IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ehbiol/v41y2021ics1570677x21000186.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Early-life exposure to parental mental distress and adulthood depression among middle-aged and elderly Chinese

Author

Listed:
  • Zheng, Xiaodong
  • Shangguan, Shuangyue
  • Fang, Zuyi
  • Fang, Xiangming

Abstract

Although mental illness among the middle-aged and the elderly has become a global public health issue and there is a burgeoning interest in the intergenerational transmission of mental health concerns in recent years, the long-term impact of parental mental health problems on child mental health conditions in developing countries remains unknown. Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), which provides both contemporaneous and retrospective data collected from a nationally representative sample of Chinese residents aged 45 years and above, this study employed a multilevel modeling approach to investigate the association between early-life exposure to parental mental distress and adulthood depression among the middle-aged and elderly Chinese. Our study showed that childhood parental mental health problems predicted mid- and late-life depression in Chinese contexts and the result remained robust to a suite of robustness checks. Our exploration of potential pathways of the relationship found the following adversities that were associated with the exposure to parental mental distress in early life and may have contributed to the depression among the middle-aged and elderly: higher rates of childhood physical abuse by parents, poor childhood health, lower levels of educational attainment, poor physical health and individual economic status in adulthood. Further, our heterogeneity analysis indicated that the transmission effect was stronger for the elderly than the middle-aged and that the improvement of childhood SES mitigated the intergenerational transmission. We also found that childhood parental mental distress was potentially a moderator, which inhibited the recovery from depression. The findings will inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of relevant public health policies. It highlights the need for more efforts to prevent and mitigate the profound impacts of childhood parental mental distress on the late-life well-being of child generations.

