The interaction of social capital, life stress index and gender on mental health education for internal migrants: based on the China Migrant Population Dynamics Survey in 2017

Background: China has about 240 million internal migrants(IMs), and they face lots of mental health risks. The government is actively promoting mental health education for IMs. Previous studies have focused more on the relation between social capital and mental health, but ignored the impact of social capital on the accessibility to mental health services.Methods: Data from the China Migrant Dynamic Survey of 2017, involving 138939 IMs in 31 provinces were used to explore the interaction of social capital, life stress index and gender on acceptance of mental health education(AMHE). Social capital was divided into cognitive(CSC) and structural social capital (SSC). Multiple line charts and multi-level logistic regression were conducted to analyze their impacts on AMHE, and whether such impacts were moderated by gender and life stress index(LSI). Results: The results suggest: (1) The SSC ranking of IMs with different LSI levels was "moderate (3.62 ± 1.736), mild(3.53 ± 1.755), severe(3.53 ± 1.755)", SSC was positively correlated with AMHE(OR=1.320, 95%CI 1.305 to 1.336), but the correlation would decrease with the increase of LSI(OR=0.969, 95%CI 0.953 to 0.985; OR=0.949, 95%CI 0.934 to 0.964); (2) Males’ SSC(3.67 ± 1.780) was significantly higher than that of females(3.36 ± 1.614), but its influence on AMHE of females was higher(OR=1.050, 95%CI 1.036 to 1.064); (3) The CSC ranking of IMs with different LSI levels was "mild(3.71 ± 2.096), moderate(3.71 ± 2.076), severe(3.42 ± 2.024)", there was no significant gender difference in CSC, and CSC was positively correlated with AMHE(OR=1.087, 95%CI 1.076 to 1.098), but gender and LSI had no significant moderating effect on it.Conclution: Gender and LSI were associated with social capital, but only the relationship between SSC and AMHE was moderated by them. SSC had both a main effect and a buffering effect, while CSC only showed a main effect. The government should pay attention to enhancing their positive identity to the city and at the same time improve their civic participation and social participation.