IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i16p6007-d400689.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Migration Status, Internet Use, and Social Participation among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in China: Consequences for Depression

Author

Listed:
  • Qian Liu

    (School of Public Administration, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China)

  • Haimin Pan

    (Department of Sociology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China)

  • Yuanyuan Wu

    (School of Public Administration, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China)

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the underlying relationship between migration status and depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older adults in China. Data were derived from three waves of panel data (2011, 2013, and 2015) from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Two-level regression models and generalized structural equation modeling were run to fit the data. The results showed that migration status of the respondents could ameliorate their depression ( β = −0.02, p < 0.01), so did internet use ( β = −0.02, p < 0.001), and social participation ( β = −0.06, p < 0.001). The indirect effects of migration status on depression through internet use and of internet use on depression through social participation existed. The effects of migration status, internet use, and social participation in decreasing depression were discussed. Provided the associations among migration status, internet use, social participation, and depression, attention should be paid on increasing protective aspects of migration among middle-aged and older adults, such as internet use and social participation, to enhance their mental health.

Suggested Citation

  • Qian Liu & Haimin Pan & Yuanyuan Wu, 2020. "Migration Status, Internet Use, and Social Participation among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in China: Consequences for Depression," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-13, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:16:p:6007-:d:400689
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/16/6007/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/16/6007/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Merril Silverstein & Zhen Cong & Shuzhuo Li, 2006. "Intergenerational Transfers and Living Arrangements of Older People in Rural China: Consequences for Psychological Well-Being," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 61(5), pages 256-266.
    2. Yanni Hao, 2008. "Productive Activities and Psychological Well-Being Among Older Adults," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 63(2), pages 64-72.
    3. Ang, Shannon, 2018. "Social participation and health over the adult life course: Does the association strengthen with age?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 51-59.
    4. Gutierrez-Vazquez, Edith & Flippen, Chenoa & Parrado, Emilio, 2018. "Migration and depression: A cross-national comparison of Mexicans in sending communities and Durham, NC," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 1-10.
    5. Yi Xu, 2019. "Role of Social Relationship in Predicting Health in China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(2), pages 669-684, January.
    6. Mathew D Gayman & Ben Lennox Kail & Amy Spring & George R GreenidgeJr, 2018. "Risk and Protective Factors for Depressive Symptoms Among African American Men: An Application of the Stress Process Model," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 73(2), pages 219-229.
    7. Kristin Snopkowski & Rebecca Sear, 2016. "Does grandparental help mediate the relationship between kin presence and fertility?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 34(17), pages 467-498.
    8. Yao Lu & Peifeng Hu & Donald Treiman, 2012. "Migration and depressive symptoms in migrant-sending areas: findings from the survey of internal migration and health in China," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 57(4), pages 691-698, August.
    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. Tien Ha Duong, My & Nguyen, Quyen Le Hoang Thuy To & Nguyen, Phong Thanh, 2022. "Measurement Quality of Life of Rural to Urban Migrants in Ho Chi Minh City by Using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Model," MPRA Paper 116777, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Oct 2022.
    2. Dan Ma & Hao Yuan, 2021. "Neighborhood Environment, Internet Use and Mental Distress among Older Adults: The Case of Shanghai, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-12, March.
    3. Zhang, Lixia & Li, Shaoting & Ren, Yanjun, 2024. "Does internet use benefit the mental health of older adults? Empirical evidence from the China health and retirement longitudinal study," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 10(3), pages 1-15.
    4. Junfeng Jiang & Jiang Song, 2022. "Health Consequences of Online Social Capital among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in China," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(4), pages 2277-2297, August.

