Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T19:14:11.435Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Psychological Adjustment of the Chinese Community in Britain

A Study of Two Generations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Ying Har Li
Affiliation:
University College, London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT

Abstract

The psychological health and adjustment to life in Britain of a sample of first- and second-generation Chinese immigrants were measured. It was predicted that problems with the English language, inadequate social support, value differences, and unfulfilled expectations would induce more symptoms of psychological distress and depression in first-generation than in second-generation Chinese immigrants. Overall psychological hearth, and hence adjustment, was good. There was evidence for language problems and unfulfilled expectations, but not social support and value differences, being linked to mental health in the second generation. Evidence linking mental health to other personal variables was found in both generations.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beck, A. Y. (1987) Depression. London: Staples Press.Google Scholar
Bhacu, P. (1985) Twice Migrants. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Broady, M. (1955) The social adjustment of Chinese immigrants in Liverpool. Sociological Review, 3, 6575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, A. (1986) Employment Prospects of Chinese Youth in Britain: A Research Report. London: Commission for Racial Equality.Google Scholar
Chan, D. & Chan, T. (1983) Reliability, validity, and structure of the General Health Questionnaire in a Chinese context. Psychological Medicine, 15, 147155.Google Scholar
Cochrane, R. (1983) The Social Creation of Mental Illness. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Cochrane, R. & Stopes-Roe, A. (1981) Psychological symptom levels in Indian immigrants to England – a comparison with native English. Psychological Medicine, 11, 319327.Google Scholar
Furnham, A. & Bochner, S. (1990) Culture Shock. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jones, D. (1979) The Chinese in Britain: origins and development of a community. New Community, 7, 397401.Google Scholar
Kleinman, A. (1977) Depression, somatisation and the new cross-cultural psychology. Social Science and Medicine, 11, 310.Google Scholar
Kleinman, A. (1979) Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture: An Exploration of the Borderland between Anthropology, Medicine and Psychiatry. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Kuo, W. H. & Tsai, Y. M. (1986) Social networking, hardiness and immigrants' mental health. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, 27, 133149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langner, T. (1962) A 22-item screening scale of psychiatric symptoms indicating impairment. Journal of Health and Human Behaviour, 11, 269279.Google Scholar
Lin, L., Tazuma, L. & Masuda, M. (1979) Adaptational problems of Vietnamese refugees: I. Health and mental status. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 955961.Google Scholar
Littlewood, R. & Lipsedge, M. (1982) Aliens and Alienists. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Oberg, K. (1960) Culture shock: adjustments to new cultural environments. Practical Anthropology, 7, 177182.Google Scholar
Parker, S., Kleiner, R. & Needelman, B. (1969) Migration and Mental Illness: some reconsideration and suggestions for further analysis. Social Science and Medicine, 3, 19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Price, C. A. (1983) Discussion on the causes of invaliding from the Tropics. British Medical Journal, 2, 12901297.Google Scholar
Shek, D. (1987) Reliability of factor structure of the Chinese version of the General Health Questionnaire. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 43, 683691.Google Scholar
Rack, P. (1982) Race, Culture and Mental Disorder. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Tseng, W. (1975) The nature of somatic complaints among psychiatric patients: the Chinese case. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 16, 237245.Google Scholar
Watson, J. L. (1977) The Chinese: Hong Kong villagers in the British catering trade. In Between Two Cultures – Migration and Minorities in Britain (ed. Watson, J.). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wong, G. & Cochrane, R. (1989) Generation and assimilation as predictors of psychological well being in British-Chinese. Social Behaviour, 4, 114.Google Scholar
Yao, E. (1979) The assimilation of contemporary Chinese immigrants. Journal of Psychology, 101, 197213.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.