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Gender norms, roles and relations differentially affect women, men, and non-binary individuals' vulnerability to disease. Outbreak response measures also have immediate and long-term gendered effects. However, gender-based analysis of outbreaks and responses is limited by lack of data and little integration of feminist analysis within global health scholarship. Recognising these barriers, this paper applies a gender matrix methodology, grounded in feminist political economy approaches, to evaluate the gendered effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and response in four case studies: China, Hong Kong, Canada, and the UK. Through a rapid scoping of documentation of the gendered effects of the outbreak, it applies the matrix framework to analyse findings, identifying common themes across the case studies: financial discrimination, crisis in care, and unequal risks and secondary effects. Results point to transnational structural conditions which put women on the front lines of the pandemic at work and at home while denying them health, economic and personal security – effects that are exacerbated where racism and other forms of discrimination intersect with gender inequities. Given that women and people living at the intersections of multiple inequities are made additionally vulnerable by pandemic responses, intersectional feminist responses should be prioritised at the beginning of any crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting cross‐cultural adaptation and social interactions among diverse cultural groups in multicultural societies has long been a focus of social and cross‐cultural psychologists. However, such research is scant in an East Asian context where acculturation and intercultural encounters are now taking place. This study examines how acculturation expectations and strategies of assimilation and integration of the host majority (Hongkongers; N = 476) and immigrant groups (Africans; N = 215) shape adaptation and social interaction in the sociocultural context of Hong Kong. The mediation roles of perceived discrimination and multicultural ideologies were tested in these relationships. The results revealed that integration strategies are linked with psychological adaptation, whereas assimilation is linked with sociocultural adaptation difficulties for the immigrant group. For the host majority group, assimilation expectations were related to increased sociocultural adaptation difficulty, while a negative relationship emerged between integration expectations and sociocultural adaptation difficulty. Additional mediation analyses demonstrated that perceived discrimination and multicultural ideologies explain a significant proportion of variance in acculturation orientations and the intention to avoid interactions with the respective cultural groups. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings for Africans and Hongkongers relationship are discussed. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Affiliate stigma of family caregivers may severely influence family caregiving, early treatment, and recovery of people with mental illness (PMI), and it may be impacted by the knowledge of mental illness and contact with PMI. However, little is known about the correlation between affiliate stigma of family caregivers of PMI and contact in Hong Kong. Aims: This study aimed to investigate affiliate stigma and its influencing factors among family caregivers of PMI in Hong Kong. Methods: A total of 106 family caregivers in Hong Kong participated in the study. The measurements included affiliate stigma, contacts (quantity, quality, and level), knowledge, prejudice, and discriminatory behaviors. Multiple regression analyses were employed. Results: The mean score of affiliate stigma scale (ASS) in family caregivers was 2.17 (SD = 0.65). In regression analyses, the results showed that contact quantity and contact level were significantly associated with higher affiliate stigma and its cognitive domain, while contact quality (e.g. positive contact) were significantly associated with lower affiliate stigma and its all domains among family caregivers. The positive relationship between prejudicial attitudes and affiliate stigma was also found. Conclusions: Affiliate stigma is severe among family caregivers of PMI in Hong Kong. The results of this study indicate that contact, especially positive contact, contributes to reducing affiliate stigma among family caregivers of PMI. The results of this study are important for development of health policy on reducing stigma in family caregivers of PMI. The effectiveness of Enhancing Contact Model (ECM) should be examined in future anti-stigma interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although knowledge is a crucial component in contact theory delineating how prejudice changes toward out-groups with stigmatized conditions, little is known about the mediating role of knowledge on contact, stigmatizing attitudes, and behaviors toward mental illness. Aim: This study aimed to examine the mechanism underlie contact and stigma change by knowledge. Methods: A total of 366 participants including family members (FM), mental health providers (MHP), and community residents (CR) recruited across communities in Hong Kong and completed measures of contact level, contact quantity, contact quality, mental health related knowledge, prejudice, and discriminatory behaviors. Structural equation modeling was adopted to test the association among the key variables. Results: Higher level of contact was significantly correlated with better knowledge, less prejudice, and less discriminatory behaviors. Knowledge was directly and negatively correlated with prejudicial attitudes but was not significantly related to discriminatory behaviors. Furthermore, lower levels of prejudice were associated with less discriminatory behaviors. Conclusion: Enhancement of contact may increase understanding toward people with mental illness (PMI) and diminish stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors. Although prejudicial attitudes may be reduced by broadening mental health knowledge, increasing knowledge only might not ameliorate discriminatory behaviors. Future research should test mediators on contact and stigma by using longitudinal data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]