The Effect of the Intergenerational Interconnectedness of Multilevel Resilience Factors on Anxiety of Newly Arrived Mother–Child Dyads in Hong Kong: Research into Practice

Abstract

Since the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, more than 1.1 million Chinese mainland residents have migrated to Hong Kong, with approximately 70% being spouses (mainly wives) and children of Hong Kong residents. The multilevel stressors associated with immigration significantly increase the risk of anxiety in newly arrived mothers and children in Hong Kong. Resilience has been shown to exert prominent protective effects on anxiety. Researchers have proposed a multisystemic resilience framework, which underscores the importance of interconnected resilience factors at different levels in assisting individuals in regaining, sustaining, and improving their emotional well-being when challenged by adversities. However, this model overlooks intergenerational resilience interplay in mother–child dyads, the most common unit immigrating from the Chinese mainland to Hong Kong. Therefore, this thesis aims to systematically examine a) the effects of the interconnectedness of resilience factors at individual, dyadic, and family levels of mother and children to protect against their anxiety, b) intergenerational dependence in mother–child resilience, c) the reciprocal alleviation of anxiety in mother–child dyads, and d) the effects of a pragmatic mother–child parallel emotion regulation intervention on anxiety alleviation.

Study 1 aimed to provide qualitative evidence for the intergenerational interconnectedness of multilevel resilience factors of mothers and children and the mother–child resilience transmission contributing to the reciprocal alleviation of their anxiety. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 newly arrived mother–child dyads. The results showed that mothers and children not only mobilized their own but also each other’s resilience factors at the individual, dyadic, family, and social-environmental levels to manage stressors and mitigate anxiety. Further, the results identified a mother–child resilience transmission pattern, characterized by the Mothers Steering, where the mothers played a navigating role in nurturing the children’s development and sustaining family functioning, and the Children Propelling, where the children played a motivating role in activating the mothers’ hope to persevere in life and inspiring them to make positive changes. More importantly, the results indicated that the reduction of anxiety in either mothers or children would have a cascading effect, leading to a reduction in anxiety in the other party.

Study 2 aimed to provide quantitative evidence for the effects of interactions between individual and dyadic, as well as individual and family resilience factors, on protecting against anxiety in mothers and children. Based on data collected from the cross-sectional survey of 200 newly arrived mother–child dyads, I used the actor–partner interdependence moderation model to analyze the dyadic data and moderation effects. The results showed that interactions between multilevel resilience factors protected mothers and children against anxiety. More importantly, the results demonstrated protective intergenerational effects from mothers to children. Specifically, mothers’ individual resilience interacted with mothers’ and children’s dyadic resilience, as well as mothers’ family resilience, while children’s individual resilience interacted with mothers’ family resilience to protect against children’s anxiety. Furthermore, the results indicated bidirectional resilience interdependence in mother–child dyads.

Studies 1 and 2 provide empirical evidence for the development of mother–child parallel interventions to reduce anxiety. Study 3 examined the effectiveness of the parallel emotion regulation intervention in reducing anxiety symptoms among mothers and children and tested how individual, dyadic, and family resilience factors would strengthen the intervention’s effects. The researchers and community stakeholders collaborated to develop and conduct community-based mother–child parallel intervention programs. In this randomized controlled trial, mother–child dyads were randomly assigned to one of two intervention arms: an emotion regulation arm aimed at strengthening the utilization of emotion regulation strategies and decreasing anxiety symptoms or an information provision arm that acted as an active control arm aimed at increasing knowledge about Hong Kong. Mothers and children participated in four 2-hour weekly sessions for each intervention and completed measurements before, immediately after, and one month after the intervention. The findings indicated that mothers and children in the emotion regulation arm (n = 109 dyads) demonstrated enhanced utilization of emotion regulation strategies and reduced anxiety symptoms from baseline to the one-month follow-up. Nevertheless, these enhancements did not significantly differ from those observed in the information provision arm. Mothers and children in the information provision arm (n = 71 dyads) obtained more knowledge about Hong Kong than their counterparts in the emotion regulation arm. Furthermore, mothers and children in the emotion regulation arm with lower levels of individual, dyadic, and family resilience reported a greater increase in emotion regulation strategy utilization and a greater decrease in anxiety (mother only) than those with higher resilience at the three levels.

This thesis extends the multisystemic resilience framework from a mother–child dyadic perspective by highlighting the intergenerational interconnectedness of resilience factors at the individual, dyadic, and family levels on protecting against anxiety of newly arrived mother–child dyads in Hong Kong. The findings have implications for community stakeholders and practitioners in developing and providing mother–child parallel interventions that emphasize the multilevel resilience factors to vulnerable mother–child dyads to promote their emotional well-being.

Date of Award	6 May 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Xiaonan Nancy YU (Supervisor)