Abstract
Aim: This study analyzes the effects of retrospective stressful life events on current depression among Chinese older people and how these effects are moderated by social support. Stressful life events comprise bereavement, divorce, health adversities, accidents, and financial losses due to fraud.Data and Method: Data were drawn from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) of the 2015 panel, and responses from 9,619 older people aged over 60 years were used. The least-squares regression method was applied to measure the linear effects. Propensity score matching minimized selection bias and enabled the measurement of the net effects of stressful life events. The bias-corrected matching estimator was also used to correct the inexact matching bias from propensity score matching.Result: Experienced stressful life events and exposure to cumulative stressful life events were found to lead to depression in older people. When older people experienced stressful life events but with more social activities, and higher satisfaction and frequent contact with children, their depressive levels were lower. The results of the propensity score matching showed that stressful life events resulted in depression in older people. Furthermore, individuals with family support were able to moderate stressful life events effects; however, the moderating effects of social activity separately were negligible. In sum, with the moderating role of family support and social activity, the average differences in older people depression caused by stressful life events decreased.Conclusion: Experiencing stressful life events is detrimental to the psychological health of the older people. Social support, including family support and social activity, has buffered detrimental effects on depression caused by stressful life events.Interpretations: The study underscores the need to supply effective interventions for the older people who experienced stressful life events. First, society should improve the capability of community care centers to supply mental health services. Second, family members should pay attention to mental condition of older people, and specific support should concord with the needs of Chinese older people. In addition, support suppliers can move from being confined to kinship relationships to close relationships, such as the community partners and neighbors.
Highlights
Mental illness is a significant public health problem
Propensity Score Analysis This study aims to discuss the association between stressful life events and depression and quantify the effects of stressful life events and social support on depression
The average social activity was 0.754, which was
Summary
Mental illness is a significant public health problem. In 2015, 4.4% of the global population was diagnosed with depression, over an estimated 300 million people [1]. The weighted prevalence of any mental disorder excluding dementia was reported to be 9.3% for the preceding 12 months and 16.6% for lifetime prevalence; the prevalence of depression was 4.2% in 2017, as estimated by the World Health Organization [1, 2]. Depression is a long-term and recurrent mental disorder that can cause considerable loss in health and functioning, including functional impairment, low quality of life, high risk of suicide, and immense burdens for individuals and for families and societies [1, 3,4,5,6]. Chinese depressive disorders contributed 7.3% of the total years lived with disability as a health loss
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