Wang Enjian, Hu Hongwei, He Yongjia, Xu Yang
School of Humanities and Social Sciences, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, P.R. China.
School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China, Beijing, P.R. China.
Health Soc Care Community. 2021 Mar;29(2):476-486. doi: 10.1111/hsc.13108. Epub 2020 Jul 23.
Shidu parents (parents who lost their only child) experience poor mental health, and social support is expected to alleviate mental stress and facilitate mental adaptation of bereaved parents. However, the literatures on the effects of social support on mental health of bereaved parents have yield mixed outcomes, and the relationship between social support and mental health among Shidu parents has been unexplored in China. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between social support and mental health among Shidu parents in China. Multistage stratified random sampling was conducted to collect data in 2017, and a total of 1,750 Shidu parents were employed as the analytical sample. The Ordinary Least Squares Model and Instrumental Variables (IV) Method were both employed. The variable of community services for the aged provided by the market was employed as the IV of the study considering death taboo inveterately rooted in philosophies and religions in Chinese culture. The results indicated that there was a positive relationship between social support and mental health among Shidu parents, specifically, objective social support and social support utilisation were significantly related to mental health of Shidu parents, while subjective social support was not. Implications of the study include the following: First, it is crucial to help spouse and friends gain appropriate social support skills. Mutual associations can be an important source of social support. Second, objective social support should be given a top priority, and suitable amount, timing, source and structure of social support should be paid more attention to strengthen the 'goodness of fit' between the needs of Shidu parents and support provided. Third, some other social services such as community care, social work services and professional consulting services can be appropriate alternatives to alleviate mental stress of Shidu parents.
失独父母（失去独生子女的父母）心理健康状况不佳，社会支持有望缓解其心理压力并促进他们的心理调适。然而，关于社会支持对失独父母心理健康影响的文献结果不一，在中国，失独父母的社会支持与心理健康之间的关系尚未得到探讨。本研究旨在考察中国失独父母的社会支持与心理健康之间的关系。2017年采用多阶段分层随机抽样收集数据，共1750名失独父母作为分析样本。同时采用了普通最小二乘法模型和工具变量法。考虑到中国文化中哲学和宗教中根深蒂固的死亡禁忌，将市场提供的老年社区服务变量作为本研究的工具变量。结果表明，失独父母的社会支持与心理健康之间存在正相关关系，具体而言，客观社会支持和社会支持利用与失独父母的心理健康显著相关，而主观社会支持则不然。本研究的启示包括：第一，帮助配偶和朋友获得适当的社会支持技能至关重要。相互交往可以成为社会支持的重要来源。第二，应优先考虑客观社会支持，更加关注社会支持的适当数量、时机、来源和结构，以加强失独父母的需求与所提供支持之间的“匹配度”。第三，社区护理、社会工作服务和专业咨询服务等其他一些社会服务可以作为缓解失独父母心理压力的合适替代方式。
