Abstract
This study explored the interactions between parents' attitudes towards young people's mental health and the Chinese sociocultural context, using labelling theory and the ecological systems model. An online qualitative survey involving a sample of 126 Chinese parents was conducted. Through sequential content analysis and thematic analysis, results illustrated that Confucianist family relationship patterns, the one-child policy, anomie and public stigma all contributed to parents' paradoxical attitudes. Parents with diagnosed children reported less stereotypical attitudes and more detailed reflections on causal attributions regarding mental health difficulties. However, parents commonly reported internalised stigma and helplessness in terms of coping strategies due to common constraining sociocultural factors. Findings highlighted that the label of mental health difficulties remained a stigmatising concept that categorised young people as abnormal even when parents were aware of the existence of stigma. Parents also showed limited incentives to directly support children's mental health due to their dependency on young people's future success for caring. Implications for improving parental support and public education surrounding mental health are discussed.