Williams Lindy, Zhang Renling, Packard Kevin C
Department of Development Sociology, Warren Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
International Labour Organizations Country Office for China and Mongolia, 1-10 Tayuan Diplomatic Office Building, Beijing 100600, PR China.
SSM Popul Health. 2016 Nov 24;3:20-36. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2016.11.005. eCollection 2017 Dec.
Evidence is accumulating about the association between strong family ties and the emotional and physical welfare of older adults, and researchers have identified negative consequences of being unmarried, being childless, and/or living alone. These associations have been recognized in multiple contexts, including in Asia where living with a spouse and/or grown children has been shown in some studies to improve elderly well-being. Social support, especially family support, is expected to continue to be important where populations are aging and social safety nets are weak. Using longitudinal data from the 2010 and 2012 waves of the China Family Panel Studies, we focus on the effects of marital status at times 1 and 2, changes in marital status between the two surveys, and other family-related indicators of social connectedness on ratings of depression, levels of life satisfaction, and self-reported physical health among those aged 50 and over. Our sample includes 9831 respondents who have valid data on wellbeing indicators for Wave 1 and Wave 2, as well as complete information on the other covariates controlled in our analysis. In analyses of the full sample, those who were married at both points in time reported lower scores than those who were never-married, divorced, or widowed at both time points, and those whose unions dissolved in the interval. Those who were married at both times also generally reported greater levels of than those who were never married at both time points and those who became divorced during the interval. Important underlying gender differences are observed both for life satisfaction and depression. In addition, those who were married at both time points reported being in better than those who became widowed during the interval (significant primarily for women), and those who had never been married (significant primarily for men). Our study contributes to the literature on social ties and the wellbeing by highlighting the importance of marital status and changing marital status, net of child co-residence and proximity, in China.
越来越多的证据表明，紧密的家庭关系与老年人的情感和身体健康之间存在关联，研究人员已经确定了未婚、无子女和/或独居的负面影响。这些关联在多种背景下都得到了认可，包括在亚洲，一些研究表明与配偶和/或成年子女同住可以提高老年人的幸福感。在人口老龄化且社会安全网薄弱的情况下，社会支持，尤其是家庭支持，预计仍将至关重要。利用中国家庭追踪调查2010年和2012年两轮的纵向数据，我们关注时间1和时间2的婚姻状况、两次调查之间婚姻状况的变化，以及其他与家庭相关的社会联系指标对50岁及以上人群的抑郁评分、生活满意度水平和自我报告的身体健康的影响。我们的样本包括9831名受访者，他们在第1轮和第2轮中拥有关于幸福指标的有效数据，以及我们分析中控制的其他协变量的完整信息。在对全样本的分析中，在两个时间点都已婚的人报告的得分低于在两个时间点都未婚、离婚或丧偶的人，以及在间隔期婚姻关系解除的人。在两个时间点都已婚的人通常也比在两个时间点都未婚的人和在间隔期离婚的人报告更高的生活满意度。在生活满意度和抑郁方面都观察到了重要的潜在性别差异。此外，在两个时间点都已婚的人报告的健康状况比在间隔期丧偶的人（主要对女性有显著影响）和从未结婚的人（主要对男性有显著影响）更好。我们的研究通过强调在中国婚姻状况和婚姻状况变化（不考虑子女共同居住和亲近程度）对社会关系和幸福感的重要性，为相关文献做出了贡献。