Suggested Citation

  • Zheng, Xiaodong & Shangguan, Shuangyue & Fang, Zuyi & Fang, Xiangming, 2021. "Early-life exposure to parental mental distress and adulthood depression among middle-aged and elderly Chinese," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:41:y:2021:i:c:s1570677x21000186
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2021.100994
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X21000186
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ehb.2021.100994?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Teresa Molina Millán & Tania Barham & Karen Macours & John A Maluccio & Marco Stampini, 2019. "Long-Term Impacts of Conditional Cash Transfers: Review of the Evidence," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 34(1), pages 119-159.
    2. Joseph G. Altonji & Todd E. Elder & Christopher R. Taber, 2005. "Selection on Observed and Unobserved Variables: Assessing the Effectiveness of Catholic Schools," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 151-184, February.
    3. Anne Case, 2004. "Does Money Protect Health Status? Evidence from South African Pensions," NBER Chapters, in: Perspectives on the Economics of Aging, pages 287-312, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_money_protect_nber is not listed on IDEAS
    5. repec:pri:cheawb:case_money_protect_nber.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Gordon B. Dahl & Lance Lochner, 2012. "The Impact of Family Income on Child Achievement: Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(5), pages 1927-1956, August.
    7. Singhal, Saurabh, 2019. "Early life shocks and mental health: The long-term effect of war in Vietnam," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    8. Goode, Alison & Mavromaras, Kostas & zhu, Rong, 2014. "Family income and child health in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 152-165.
    9. Emily Oster, 2019. "Unobservable Selection and Coefficient Stability: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 187-204, April.
    10. Xiaodong Zheng & Xiangming Fang & Derek S. Brown, 2020. "Social Pensions and Child Health in Rural China," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(3), pages 545-559, March.
    11. Peter Zweifel, 2012. "The Grossman model after 40 years," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 13(6), pages 677-682, December.
    12. Schepman, Karen & Collishaw, Stephan & Gardner, Frances & Maughan, Barbara & Scott, Jacqueline & Pickles, Andrew, 2011. "Do changes in parent mental health explain trends in youth emotional problems?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 293-300, July.
    13. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Munyanyi, Musharavati Ephraim & Smyth, Russell & Trinh, Trong-Anh, 2021. "Early life shocks and entrepreneurship: Evidence from the Vietnam War," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 506-518.
    14. Lei, Xiaoyan & Sun, Xiaoting & Strauss, John & Zhang, Peng & Zhao, Yaohui, 2014. "Depressive symptoms and SES among the mid-aged and elderly in China: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study national baseline," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 224-232.
    15. James J. Heckman & Lance J. Lochner & Petra E. Todd, 2003. "Fifty Years of Mincer Earnings Regressions," NBER Working Papers 9732, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Janet Currie & Mark Stabile & Phongsack Manivong & Leslie L. Roos, 2010. "Child Health and Young Adult Outcomes," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(3).
    17. Ferdi Botha & John P. New & Sonja C. New & David C. Ribar & Nicolás Salamanca, 2021. "Implications of COVID-19 labour market shocks for inequality in financial wellbeing," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 655-689, April.
    18. Barnay, Thomas & Juin, Sandrine, 2016. "Does home care for dependent elderly people improve their mental health?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 149-160.
    19. Huang, Cheng & Soldo, Beth J. & Elo, Irma T., 2011. "Do early-life conditions predict functional health status in adulthood? The case of Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 100-107, January.
    20. Ko, Pei-Chun & Yeung, Wei-Jun Jean, 2019. "Childhood conditions and productive aging in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 60-69.
    21. Kelly, Morgan, 2019. "The Standard Errors of Persistence," CEPR Discussion Papers 13783, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    22. Jennifer Montez & Mark Hayward, 2014. "Cumulative Childhood Adversity, Educational Attainment, and Active Life Expectancy Among U.S. Adults," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(2), pages 413-435, April.
    23. repec:pri:cheawb:case_money_protect_nber is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Colella, Fabrizio & Lalive, Rafael & Sakalli, Seyhun Orcan & Thoenig, Mathias, 2019. "Inference with Arbitrary Clustering," IZA Discussion Papers 12584, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    25. Lund, Crick & Breen, Alison & Flisher, Alan J. & Kakuma, Ritsuko & Corrigall, Joanne & Joska, John A. & Swartz, Leslie & Patel, Vikram, 2010. "Poverty and common mental disorders in low and middle income countries: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 517-528, August.
    26. Eyal, Katherine & Burns, Justine, 2019. "The parent trap: Cash transfers and the intergenerational transmission of depressive symptoms in South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 211-229.
    27. Cui, Hanxiao & Smith, James P. & Zhao, Yaohui, 2020. "Early-life deprivation and health outcomes in adulthood: Evidence from childhood hunger episodes of middle-aged and elderly Chinese," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    28. Johnston, David W. & Schurer, Stefanie & Shields, Michael A., 2013. "Exploring the intergenerational persistence of mental health: Evidence from three generations," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1077-1089.
    29. Avendano, Mauricio & de Coulon, Augustin & Nafilyan, Vahé, 2020. "Does longer compulsory schooling affect mental health? Evidence from a British reform," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    30. Viola Angelini & Bart Klijs & Nynke Smidt & Jochen O Mierau, 2016. "Associations between Childhood Parental Mental Health Difficulties and Depressive Symptoms in Late Adulthood: The Influence of Life-Course Socioeconomic, Health and Lifestyle Factors," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(12), pages 1-13, December.
    31. Ariel Fiszbein & Norbert Schady & Francisco H.G. Ferreira & Margaret Grosh & Niall Keleher & Pedro Olinto & Emmanuel Skoufias, 2009. "Conditional Cash Transfers : Reducing Present and Future Poverty," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2597, December.
    32. Morgan Kelly, 2019. "The Standard Errors of Persistence," Working Papers 201913, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    33. Yujun LiuPhD & Margie E LachmanPhD & J Jill SuitorPhDDecision Editor, 2019. "Socioeconomic Status and Parenting Style From Childhood: Long-Term Effects on Cognitive Function in Middle and Later Adulthood," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 74(6), pages 13-24.
