The Effects of Intergenerational Supports on Depressive Symptoms for Older Adults: The Mediate Effect of Attitude toward Ageing and The Moderate Effect of Urban-Rural Disparity

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240323

Abstract

Abstract: Depressive Symptoms for older adults have become one of the serious health problems in the ageing society of China, which has numerous negative effects on wellbeing for older adults. It is meaningful to investigate the potential mechanism of depressive symptoms and intergenerational supports within family under the social transition of traditional cohesion of filial piety in China, especially to explore the association between social supports providing from children and the depressive symptoms for older parents, even though the results are usually mixed. The mechanisms underlying how intergenerational supports affect depressive symptoms is fairly limited. The attitude toward ageing is the internal experience and evaluation on the process of ageing for older adults. Drawing from cognitive-behavioral theories of depression and socioemotional selectivity theory, this study constructs a mediation model that intergenerational supports affect depressive symptoms through attitude toward ageing. In addition, as the long-time of urban and rural division in China, this effect of intergenerational supports on attitude toward ageing and depressive symptoms for older people demonstrates the disparities in rural and urban areas. However, very few studies have explored the urban-rural differences in the effects of intergenerational supports on attitude toward ageing and depressive symptoms. In response to the research gap, the current study explores the moderating effects of urban-rural disparities on these associations.
The 2014 wave of China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (CLASS) was employed in this study. The 2014 wave of CLASS was conducted in 28 provinces across mainland China, with 11,511 samples included in the survey. In the analyses, this study excluded those failed to pass the cognitive function examination prepared in advance as well as the samples with missing data of key variables. Finally, a total number of 4,188 samples was selected, with 2,823 in urban and 1,365 in rural areas. SPSS 23.0, the program PROCESS, and Amos 20.0 were used in this study to analyze data. At first, this study examined the common method deviation analysis. Secondly, this study reported the descriptive results and the correlation analysis between main variables. Thirdly, the bootstrap estimation procedure in PROCESS was employed to investigate the mediating role of attitude toward ageing on the association between intergenerational supports and depressive symptoms. At last, PROCESS was applied to explore the moderating role of urban-rural disparities on the effects of intergenerational supports on attitude toward ageing and depressive symptoms.
The results are as follows: (1) Intergenerational supports are significantly associated with older adults’ depressive symptoms. (2) The attitude toward ageing plays a mediating role in the relationship between intergenerational supports and depressive symptoms. (3) Although the urban-rural disparity doesn’t significantly moderate the associations between intergenerational supports and attitude toward ageing, the urban-rural differences on the relationships between intergenerational supports and depressive symptoms are significant: intergenerational economic support and care support have higher significant effects in reducing rural elderly’s depressive symptoms than urban older adults.
Some theoretical and practical contributions are proposed by the study. The results suggest that intergenerational supports are significantly associated with depressive symptoms for older adults. Furthermore, the results present a framework through exploring the mediating effects of attitude toward ageing, which clarifies the underlying mechanism between intergeneration supports and depressive symptoms, and also inspire the future intervention of reducing older adults’ depressive symptoms. In addition, intergenerational economic and care supports are more significantly related to rural group, which reveals that the lack of formal social support systems for rural elderly persons causes them over dependent on informal family intergeneration supports. It’s urgent and necessary to bridge the gaps of formal support system for older people in rural areas, such as pension, medical insurance and long-term care services.

Key words: older adults, depressive symptoms, intergenerational supports, attitude toward ageing, urban-rural disparity

摘要： 探究代际支持对老年人抑郁症状的影响及其机制,基于4188名老年被试,采用代际支持问卷、抑郁症状量表和老化态度量表考察老化态度的中介作用与城乡因素的调节作用。研究发现：（1）代际经济、照料和情感支持显著负向预测老年人的抑郁症状;（2）老化态度在三种代际支持与抑郁症状间发挥部分中介作用;（3）城乡因素对三种代际支持与老化态度关系的调节作用不显著,但能显著调节代际经济和照料支持对老年人抑郁症状的影响。研究结论对老年人抑郁症状的干预具有积极意义。

关键词: 老年人, 抑郁症状, 代际支持, 老化态度, 城乡因素

Shi Jiaming, Liu Xiaoting. The Effects of Intergenerational Supports on Depressive Symptoms for Older Adults: The Mediate Effect of Attitude toward Ageing and The Moderate Effect of Urban-Rural Disparity[J]. Journal of Psychological Science, 2024, 47(3): 695-702.

史珈铭, 刘晓婷. 代际支持与老年人的抑郁症状:老化态度的中介作用与城乡因素的调节作用^*[J]. 心理科学, 2024, 47(3): 695-702.

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