    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. Pei, Yaolin & Cong, Zhen & Wu, Bei, 2020. "Education, adult children's education, and depressive symptoms among older adults in rural China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    2. Haiting Jiang & Bo Burström & Jiaying Chen & Kristina Burström, 2021. "Rural–Urban Inequalities in Poor Self-Rated Health, Self-Reported Functional Disabilities, and Depression among Chinese Older Adults: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-15, June.
    3. Maruyama, Shiko, 2015. "The effect of coresidence on parental health in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-22.
    4. Irene Mosca & Alan Barrett, 2016. "The impact of adult child emigration on the mental health of older parents," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(3), pages 687-719, July.
    5. Kyungwon Choi & Gyeong-Suk Jeon & Kwang-Sim Jang, 2020. "Gender Differences in the Impact of Intergenerational Support on Depressive Symptoms among Older Adults in Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-13, June.
    6. Yixuan Liu & Liumeng Li & Guomei Miao & Xinyan Yang & Yinghui Wu & Yanling Xu & Yonghong Gao & Yongzhi Zhan & Yiwei Zhong & Shujuan Yang, 2021. "Relationship between Children’s Intergenerational Emotional Support and Subjective Well-Being among Middle-Aged and Elderly People in China: The Mediation Role of the Sense of Social Fairness," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Nakagomi, Atsushi & Tsuji, Taishi & Saito, Masashige & Ide, Kazushige & Kondo, Katsunori & Shiba, Koichiro, 2023. "Social isolation and subsequent health and well-being in older adults: A longitudinal outcome-wide analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 327(C).
    8. Shannon Ang, 2022. "Changing Relationships Between Social Contact, Social Support, and Depressive Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic [Social participation and health over the adult life course: Does the association," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 77(9), pages 1732-1739.
    9. Teerawichitchainan, Bussarawan & Low, Timothy Qing Ying, 2021. "The situation and well-being of custodial grandparents in Myanmar: Impacts of adult children's cross-border and internal migration," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    10. Chenoa A. Flippen & Rebecca A. Schut, 2022. "Migration and Contraception among Mexican Women: Assessing Selection, Disruption, and Adaptation," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(2), pages 495-520, April.
    11. Tachibana, Towa & Goto, Rie & Sakurai, Takeshi & Rayamajhi, Santosh & Adhikari, Angel & Dow, William H., 2019. "Do remittances alleviate negative impacts of disaster on mental health? A case of the 2015 Nepal earthquake," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 1-1.
    12. Yanrong Cheng & Jian Lan & Qinying Ci, 2023. "Employment and Mental Health of the Chinese Elderly: Evidence from CHARLS 2018," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-14, February.
    13. Mitra, Sophie & Gao, Qin & Chen, Wei & Zhang, Yalu, 2020. "Health, work, and income among middle-aged and older adults: A panel analysis for China," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    14. Wang, Shuhong & Li, Shengxiao (Alex) & Hu, Wanyang, 2022. "Grandparenting and subjective well-being in China: The moderating effects of residential location, gender, age, and income," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    15. Sipei Xu & Jia Zhang, 2022. "Do Social Pensions Affect the Physical and Mental Health of Rural Children in China? An Intergenerational Care Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-25, March.
    16. Kathleen Ford & Aree Jampaklay & Aphichat Chamratrithirong, 2017. "Mental health in a conflict area: Migration, economic stress and religiosity in the three southernmost provinces of Thailand," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 63(2), pages 91-98, March.
    17. Fanny A. Kluge & Tobias C. Vogt, 2020. "Intergenerational transfers within the family and the role for old age survival," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2020-021, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    18. Luis Aranda & Martin Siyaranamual, 2014. "Are Smarter People Better Samaritans? Effect of Cognitive Abilities on Pro-Social Behaviors," Working Papers 2014:06, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    19. Fan, Ying & Fang, Shuai & Yang, Zan, 2018. "Living arrangements of the elderly: A new perspective from choice constraints in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 101-116.
    20. Rose Gilroy, 2013. "Changing Landscapes of Support in the Lives of Chinese Urban Elders: Voices from Wuhan Neighbourhoods," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 31(3), pages 428-443, June.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:16:p:6007-:d:400689. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.