An Empirical Assessment of the Interactionist Model: The Relationship Between Household Income and Depression Among Retirees in Korea

The debate over the causal direction of the social cause theory, which emphasizes the impact of the socioeconomic environment, and the social choice theory, which highlights individual characteristics, is important in that it affects overall public policy and practice intervention in conjunction with the mainstream societal welfare paradigm. This debate over whether income affects health, or health affects income, has recently surfaced in Korea. In this context, this study investigates the longitudinal relationship between retirees’ household income and depression from an interactionist perspective. The data were obtained from the 4th (2011), 5th (2013), and 6th (2015) waves of the Korean Retirement and Income Study Panel. An autoregressive cross-lagged analysis was conducted using a sample of 3,987 retirees who had work experience. The results show that retirees’ early income status and depression are largely maintained over time. The results also indicate a reciprocal relationship between retirees’ family income and depression. Together, these findings support the interactionist model, as the association between retirees’ family income and depression involves reciprocity and mutual influence across time. The findings also have major implications for policy and interventions with regard to family income and the health of retirees.