Erasmus School of Health Policy and Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Aging Ment Health. 2021 Oct;25(10):1950-1958. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2020.1774739. Epub 2020 Jun 1.
Members of the baby boom cohorts had fewer children than their parents. Given that adult children are an important source of social support in later life, this may have implications for the mental health of new cohorts of older people. This study investigates whether having additional children protects white mothers aged 65 and older against mental health problems.
Data are from Wave 1 and Wave 5 of the National Health and Aging Trends Study ( = 3,845). An instrumental variable approach exploiting the preference for mixed-sex offspring is used to estimate the causal effect of additional children on the risk of elevated depression and anxiety symptomatology.
The estimated instrumental variable model shows that additional children reduce the risk of suboptimal mental health among white mothers aged 65 and older.
Results suggest that declines in higher-order births may put new cohorts of older women at increased risk of suboptimal mental health.
婴儿潮一代的生育子女数少于他们的父母。鉴于成年子女是晚年重要的社会支持来源，这可能对新的老年人群体的心理健康产生影响。本研究调查了拥有更多子女是否能保护 65 岁及以上的白人母亲免受心理健康问题的困扰。
数据来自国家健康老龄化趋势研究的第 1 波和第 5 波（n=3845）。利用对混合性别后代的偏好来利用工具变量方法来估计更多子女对抑郁和焦虑症状升高风险的因果效应。
估计的工具变量模型表明，更多的子女降低了 65 岁及以上白人母亲心理健康不佳的风险。
结果表明，较高顺位生育的下降可能使新的老年女性群体面临更差心理健康的风险增加。
