Perceived discrimination and psychological distress among Mainland Chinese immigrant women in Hong Kong: The indirect effects of tolerance of uncertainty and common dyadic coping.

OBJECTIVES: By studying Mainland Chinese immigrant women who married Hong Kong men, this study examined the association between their perceived discrimination and psychological distress after the 2019-2020 social movement in Hong Kong. Additionally, this study examined the indirect effects of individual coping strategies (tolerance of uncertainty) and couples' coping strategies (common dyadic coping), guided by the cultural and developmental psychopathology framework. METHOD: Ninety-nine Mainland Chinese immigrant women who married Hong Kong men participated in this cross-sectional survey. RESULTS: We found a positive association between perceived discrimination and psychological distress (r = .50, p < .01). Reduced uncertainty tolerance and low levels of common dyadic coping both showed indirect effects on the discrimination-psychological distress association. Tolerance of uncertainty had a larger indirect effect than common dyadic coping. CONCLUSIONS: Focusing on the psychological adjustment of immigrant women facing discrimination, our findings underscore the importance of preserving individual- and couple-level resources. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Two Parenting Interventions on Enhancing Parental Resilience Resources and Reducing Children's Problem Behaviors in Chinese Cross-Boundary Families: Positive Benefits and Moderation Effects.

Daily cross-boundary schooling between Shenzhen and Hong Kong constitutes a constant challenge for Chinese cross-boundary families in terms of parenting burden. To address their most urgent parenting needs, we adapted and evaluated two intervention approaches-improving emotional regulation and providing knowledge about Hong Kong. A cluster randomized controlled trial with repeated assessments (pre-, post-intervention, and one-month follow-up) was adopted to evaluate the intervention effects on the increases of parental resilience resources and reduction of children's problem behaviors. We further conducted moderation analyses to investigate whether parents with more increases in parental resilience resources would report a greater reduction in children's problem behaviors. A total of 214 mothers of cross-boundary families were randomly assigned to the emotional regulation arm (ER, n = 120) or the information provision arm (IP, n = 94). Both intervention arms showed positive effects on emotional regulation strategies, and the IP arm outperformed the ER arm in knowledge acquisition. Both arms showed significant and comparable improvements in parental self-efficacy and children's problem behaviors. Moreover, participants in the IP arm who reported more improvements in parental resilience resources showed a greater reduction in children's problem behaviors. By adapting two interventions to a new population of cross-boundary families, this trial extended the benefits from parents to children and demonstrated that the improvement of parental resilience resources makes a difference in reducing children's problem behaviors in the IP arm. Future studies are suggested to focus on parental resilience resources and maximize the benefits on children's outcomes.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Two Parent-Child Parallel Interventions to Enhance Positive Adaptation of Immigrant Families in Hong Kong: The Moderating Role of Depressive Symptoms.

Parents and children who have recently immigrated from the Chinese mainland to Hong Kong face various challenges, including psychological and sociocultural adaptation difficulties. In collaboration with community partners, our research team has developed and implemented culturally sensitive and preventive parent-child parallel interventions to enhance positive adaptation among immigrant parents and children. Two interventions were conducted in this randomized controlled trial: an emotion regulation (ER) arm, which addressed psychological adaptation by reducing parent-child conflicts and improving emotions, and an information provision (IP) arm targeting sociocultural adaptation by increasing participants' knowledge about Hong Kong. The study randomly assigned 113 and 73 parent-child pairs (allocation ratio 3:2) into the ER and IP arms, respectively. Parents and children attended four two-hour weekly sessions of their assigned intervention and completed assessments before, immediately after, and one month following the intervention. The results showed that in the ER arm, parents showed improved positive affect, and children reported decreases in parent-child conflicts more than their counterparts in the IP arm. In the IP arm, parents and children increased their knowledge, and parents decreased sociocultural adaptation difficulties more than their counterparts in the ER arm. In addition, the moderation analyses showed that in both interventions, parents and children with elevated baseline depressive symptoms obtained greater benefits relative to their counterparts with fewer symptoms. Such marked improvements were seen among parents in negative affect and adaptation difficulties and among children in parent-child conflict, positive and negative affect in the ER arm. More improvements were noted among parents in negative affect and sociocultural adaptation difficulties and among children in negative affect in the IP arm. Future studies are suggested to develop and provide parent-child parallel interventions targeting both psychological and sociocultural adaptations to parents and children with heightened baseline depressive symptoms to facilitate their positive adaptation in Hong Kong.

(In)congruence in child-mother relationships and depressive symptoms in cross-boundary families.

A large number of school-aged children traveling between Mainland China and Hong Kong every day to attend school are known as cross-boundary students (). Daily cross-boundary schooling is likely to be a constant challenge for cross-boundary students and their families, putting them at great risk of mental health problems (e.g., depression). Nevertheless, intergenerational relationships may be positive contributors to their adaptation. Guided by the interdependence theory and the operations triad model, this study employed dyadic response surface analysis to take into account linear and curvilinear associations between child-mother relationships and their depressive symptoms. The cross-sectional results based on 187 child-mother dyads showed that when children and mothers reported relatively high levels of closeness and relatively low levels of conflict, they reported fewer depressive symptoms. The extreme closeness between children and their mothers posed particular risks to mothers, increasing maternal depressive symptoms. When children and mothers reported varying levels of closeness and conflict, they displayed greater depressive symptoms. One exception was that no significant association was observed between incongruence in closeness and children's depressive symptoms. Family-based interventions should be considered for promoting optimal child-mother combinations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The More the Better, Only in the Longer Term: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate a Compound Intervention Among Mainland Chinese Immigrants in Hong Kong.

Barriers to adaptation faced by mainland Chinese immigrants to Hong Kong can be reduced by improving two targets of adaptation: information about negotiating their new environment and psychological well-being. We developed and evaluated a Compound intervention to address these two domains simultaneously and compared its effects to two separate interventions exclusively targeting either information about Hong Kong or psychological well-being. This cluster randomized controlled trial assigned 251 immigrants to an information provision arm (IP, n = 84) targeting knowledge and adaptation difficulties, a psychological well-being enhancement arm (WBE, n = 80) targeting resilience and mental health, or a Compound arm (i.e., IP + WBE, n = 87). The Compound arm showed stronger effects from baseline to postintervention on knowledge than the WBE arm. From postintervention to 6-month follow-up, the Compound arm showed better sustained effects on knowledge and adaptation difficulties than the IP arm and on resilience and mental health than the WBE arm. Additionally, participants in the Compound arm with more baseline depressive symptoms showed greater improvements in adaptation difficulties and general mental health than those with fewer symptoms. The study demonstrated the longer-term effectiveness of the Compound intervention and its greater benefits for immigrants with more depressive symptoms.