Wang Haolin, Sun Bing
School of Finance and Public Administration, Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Bengbu, China.
Front Psychol. 2025 Feb 25;16:1553080. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1553080. eCollection 2025.
Living alone, which has become increasingly common in China, weakens the emotional connections between parents and children-fundamental family functions in Confucianism. This trend has raised concerns regarding depression among older adults living alone. Numerous researchers have evaluated the influence of living alone on depression among older adults in different cultures. However, the consensus has yet to be reached.
This study adopted a fixed effects model to analyze three sets of data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study based on different family cultures reflected by living arrangements.
Living alone reduced depression among older adults by 0.267 (CES-D, 10-40). The effects of living alone on depression among older adults predominantly originate from living close to their children. This lifestyle effectively balances the need for individual independence and the demand for maintaining tight family relationships and reconciles intergenerational family conflict. Differences between rural and urban areas were also identified. This search indicated that living alone improved depression in rural older adults; however, no significant effects were found for urban older adults.
As living close to their children is conducive to improving depression among older adults, policymakers are advised to focus on local employment. Special emphasis should be placed on incentivizing migrant workers to return to their rural hometowns for entrepreneurship or employment.
独居在中国越来越普遍，这削弱了父母与子女之间的情感联系，而情感联系是儒家思想中家庭的基本功能。这种趋势引发了对独居老年人抑郁症的担忧。众多研究人员评估了独居在不同文化中对老年人抑郁症的影响。然而，尚未达成共识。
本研究采用固定效应模型，基于居住安排所反映的不同家庭文化，分析了来自中国健康与养老追踪调查的三组数据。
独居使老年人的抑郁程度降低了0.267（CES-D量表，10 - 40）。独居对老年人抑郁的影响主要源于与子女居住得近。这种生活方式有效地平衡了个人独立的需求与维持紧密家庭关系的需求，并化解了代际家庭冲突。研究还发现了城乡差异。结果表明，独居改善了农村老年人的抑郁状况；然而，对城市老年人没有显著影响。
由于与子女居住得近有助于改善老年人的抑郁状况，建议政策制定者关注当地就业。应特别强调激励农民工返乡创业或就业。
