Financial and instrumental support for adult children and depressive symptoms among older adults in China: Does gender make a difference?

Abstract

For this study we used the demographic data of 5,669 Chinese adults aged between 60 and 79 years, drawn from the 2018 China Family Panel Studies. The propensity score matching method was used to analyze the effect of providing financial and instrumental support for adult sons and daughters on the depressive symptoms of parents. We also tested for gender differences in this effect. The results showed that providing financial support was significantly associated with greater risk of depressive symptoms in men but not in women. By contrast, providing instrumental support reduced the risk of depressive symptoms in both men and women. These findings suggest that adult children should reduce their financial dependence on their parents and that parents should be encouraged to help their adult children by carrying out suitable instrumental support, which could promote parent–child communication and reduce risk of depressive symptoms in older adults.