Household migration, social support, and psychosocial health: The perspective from migrant-sending areas

• Published in: Social science & medicine (1982) 2012-01, Vol.74 (2), p.135-142
• Main Author: Lu, Yao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Data collection; Depression; Depression (Psychology); Emigration; Emigration and Immigration - statistics & numerical data; Emotional disorders; Families & family life; Family; Female; Gender; Health; Health Care Costs; Households; Humans; Indonesia; Indonesia - epidemiology; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Medical sciences; Mental health; Mental Health - statistics & numerical data; Middle Aged; Migrants; Migration; Miscellaneous; Mood disorders; Payments; Psychological Distress; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychosocial health; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Rural Population - statistics & numerical data; Sending areas; Sex Factors; Social Support; Socioeconomic Factors; Stress; Stress, Psychological - epidemiology; Stress, Psychological - etiology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0277-9536; 1873-5347
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.10.020

An extensive literature demonstrates various negative health consequences of family disruption in Western societies, which is largely due to marital dissolution. In developing settings, family disruption commonly arises in the context of labor out-migration. However, studies on household emigration often focus on the economic benefits from remittances, overlooking emigration as a source of stress and loss of social support. This research examines the psychosocial consequences of internal out-migration using longitudinal survey data collected in Indonesia between 1993 and 2007. Results demonstrate considerable psychosocial costs of out-migration, with adults left behind by migrants more susceptible to stress-related health impairments such as hypertension and to psychological distress such as depressive symptoms. These findings largely hold when specific relations are investigated, including spouses left behind and parents left behind by adult children. This study also finds some support for the stress-buffering role of social support from extended families and the differential psychosocial processes for men and women. ► Adults left behind in migrant-sending households in Indonesia are more vulnerable to psychosocial health disorders. ► This adverse effect can be buffered by social support from extended families. ► The psychosocial process related to emigration varies for men and women.