| Abstract: | Based on a resilience perspective, this study attempted to explorethe risk and protective factors influencing the mental healthof immigrant and local youths in Hong Kong. A structured questionnairewhich consisted of The Chinese Adolescents Life Events Checklist,The Perceived Satisfaction of Social Support Scale and The BriefSymptoms Inventory was used. Two hundred and ten local and immigrantyouths between the age of 15 and 20 were individually interviewedby the trained interviewers. Contrary to our hypotheses, thefindings revealed that immigrant youth had better mental healthand similar levels of stress than local youth. Moreover, peersupport was found to exert a strong impact on the mental healthof immigrant youth. While ‘Interpersonal relationshipdifficulties’ was identified as a common risk factor facedby local and immigrant youths, immigrant youth faced additionalrisk factors in relation to a change to a new school and parentalconflicts. On the other hand, endurance of hardship, socialcompetence and peer support were considered as the protectivefactors that might be associated with better mental health inimmigrant youth. The implications of this study included: toadopt a resilience perspective to understand the protectivemechanisms that enhance the mental health of immigrant youth;to develop a national strategy to build up the interpersonalrelationship skills of youth in a society; and to organize specificprogrammes to strengthen the peer system and tackle parentalconflicts in immigrant youths. |
