Mental Health Symptoms Among Rural-to-urban Migrants in China: a Comparison with Their Urban and Rural Counterparts

Objective: To examine the mental health symptoms among rural-to-urban migrants in China, in comparison with representative samples of their counterparts in the rural areas from where they emigrated and urban communities to which they immigrated.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey conducted in 2004-2005 in China. Both rural-to-urban migrants (n=1006) and urban residents (n=1000) were recruited in Beijing; the rural resident sample (n=1020) was recruited from the eight provinces of origin for 75% of the migrant sample. Mental health symptoms were measured using the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90).

Results: Both rural-to-urban migrants and rural residents scored higher than urban residents in all the SCL-90 global indices and subscales. The rural-to-urban migrants scored higher than rural residents on the SCL-90 Positive Symptom Distress Index and two subscales (depression and psychoticism). The difference remained significant after controlling for a number of key individual characteristics (age, gender, marital status, education, income and perceived general health) in the multivariate model.

Conclusions: The data in the current study demonstrate that rural-to-urban migrants suffer from lower mental health status than both urban residents in the immigrating communities and their rural counterparts in the emigrating communities. The data suggest a possible deteriorative effect of migratory experience on mental health status among rural-to-urban migrants in China and suggest an urgent need for etiological studies and for mental health promotion and prevention efforts among this growing population.