Song Qian, Wang Haowei, Burr Jeffery A
Department of Gerontology, John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA.
Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2022 Mar 3;77(3):592-603. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbab040.
We investigated whether there was a "high outmigration penalty" for psychological health among older adults in rural China by assessing 2 potential community stressors associated with major sociodemographic changes in the community-increased outmigration and older adult density. We also investigated whether disparities in community economic conditions moderated the association between community stressors and depressive symptoms.
We employed 3 waves of data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011-2015), using multilevel negative binomial models to address our research questions.
Our results supported the "high outmigration penalty" hypothesis. Older adults living in low-income rural communities may experience an aggravated mental health penalty compared to those living in high-income rural communities. Higher older adult density was also associated with more depressive symptoms but only in less wealthy communities. Community differences in economic conditions were key factors buffering the high outmigration disadvantage associated with the psychological health of older Chinese adults.
Rural outmigration may have deepened existing intercommunity health disparities among older adults. Policies should be developed to address community-level factors negatively associated with the well-being of older Chinese adults living in high outmigration and less wealthy rural communities.
我们通过评估与社区主要社会人口结构变化相关的两个潜在社区压力源——外出务工人员增加和老年人密度，来调查中国农村老年人心理健康方面是否存在“高外出务工惩罚”。我们还调查了社区经济状况的差异是否调节了社区压力源与抑郁症状之间的关联。
我们使用了中国健康与养老追踪调查（2011 - 2015年）的三轮数据，采用多层次负二项式模型来解决我们的研究问题。
我们的结果支持了“高外出务工惩罚”假说。与生活在高收入农村社区的老年人相比，生活在低收入农村社区的老年人可能会经历更严重的心理健康惩罚。老年人密度较高也与更多的抑郁症状相关，但仅在较贫困社区如此。社区经济状况的差异是缓冲与中国农村老年人心理健康相关的高外出务工劣势的关键因素。
农村外出务工可能加深了老年人之间现有的社区间健康差距。应制定政策来解决与生活在高外出务工率和较贫困农村社区的中国老年人福祉负相关的社区层面因素。
