Ma Jie, Wu Jinjing, Marois Guillaume
Asian Demographic Research Institute, School of Sociology and Political Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China.
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (IIASA, OeAW), University of Vienna, Laxenburg, Austria.
Front Public Health. 2024 Dec 12;12:1464187. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1464187. eCollection 2024.
The rising prevalence of depression in China, coupled with a tightening job market, highlights concern for the workforce's mental health. Although socioeconomic inequalities in depression have been well documented in high-income countries, the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and depression, along with its work-related mediators, has not been sufficiently studied in China.
The study participants are 6,536 non-agriculturally employed working adults from the 2020 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). We build linear regression models to examine the relationship between SES and depression, using education and income as indicators of SES. We also apply a framework based on seemingly unrelated estimation (SUEST) to assess how job conditions, which include job demands and job resources, mediate this relationship.
Both education and income are negatively associated with depression, with education's association with depression remaining net of income. Mediation analysis reveals that the well-educated tend to occupy less demanding work with shorter working hours and lower probability of on-call duty, which partially helps explain the education-based depression gap. Higher earners experience more demanding work with longer working hours and higher probability of on-call duty, which potentially masks the income-based depression gap. Greater job resources including moderate schedule flexibility and better job security, appear to contribute to explaining the depression gap across SES.
The cross-sectional design of this study precludes causal inferences. Not all typical job demands and resources could be included due to data limitations.
Our study provides insights into socioeconomic inequalities in mental health in the Chinese working population, with implications for policies aimed at preventing depression and improving mental health equity.
中国抑郁症患病率不断上升，加之就业市场日益紧张，凸显了对劳动力心理健康的担忧。尽管高收入国家已充分记录了抑郁症方面的社会经济不平等现象，但在中国，社会经济地位（SES）与抑郁症之间的关联及其与工作相关的中介因素尚未得到充分研究。
研究参与者为来自2020年中国家庭追踪调查（CFPS）的6536名非农业就业在职成年人。我们构建线性回归模型，以教育和收入作为SES指标，检验SES与抑郁症之间的关系。我们还应用基于似乎不相关估计（SUEST）的框架，评估包括工作要求和工作资源在内的工作条件如何介导这种关系。
教育和收入均与抑郁症呈负相关，教育与抑郁症的关联在扣除收入因素后依然存在。中介分析表明，受过良好教育的人往往从事要求较低的工作，工作时间较短，随叫随到值班的概率较低，这部分有助于解释基于教育的抑郁症差距。收入较高者从事要求更高的工作，工作时间更长，随叫随到值班的概率更高，这可能掩盖了基于收入的抑郁症差距。包括适度的日程灵活性和更好的工作保障在内的更多工作资源，似乎有助于解释SES之间的抑郁症差距。
本研究的横断面设计排除了因果推断。由于数据限制，并非所有典型的工作要求和资源都能纳入。
我们的研究为中国在职人口心理健康方面的社会经济不平等提供了见解，对旨在预防抑郁症和改善心理健康公平性的政策具有启示意义。
