Interpersonal interactions, sense of loneliness and perceived depressive emotions among older adults: A cultural-psychological perspective from heterogeneous roles of different relationships
发布日期：2024-08-31
阅读次数：
摘要：In the context of the “Chinese Differential Mode of Association” in traditional Chinese culture, this paper examines the heterogeneous effects of interpersonal interactions in different relationships on older adults’ depressive emotions from a cultural-psychological perspective. Results using data from Chinese General Social Survey demonstrate that: interactions with children are the most helpful in reducing perceived depression for the elderly, followed by communications with siblings and relatives. However, interactions with friends and other fellows do not significantly reduce older people’s perceived depression. This reflects the “Chinese Differential Mode of Association” in interpersonal relationships. When using different perceived depression measures, and Double Debiased Machine Learning (DDML) approaches for robustness and endogeneity tests, above findings are very robust. The impact mechanism is that interactions with children and siblings reduce depressive emotions by decreasing older adults’ sense of loneliness, while communications with others do not have such a significant effect. This paper further discusses the roles of different types of interactions with adult children. It is found that receiving and providing emotional support can prominently decrease depressive emotions for older people, whereas the effects of monetary support and non-material assistance are less pronounced. In addition, interpersonal interactions’ impacts are more significant for those who are female, older than 75 and with poorer health, as well as older people who exercise less frequently, have higher social status, and hold more traditional beliefs. In the current context of active promotion of healthy aging, findings of this paper have important implications for a deeper understanding and scientific management of depressive emotions among the elderly.
摘要中译：不同人际关系中的人际交流对老年人抑郁情绪的影响是否存在异质性是一个重要但尚待研究的问题。本文基于“文化-心理”视角，在中国传统文化的“差序格局”情境下，利用中国综合社会调查数据考察了不同关系中的人际交流对老年人自评抑郁情绪影响的异质性。研究结果表明：与子女的交流对降低老年人抑郁情绪的作用最大，与兄弟姐妹和亲属交流的作用次之，然而与朋友等其他熟人的交流却无法显著缓解老年人的抑郁情绪。这一结果体现出中国人际关系中的“差序格局”特征。在使用 Ordered Probit、Ordered Logit模型、不同自评抑郁指标以及双重机器学习模型进行稳健性与内生性检验时，以上结论均稳健。影响机制在于，与子女和兄弟姐妹之间的交流通过降低老年人的孤独感，从而缓解了抑郁情绪，然而其他类型的人际交流对孤独感的影响不显著、因此没有显著降低老年人的抑郁情绪。本文进一步讨论了与子女的不同类型的交流对老年人抑郁情绪的影响。结果发现，获得或提供情绪支持均能够显著降低老年人的抑郁情绪，然而与子女间的物质交流和非货币帮助在精神健康层面的影响相对并不突出。异质性分析结果表明，人际交流的作用对女性、75岁以上、健康状况更差、锻炼频率更低、社会地位更高、传统信念更强的老年群体更突出。在当前全球积极推进健康老龄化的背景下，本文研究结果对更深入理解和科学应对老年人抑郁情绪具有重要的理论与政策含义。
作者：李超，李香，张雨涵，劳文宇
文章来源：SSM - Population Health,Volume 27,2024,101703
当前位置：
