Many citizens participated in the movement, which was led by youths and might have increased the general public's mental distress. Negative personal responses to the movement and emotions toward political situations were potential risk factors. As the political tension would last and political pessimism is globally found, politics may have become a regular and persistent structural risk factor negatively affecting population mental health.

Objective: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted many people's life. Negative impacts of pandemic measures and economic hardship on psychological well-being are common among the global populations. In Hong Kong, the pandemic not only affects the local populations, but also the migrant Filipina domestic helpers (FDH). Despite the distress, evidence suggests that people still experience positive changes (aka adversarial growth) amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect the same applies to FDH in Hong Kong. Studies have shown that coping resources (e.g., resilience, social support, literacy of trauma-related information), cognitive appraisal, and coping strategies are associated with adversarial growth among individuals living with highly stressful events. Relevant studies for migrant populations in the COVID-19 context are limited. This study examined the psychosocial correlates of adversarial growth among FDH in Hong Kong. Method: By convenient sampling, FDH (N = 266) recruited from public gathering venues were asked to complete a cross-sectional survey. Their COVID-19-related distress, work-related stress, COVID-19 information literacy, emotional and material support, resilience, cognitive appraisals (harm, threat, challenge), and coping strategies (religious coping, positive reframing, acceptance) were measured. Results: Controlled for covariates, hierarchical regression results showed that higher levels of resilience (b = .21), emotional support (b = .16), COVID-19-related information literacy (b = .15), and religious coping (b = .16) were associated with higher adversarial growth (ps , .05). Conclusions: FDH in Hong Kong reported positive changes amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on our findings, facilitating those FDH's resilience, emotional support, COVID-19 information literacy, and religious coping might be important strategies to enhance their adversarial growth. Clinical Impact StatementAmid the COVID-19 pandemic, needs of migrant workers (including Filipina domestic helpers in Hong Kong) are largely neglected. Despite the distress experienced, those domestic helpers did report positive changes during this difficult time. The study also found that resilience, received emotional support, COVID-19 information literacy, and religious coping were associated with higher adversarial growth among those domestic helpers. Practitioners may pay more attention to the roles of resilience, emotional support, COVID-19 information literacy, and religious coping when designing interventions to enhance adversarial growth among those domestic helpers.

The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacts psychological well-being (e.g., anxiety symptoms) among the general population of Hong Kong and migrant Filipina domestic helpers (FDHs). Having to live with the employers by law, FDHs’ working environment might affect their well-being during COVID-19 (e.g., household crowdedness/size, insufficiency of protective equipment against COVID-19, increased workload). Research has suggested that coping resources (e.g., social support, COVID-19-related information literacy) and COVID-19-specific worries are associated with people’s well-being during COVID-19. This study examined the psychosocial correlates of probable anxiety among FDHs in Hong Kong amid the COVID-19 pandemic. By purposive sampling, FDHs (n = 295) were recruited and invited to complete a cross-sectional survey. Participants’ working environment (crowdedness, household size), COVID-19 job arrangements (workload, provision of protective equipment), coping resources (social support, COVID-19 information literacy), COVID-19-specific worries (contracting COVID-19, getting fired if contracting COVID-19), and anxiety symptoms were measured. Multivariate regression results showed that the insufficiency of protective equipment (OR = 1.58, 95%CI: 1.18, 2.11), increased workload (OR = 1.51, 95%CI: 1.02, 2.25), and worries about being fired if getting COVID-19 (OR = 1.32, 95%CI: 1.04, 1.68) were significantly associated with probable anxiety. This was one of the earliest studies to indicate that job arrangements and COVID-19-specific worries significantly contributed to FDHs’ anxiety symptoms. Our findings shed light on the importance of addressing employment-related rights and pandemic-specific worries through interventions among FDHs in Hong Kong during pandemic situations.

Albizia julibrissin Durazz. is one of the most common herbs used for depression and anxiety treatment, but its molecular basis and mechanism of action as an antidepressant or anxiolytic drug are not understood. In this study, we separated and identified two lignan glycosides that inhibit serotonin transporter (SERT) noncompetitively by decreasing Vmax with little change in Km for its fluorescence substrate. In addition, treatment with lignan glycosides did not alter total and cell surface expression levels of the transporter protein. The two compounds decreased the accessibility of a cysteine residue placed in the extracellular substrate permeation pathway by inducing a conformational shift toward an outward-closed state of SERT. These results are consistent with molecular docking for the association of the lignan glycosides to the allosteric site in SERT. The present work supports the proposal that these compounds act on SERT by a novel underlying mechanism of action different from that of conventional antidepressant drugs.