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Is psychologically vulnerable rural-to-urban migrants' mental health further at stake under China's tightened COVID-19 measures: how should the government respond?

There is a well-documented scholarly discourse on how the COVID-19 outbreak adversely affects the mental health of Chinese nationals. However, there is little evidence revealing how the public health crisis negatively influenced the mental health of rural-to-urban migrants in China. The relevant lit...

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Autor principal: Hung, Jason
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10196139/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37214595
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1095810
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author Hung, Jason
author_facet Hung, Jason
author_sort Hung, Jason
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description There is a well-documented scholarly discourse on how the COVID-19 outbreak adversely affects the mental health of Chinese nationals. However, there is little evidence revealing how the public health crisis negatively influenced the mental health of rural-to-urban migrants in China. The relevant literature argues that rural-to-urban migrant workers and their dependents have been experiencing discrimination, exclusion, and stigmatization in the urban labor market and social space, thereby jeopardizing their mental health to a large extent. However, whether the COVID-19 outbreak and its associated consequences further compounded rural-to-urban migrant workers' mental health has rarely been discussed. Since 2010, the Chinese government has emphasized the importance of promoting positive mental health. Without identifying how COVID-19 specifically imposed mental health challenges on rural-to-urban migrant cohorts, Chinese policymakers cannot effectively and efficiently address the dilemmas faced by such vulnerable groups. The significant rural-to-urban migrant population (i.e. 291 million), alongside their disposition to encounter social and psychological challenges, prompts the urgency to develop this narrative essay to examine whether their mental health burdens worsened during the pandemic. The author also discusses remedies for the worsened mental issues faced by migrant cohorts, and recommends policies that local Chinese governments should adopt to mitigate the mental health burdens encountered by rural-to-urban migrants.
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spelling pubmed-101961392023-05-20 Is psychologically vulnerable rural-to-urban migrants' mental health further at stake under China's tightened COVID-19 measures: how should the government respond? Hung, Jason Front Sociol Sociology There is a well-documented scholarly discourse on how the COVID-19 outbreak adversely affects the mental health of Chinese nationals. However, there is little evidence revealing how the public health crisis negatively influenced the mental health of rural-to-urban migrants in China. The relevant literature argues that rural-to-urban migrant workers and their dependents have been experiencing discrimination, exclusion, and stigmatization in the urban labor market and social space, thereby jeopardizing their mental health to a large extent. However, whether the COVID-19 outbreak and its associated consequences further compounded rural-to-urban migrant workers' mental health has rarely been discussed. Since 2010, the Chinese government has emphasized the importance of promoting positive mental health. Without identifying how COVID-19 specifically imposed mental health challenges on rural-to-urban migrant cohorts, Chinese policymakers cannot effectively and efficiently address the dilemmas faced by such vulnerable groups. The significant rural-to-urban migrant population (i.e. 291 million), alongside their disposition to encounter social and psychological challenges, prompts the urgency to develop this narrative essay to examine whether their mental health burdens worsened during the pandemic. The author also discusses remedies for the worsened mental issues faced by migrant cohorts, and recommends policies that local Chinese governments should adopt to mitigate the mental health burdens encountered by rural-to-urban migrants. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-05-05 /pmc/articles/PMC10196139/ /pubmed/37214595 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1095810 Text en Copyright © 2023 Hung. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Sociology
Hung, Jason
Is psychologically vulnerable rural-to-urban migrants' mental health further at stake under China's tightened COVID-19 measures: how should the government respond?
title Is psychologically vulnerable rural-to-urban migrants' mental health further at stake under China's tightened COVID-19 measures: how should the government respond?
title_full Is psychologically vulnerable rural-to-urban migrants' mental health further at stake under China's tightened COVID-19 measures: how should the government respond?
title_fullStr Is psychologically vulnerable rural-to-urban migrants' mental health further at stake under China's tightened COVID-19 measures: how should the government respond?
title_full_unstemmed Is psychologically vulnerable rural-to-urban migrants' mental health further at stake under China's tightened COVID-19 measures: how should the government respond?
title_short Is psychologically vulnerable rural-to-urban migrants' mental health further at stake under China's tightened COVID-19 measures: how should the government respond?
title_sort is psychologically vulnerable rural-to-urban migrants' mental health further at stake under china's tightened covid-19 measures: how should the government respond?
topic Sociology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10196139/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37214595
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1095810
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