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Mental Health Issues among Caregivers of Young Children in Rural China: Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Links to Child Developmental Outcomes

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  • Siqi Zhang

    (Center for Experimental Economics of Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China)

  • Lei Wang

    (International Business School, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China)

  • Yue Xian

    (International Business School, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China)

  • Yu Bai

    (School of Economics, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China
    China Institute for Vitalizing Border Areas and Enriching the People, Beijing 100081, China)

Abstract

Previous research has found that there are high rates of mental health problems among caregivers in rural China and that caregiver mental health may be a significant predictor of developmental delays among infants and toddlers in these rural areas. In this paper, we use data from a survey of 986 caregiver-child pairs in rural China to examine the risk factors of caregiver mental health and measure the association between caregiver mental health and child development outcomes. To conduct the empirical analysis, we assess caregiver mental health using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21) questionnaire and measure child developmental outcomes using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Developmental Third Edition (Bayley-III). The results show that 32% of caregivers have depressive symptoms, 42% have anxiety symptoms, and 30% have symptoms of stress. The data also demonstrate that caregiver identity and age as well as different measures of socioeconomic status (SES) (characterized by caregiver education, father’s education, and household wealth) are all significantly linked to symptoms of caregiver mental health problems. The analysis shows that caregiver depression, anxiety, and/or stress are significantly associated with lower early childhood development (ECD) outcomes in all areas measured (cognition, language, social-emotion, and motor skills). The heterogeneous analysis demonstrates that there are differences in the effects of caregiver mental health problems on ECD among households are from families that are endowed with different levels of SES. On the basis of the findings the study concludes that policymakers should pay more attention to caregiver mental health problems in order to improve child developmental outcomes in rural China. The study cannot, however, draw casual conclusions and cannot rule out the possibility of recall bias when measuring caregiver mental health, which may limit the external validity of the findings.

Suggested Citation

  • Siqi Zhang & Lei Wang & Yue Xian & Yu Bai, 2020. "Mental Health Issues among Caregivers of Young Children in Rural China: Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Links to Child Developmental Outcomes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-19, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2020:i:1:p:197-:d:470070
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Huan Wang & Claire Cousineau & Yuwei Adeline Hu & Grace Hu & Sunny Qi & Adrian Sun & Helen Wu & Scott Rozelle & Manpreet Singh, 2021. "Examining the Relation between Caregiver Mental Health and Student Outcomes in Rural China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-18, November.
    2. Yu Bai & Reyila Abulitifu & Dan Wang, 2022. "Impact of an Early Childhood Development Intervention on the Mental Health of Female Caregivers: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-30, September.

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