School of Social Work, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
School of Public Management, College of Public Administration and Law, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha City, Hunan, China.
Int Psychogeriatr. 2020 Feb;32(2):217-227. doi: 10.1017/S1041610219000528. Epub 2019 Jun 10.
More people remain in the workforce into their late life as people's life expectancy increases. This study examined the relationship between work stress and depressive symptoms of older workers in mainland China, focusing on the interplay between work stress with family and community factors in three (i.e., urban, rural, and migrant) settings.
National representative survey data on the Chinese labor force collected by the Social Science Research Center of Sun-Yetsen University in 2014 were used. The sample consisted of 5,751 workers aged 50 and above recruited from 29 out of 31 provinces in mainland China.
Work stress had a consistent and robust effect on depressive symptoms across older worker groups. Moreover, it interacted with family and community factors differentially in three settings. For migrant older workers, work stress was a dominant factor affecting their depressive symptoms. Among rural older workers, the influence of work stress on depressive symptoms depended on their family debt and neighborhood cohesion levels.
Stressors from work, family, and community comprised a general model that explains depressive symptoms in Chinese older workers. Interventions or service programs aimed at reducing work stress and improving mental health among older adults should consider the complexity of intertwining family and community dynamics as well as respective strengths in urban, rural, and migrant communities.
随着人们预期寿命的延长，越来越多的人在晚年仍留在工作岗位上。本研究考察了中国大陆老年工作者的工作压力与抑郁症状之间的关系，重点关注工作压力与家庭和社区因素在三种（城市、农村和流动）环境中的相互作用。
本研究使用中山大学社会科学研究中心于 2014 年收集的关于中国劳动力的全国代表性调查数据。样本由来自中国大陆 31 个省中的 29 个省份的 5751 名 50 岁及以上的工人组成。
工作压力对老年工人群体的抑郁症状具有一致且强大的影响。此外，它在三种环境中与家庭和社区因素存在不同的相互作用。对于流动老年工人，工作压力是影响其抑郁症状的主要因素。在农村老年工人中，工作压力对抑郁症状的影响取决于其家庭债务和邻里凝聚力水平。
工作、家庭和社区的压力源构成了一个通用模型，解释了中国老年工人的抑郁症状。旨在减轻老年人口工作压力和改善心理健康的干预措施或服务计划，应考虑家庭和社区动态交织的复杂性以及城市、农村和流动人口社区各自的优势。
