School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
School of Public Policy and Administration, Center for Public Economy & Public Policy, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China.
BMC Geriatr. 2024 Jul 12;24(1):598. doi: 10.1186/s12877-024-05169-w.
Both late-life depression and childhood maltreatment have become major global public health issues, given their prevalence and social-economic and health consequences. However, previous studies have solely focused on the relationship of childhood maltreatment to average levels of depressive symptoms. The current study addresses this gap of knowledge by simultaneously examining the impacts of childhood intra- and extra-familial maltreatment on age trajectories of depressive symptoms in later life in the Chinese context.
Hierarchical linear models were applied to data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011-2018, N = 12,669 individuals aged 45 to 80, comprising N = 43,348 person-years). Depressive symptoms were measured by the CES-D-10 scale. Childhood intra-familial maltreatments were measured by physical abuse and emotional neglect, while extra-familial maltreatment was measured by peer bullying. All analyses were conducted separately by gender in Stata 16.
Childhood extrafamilial peer bullying (β = 1.628, p < 0.001), and intrafamilial physical abuse (β = 0.746, p < 0.001) and emotional neglect (β = 0.880, p < 0.001) were associated with higher later-life depressive symptoms levels in the whole sample. Peer bullying differences in depressive symptoms widened with age for both men and women. Physical abuse differences in depressive symptoms remained stable over the life course among men but increased among women. Emotional neglect differences in depressive symptoms decreased with age among men, while it increased first and then decreased among women.
Findings in this study suggest that childhood maltreatment is not only associated with later-life poorer mental health but contributes to increasing inequalities in mental health as people age, especially among peer-bullying victims and women.
随着晚年抑郁症和儿童期虐待成为主要的全球公共卫生问题，鉴于它们的普遍性以及对社会经济和健康的影响。然而，以前的研究仅关注儿童期虐待与抑郁症状平均水平的关系。本研究通过同时检查中国背景下儿童期家庭内和家庭外虐待对晚年抑郁症状年龄轨迹的影响，弥补了这一知识空白。
本研究使用中国健康与退休纵向研究（2011-2018 年，N=12669 名年龄在 45 至 80 岁之间的个体，包括 43348 人年）的数据，应用分层线性模型进行分析。使用 CES-D-10 量表来衡量抑郁症状。儿童期家庭内虐待通过身体虐待和情感忽视来衡量，而家庭外虐待则通过同伴欺凌来衡量。所有分析均在 Stata 16 中按性别分别进行。
儿童期家庭外同伴欺凌（β=1.628，p<0.001）、家庭内身体虐待（β=0.746，p<0.001）和情感忽视（β=0.880，p<0.001）与全样本中老年时更高的抑郁症状水平相关。男女两性的抑郁症状在同伴欺凌方面的差异随年龄增长而扩大。男性的抑郁症状在身体虐待方面的差异在整个生命过程中保持稳定，但女性的抑郁症状差异则增加。男性的抑郁症状在情感忽视方面的差异随年龄增长而减少，而女性的抑郁症状则先增加后减少。
本研究的结果表明，儿童期虐待不仅与晚年较差的心理健康有关，而且随着年龄的增长，对心理健康不平等的贡献也越来越大，尤其是在同伴欺凌受害者和女性中。
