Department of Social Welfare, Sunchon National University, 255 Jungang-ro, Suncheon, Jeonnam 57922, Korea.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Dec 2;17(23):8970. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17238970.
This study aimed to investigate a process accounting for the socioeconomic inequality in depressive symptoms from generation to generation. To examine the process, this study utilized data from three generations of grandparents, mothers, and daughters. This study employed data from the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families, collected from a large-scale national representative sample in South Korea. Conducting pathway analysis, the study tested direct and indirect pathways between mother's socioeconomic status (SES) experienced in childhood and their offspring's depressive symptoms through maternal SES and depressive symptoms in adulthood. This study found that early economic hardship increased the risk of depressive symptoms in daughters through maternal low education and depressive symptoms ( = 0.03, < 0.05), which was consistent with the theoretical framework, which relied on a life-course model highlighting that early life experiences affect later adult health and can potentially have effects across generations. This finding suggests that interventions that work with maternal education and depression may benefit from efforts to break the likelihood of continuity of depressive symptoms into the next generation, especially for their own daughters.
本研究旨在探讨导致抑郁症状在代际间存在社会经济不平等的过程。为了检验这一过程，本研究利用了三代人（祖母、母亲和女儿）的数据。本研究使用了韩国妇女与家庭纵向调查的数据，该调查是从韩国大规模全国代表性样本中收集的。通过路径分析，本研究检验了母亲在童年时期经历的社会经济地位（SES）与其后代抑郁症状之间的直接和间接途径，即通过母亲在成年期的 SES 和抑郁症状。本研究发现，早期的经济困难通过母亲受教育程度低和抑郁症状增加了女儿患抑郁症状的风险（=0.03，<0.05），这与理论框架一致，该框架强调了早期生活经历会影响后期成年健康，并可能具有跨代效应。这一发现表明，针对母亲教育和抑郁的干预措施可能受益于努力打破抑郁症状连续性进入下一代的可能性，尤其是针对她们自己的女儿。