    34. Huang, Cheng & Phillips, Michael R. & Zhang, Yali & Zhang, Jingxuan & Shi, Qichang & Song, Zhiqiang & Ding, Zhijie & Pang, Shutao & Martorell, Reynaldo, 2013. "Malnutrition in early life and adult mental health: Evidence from a natural experiment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 259-266.
    35. Stanislav Kolenikov & Gustavo Angeles, 2009. "Socioeconomic Status Measurement With Discrete Proxy Variables: Is Principal Component Analysis A Reliable Answer?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 55(1), pages 128-165, March.
    36. Xiaodong Zheng & Xiangming Fang & Deborah A. Fry & Gary Ganz & Tabitha Casey & Celia Hsiao & Catherine L. Ward, 2018. "Association of Child Maltreatment with South African Adults’ Wages: Evidence from the Cape Area Panel Study," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-12, December.
    37. Conley, T. G., 1999. "GMM estimation with cross sectional dependence," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 1-45, September.
    38. Chen, Yuyu & Zhou, Li-An, 2007. "The long-term health and economic consequences of the 1959-1961 famine in China," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 659-681, July.
    39. Qun Wang & Wenyao Tian, 2018. "Prevalence, awareness, and treatment of depressive symptoms among the middle‐aged and elderly in China from 2008 to 2015," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 1060-1070, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zheng, Xiaodong & Fang, Zuyi & Wang, Yajun & Fang, Xiangming, 2022. "When left-behind children become adults and parents: The long-term human capital consequences of parental absence in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    2. Yue Zhang & Xiaodong Zheng, 2022. "Internal migration and child health: An investigation of health disparities between migrant children and left-behind children in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(3), pages 1-15, March.
    3. Gevrek, Deniz & Guven, Cahit & Gevrek, Z. Eylem, 2022. "The relationship between early-life conditions in the home country and adult outcomes among child immigrants in the United States," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    4. Xiaodong Zheng & Yue Zhang & Yu Chen & Xiangming Fang, 2021. "Internal Migration Experience and Depressive Symptoms among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-15, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zheng, Xiaodong & Fang, Zuyi & Wang, Yajun & Fang, Xiangming, 2022. "When left-behind children become adults and parents: The long-term human capital consequences of parental absence in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    2. Appau, Samuelson & Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell & Trinh, Trong-Anh, 2021. "The long-term impact of the Vietnam War on agricultural productivity," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    3. Manuel Flores Mallo & Barbara L. Wolfe, 2020. "The Influence of Early Life Health Conditions on Life Course Health," NBER Working Papers 27174, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Paik, Christopher & Shahi, Keshar, 2023. "Ancient nomadic corridors and long-run development in the highlands of Asia," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    5. Wayne Geerling & Gary Magee & Russell Smyth, 2021. "The evolution of democratic tradition and regional variation in resistance in Nazi Germany," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(4), pages 1320-1344, April.
    6. Noghanibehambari, Hamid & Engelman, Michal, 2022. "Social insurance programs and later-life mortality: Evidence from new deal relief spending," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    7. Annalisa Frigo & Èric Roca Fernández, 2022. "Roots of gender equality: the persistent effect of beguinages on attitudes toward women," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 91-148, March.
    8. Melissa Rubio-Ramos, 2022. "From Plantations to Prisons: The Race Gap in Incarceration After the Abolition of Slavery in the U.S," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 195, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    9. Raoul van Maarseveen, 2021. "The urban–rural education gap: do cities indeed make us smarter? [Educational investment responses to economic opportunity: evidence from Indian road construction]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 21(5), pages 683-714.
    10. Gershman, Boris, 2020. "Witchcraft beliefs as a cultural legacy of the Atlantic slave trade: Evidence from two continents," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    11. Yue Zhang & Xiaodong Zheng, 2022. "Internal migration and child health: An investigation of health disparities between migrant children and left-behind children in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(3), pages 1-15, March.
    12. Galofré-Vilà, Gregori, 2023. "Spoils of War: The Political Legacy of the German hyperinflation," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    13. Pushkar Maitra & William Yu, 2021. "The Long Shadow of Infrastructure Development: Long Run Effects of Railway Construction in Colonial India," Monash Economics Working Papers 2021-01, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    14. Vitantonio Mariella, 2023. "Landownership concentration and human capital accumulation in post-unification Italy," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1695-1764, July.
    15. Franck, Raphaël & Asmus, Gerda, 2022. "State Capacity, National Economic Policies and Local Development: The Russian State in the Southern Urals," CEPR Discussion Papers 17103, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Berenger Djoumessi Tiague, 2023. "Floods, Agricultural Production, and Household Welfare: Evidence from Tanzania," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 85(2), pages 341-384, June.
    17. Zhu, Jiong & Liu, Shouying & Li, Yihao, 2021. "Removing the “Hats of Poverty”: Effects of ending the national poverty county program on fiscal expenditures," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    18. Lenel, Friederike & Priebe, Jan & Satriawan, Elan & Syamsulhakim, Ekki, 2022. "Can mHealth campaigns improve CCT outcomes? Experimental evidence from sms-nudges in Indonesia," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    19. Cemal Eren Arbatlı & Gunes Gokmen, 2023. "Human capital transfers and sub-national development: Armenian and Greek legacy in post-expulsion Turkey," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 1-43, March.
    20. Adjisse, Sossou Simplice, 2022. "The Legacy of the Transatlantic and Indian Ocean Slave Trades on Contemporary Intent to Migrate in Africa," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322512, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:41:y:2021:i:c:s1570677x21000186. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622964 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.