileged socio-economic categories. Drawing on quantitative data from a survey conducted in 2014-2015, this article sheds light on the situation of single men who are past prime marriage age in three rural districts of Shaanxi particularly affected by this phenomenon. It compares single men's characteristics to those of their married counterparts and offers insights into the heterogeneity of single men with the aim of challenging some commonly accepted assumptions about bachelorhood in rural China. Results suggest a strong internalization of the various characteristics, centred on being able to offer social mobility to a potential wife, that a man is expected to have to be attractive to women in a context where women have more choice in mate selection. We conclude that mate selection is highly marked by class, social norms, social interactions, health, generation and age, and requires the mobilization of certain amounts of individual, social and economic resources. Unwanted bachelorhood would thus be better understood using an intersectional approach rather than mainly in numeric terms.

'Gendercide', abortion policy, and the disciplining of prenatal sex-selection in neoliberal Europe.

This article examines the contours of how sex-selective abortion (SSA) and 'gendercide' have been problematically combined within contemporary debates on abortion in Europe. Analysing the development of policies on the topic, we identify three 'turns' which have become integral to the biopolitics of SSA in Europe: the biomedical turn, the 'gendercide' turn, and the Asian demographic turn. Recent attempts to discipline SSA in the UK and Sweden are examined as a means of showing how the neoliberal state in Europe is becoming increasingly open to manoeuvres to undermine the right to abortion, even where firm laws exist.

Gender in relation to work motivation, satisfaction and use of day center services among people with psychiatric disabilities.

BACKGROUND: Day centres can prepare for open-market employment, and attendees' work motivation is key in this. AIMS: Adopting a gender perspective, this study investigated (1) motivation for day centre attendance, satisfaction with the day centre services, number of hours spent there, and number and type of occupations performed; and (2) whether those factors were related with motivation for open-market employment. METHODS: Women (n = 164) and men (n = 160) with psychiatric disabilities completed self-report questionnaires. RESULTS: There were no gender differences regarding satisfaction with the day centre services or number of hours spent there, but women engaged in more occupations. More women than men performed externally-oriented services and textile work, while men were in the majority in workshops. Externally oriented services, working in workshops, and low satisfaction with the day centre services were associated with higher motivation for employment. Women and men were equally motivated for employment. Women scored higher on motivation for attending the day centre, something that may deter transition into open-market employment. For men, less motivation for attending day centres may reduce their possibilities of gaining skills that can facilitate transitioning to open-market employment. CONCLUSION: Thus, the possibility for transitioning from day centre activities to open-market employment may be gendered.

Gender and international crisis response: do we have the data, and does it matter?

For more than a decade the humanitarian community has been mandated to mainstream gender in its response to crises. One element of this mandate is a repeated call for sex-disaggregated data to help guide the response. This study examines available analyses, assessments and academic literature to gain insights into whether sex-disaggregated data are generated, accessible and utilised, and appraised what can be learned from existing data. It finds that there is a gap between policy and practice. Evaluations of humanitarian responses rarely refer to data by sex, and there seems to be little accountability to do so. Yet existing data yield important information, pointing at practical, locally-specific measures to reduce the vulnerability of both males and females. This complements population-level studies noting the tendency for higher female mortality. The study discusses some possible obstacles for the generation of data and hopes to spur debate on how to overcome them.