More Children,More Blessings?The Impact of the Number of Children on Depression in the Chinese Elderly
Based on the data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey(CHARLS)in 2018,the IV-Probit model was used to quantitatively analyze the causal relationship between the number of children and depression in the elderly,as well as the media-ting role of emotional support from children in the relationship between the two.The benchmark Probit regression results indicate that the number of children significantly positively predicts depression in the elderly;After using instrumental variables to address endogene-ity issues,this effect does not exist.The mechanism analysis results indicate that emotional support from children can fully mediate the relationship between the number of children and depression in the elderly.The research results suggest that the depressive mood of eld-erly people in China is influenced by the quality of their child relationships(emotional support)rather than the number of children,and an increase in the number of children may lead to a dispersion of responsibility effect.In the context of the dual interweaving of the ag-ing population and fewer children,we should promote China's excellent filial piety culture,encourage children to go home frequently and provide more companionship and emotional support to the elderly.
number of childrenemotional supportelderlydepression
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
