Intersectionality, mental health and Chinese people in the UK: a qualitative exploration
| Pages | 289-299 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/MHRJ-03-2017-0014 |
| Published date | 11 December 2017 |
| Date | 11 December 2017 |
| Author | Lynn Tang,David Pilgrim |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health |
Intersectionality, mental health
and Chinese people in the UK:
a qualitative exploration
Lynn Tang and David Pilgrim
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to provide qualitative evidence from the experience of Chinese
service users in the UK to expand the literature on the use of intersectionality analysis in research on the
mental health of ethnic minority groups.
Design/methodology/approach –Repeated in-depth life-history interviews were carried out with
22 participants. Interviews were analysed using the constant comparative method.
Findings –Four areas of life are identified for their possible negative impact on mental health for this minority
group: labour market and work conditions, marriage and family, education, and ageing. The findings illustrate
how these intersecting variables may shape the social conditions this ethnic minority group face. For this
ethnic minority group in the UK, inequalities can intersect at national as well as transnational level.
Originality/value –This paper highlights how power relations and structural inequalities including class,
gender, age and ethnicity could be drawn upon to understand the interplay of determinants of mental health
for ethnic minority groups. As the multi-factorial social forces are closely related to the emergence of poor
mental health, it is suggested that interventions to reduce mental health problems in ethnic minority
communities should be multi-level and not limited to individualised service responses.
Keywords Inequalities, Mental health, Intersectionality, UK Chinese
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Intersectionality analysis has been increasingly used in health research to understand diversity,
inequality, determinants of health and service use (Green et al., 2014; Hankivsky and
Christoffersen, 2008; Lane et al., 2010; Schulz and Mullings, 2006; Viruell-Fuentes et al., 2012).
The paradigm emerged from feminist studies; it responds to the early failure of second wave
feminism to recognise and theorise diversity in women’s experience, e.g. those of Black women
(e.g. Collins, 1998). It aims to avoid a simplistic additive way of understanding multiple identities
and seeks to understand differences and diversity in terms of power relations and inequalities.
In health research, intersectionality analysis is also now used in response to the evidence
of “super-diversity”arising from the complex population movement in a globalised world
(Green et al., 2014). Also it is a useful balancing framework to explanations of health status that
focus on structural and institutional factors alone (Viruell-Fuentes et al., 2012). Traditional social
structural explanations are not discounted but are augmented and nuanced by evidencing the
complexity in both the situated material contexts of minority groups and the particular lived
experiences of individuals they contain.
This paper aims to add to this body of literature by offering qualitative evidence that illuminates
the role intersectionality plays in one minority group. It explores how intersectionality is linked to
the mental health status of Chinese people in the UK, which contains older migrants and now
new generations of British-born Chinese. This community is often regarded, stereotypically,
as being able to cope with life readily because of its economic success. However, this discounts
Received 9 March 2017
Revised 4 July 2017
Accepted 26 July 2017
Lynn Tang is an Assistant
Professor at the School of Arts
and Humanities, Tung Wah
College, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
David Pilgrim is a Professor of
Health and Social Policy at the
Department of Sociology,
Social Policy and Criminology,
University of Liverpool,
Liverpool, UK.
DOI 10.1108/MHRJ-03-2017-0014 VOL. 22 NO. 4 2017, pp. 289-299, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1361-9322
j
MENTALHEALTH REVIEW JOURNAL
j
PAG E 28 9
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