A man-made divide: Investigating the effect of urban–rural household registration and subjective social status on mental health mediated by loneliness among a large sample of university students in China

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Hui Yu¹  Shicun Xu⁴  Hui Li⁷  Xiaofeng Wang⁴  Qian Sun⁵  Yuanyuan Wang¹ 

[1]Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education, South China Normal University

[2]Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University

[3]Division of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, De Montfort University

[4]Northeast Asian Research Center, Jilin University

[5]Department of Population, Resources and Environment, Northeast Asian Studies College, Jilin University

[6]China Center for Aging Studies and Social-Economic Development, Jilin University

[7]School of Public Health, Jilin University

关键词: Rural - urban linkages;    lonelineness;    Anxiety;    depresion;    college & university students;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1012393

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Introduction: The urban-rural household registration system in China has been documented with profound social consequences in almost all areas of people’s life. This study aims to investigate the underlying mechanism of the rural and urban discrepancies on mental health conditions among a large sample of college students in China. Methods: A survey was distributed among college students in China. A total of 96,218 college students from 63 colleges completed the survey, answering questions on their urban-rural household registration, disposable household income, subjective social status, feelings of loneliness, and anxiety and depression symptoms. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analyses were conducted, testing the effect of urban-rural registration on one’s mental health, mediated by subjective social status, Results: Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) results revealed that the urban-rural household registration showed a direct effect on anxiety (B=-0.03, 95% CI [-0.038, -0.022], β=-0.03, p < .001) and depression (B= -0.03, 95% CI [-0.036, -0.024], β=-0.03, p < .001), indicating that rural household registration had a protective effect against anxiety and depression symptoms, albeit the standardised estimate being very small. The indirect path from the urban-rural registration mediated through subjective social status and loneliness to anxiety and depression was both significant, with B=0.01, 95% CI [0.010, 0.010], β=0.01, p < .001, and B=0.01, 95% CI [0.0090, 0.0090], β=0.01, p < .001 respectively. The results of the indirect paths demonstrated that students of the rural household registration reported higher anxiety and depression symptoms through a lower subjective social status and higher level of loneliness. Conclusions: This study indicated that decreasing the disparity of social status is the key to improve the overall mental health of college students. The urban-rural household registration system may have a very small direct effect on the college students’ mental health; but students of urban registration enjoyed higher subjective social status, which had a clear protective effect against anxiety and depression symptoms.

【 授权许可】

CC BY