Hu Zhen, Wu Yuanyang, Yang Hualei, Xie Lin, Zhang Anqi, Lin Xueyu, Nie Yafeng, Zhang Xiaoyu
School of Economics and Management, Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University, Xianyang, China.
School of Public Administration, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, China.
Front Public Health. 2021 Jan 26;8:570832. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.570832. eCollection 2020.
Increased population aging is associated with increased incidence of depression among the elderly. Existing studies have shown that ill-advised fertility behaviors during their youth also affect the health of the elderly. However, insufficient attention has been paid to depression among elderly in China. This paper focuses on how fertility behaviors affect senile depression among parents by examining the heterogeneity of such effects and tests the applicability of existing theoretical findings in a Chinese sample. The effects of fertility behaviors on depression among the elderly were investigated using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), a nationally representative dataset. The effects of early-age fertility behaviors on the degree of depression among the elderly were investigated using ordinary least squares and ordered probit models that adjusted for demographic and socioeconomic factors. (1) The age of first childbirth, childbearing period, and number of births were significantly and positively correlated with the degree of depression among the elderly (particularly rural persons aged 50-70 and older womens). (2) Elderly persons with sons had no better mental health status than those without sons, thus indicating the inapplicability of the traditional concept of "more sons are equal to more happiness" to the actual mental health situation of the elderly in China today. Overall, multiple, late, and boy-oriented childbearing and overly long childbearing periods had negative effects on mental health among Chinese elderly persons. This study tested the applicability of existing theoretical inferences and empirical conclusions in China, thereby further expanding the current literature regarding the effects of fertility behaviors on depression among the elderly.
人口老龄化加剧与老年人抑郁症发病率上升相关。现有研究表明，他们年轻时不明智的生育行为也会影响老年人的健康。然而，中国对老年人抑郁症的关注不足。本文通过研究这种影响的异质性，重点探讨生育行为如何影响父母的老年抑郁症，并在中国样本中检验现有理论发现的适用性。利用具有全国代表性的数据集中国健康与养老追踪调查（CHARLS），研究生育行为对老年人抑郁症的影响。使用普通最小二乘法和有序概率模型，在调整人口和社会经济因素的基础上，研究早期生育行为对老年人抑郁程度的影响。（1）初育年龄、生育期和生育子女数与老年人（特别是50-70岁的农村人口和老年女性）的抑郁程度呈显著正相关。（2）有儿子的老年人心理健康状况并不比没有儿子的老年人好，这表明传统观念“多子多福”不适用于当今中国老年人的实际心理健康状况。总体而言，多育、晚育、重男轻女的生育方式以及过长的生育期对中国老年人的心理健康有负面影响。本研究检验了现有理论推断和实证结论在中国的适用性，从而进一步拓展了当前关于生育行为对老年人抑郁症影响的文献。
