Background: In Western settings, migration is associated with psychological well-being, but studies inevitably focus on culturally distinct ethnic minorities, making it difficult to distinguish migration from cultural assimilation. Many children in Hong Kong, a developed non-Western setting, have migrant parents with the same Chinese ethnicity. This study examined the association of migration with the child's psychological well-being in Hong Kong.
Methods: Multivariable linear regression was used in Hong Kong's 'Children of 1997' Chinese birth cohort to examine the adjusted associations of migration (both parents Hong Kong born n=4285, both parents migrant n=1921, mother-only migrant n=462, father-only migrant n=1110) with a parent-reported Rutter score for child behaviour at ∼7 (n=6294, 80% follow-up) and ∼11 years (n=5598, 71% follow-up), self-reported Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventory score at ∼11 years (n=6937, 88% follow-up) and self-reported Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) depressive symptom score at ∼13 years (n=5797, 73% follow-up), adjusted for sex, highest parental education and occupation, household income, maternal and paternal age at birth, age of assessment and survey mode (PHQ-9 only).
Results: Migration was unrelated to the overall self-esteem or depressive symptoms, but both parents migrant was associated with better behaviour (lower Rutter scores) at ∼7 years (β-coefficient (β) -1.07, 95% CI -1.48 to -0.66) and ∼11 years (-0.89, 95% CI -1.33 to -0.45).
Conclusions: In a non-Western context, migration appeared to be protective for childhood behaviour.
Keywords: MIGRATION; PAEDIATRIC; PUBLIC HEALTH.
Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.