Dataset Information

Social capital and the health of left-behind older adults in rural China: a cross-sectional study.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:To examine the association between social capital and the health of male and female left-behind older adults in rural China. STUDY DESIGN:This cross-sectional study among the left-behind older adults aged 60 and older and with all their children working outside of Hubei, Shaanxi and Guangdong provinces in China was conducted in 2017-2018. A total of 1106 questionnaires were collected (participation rate=100.0%), and questionnaires from 1016 participants were used (effective rate=91.9%). METHODS:An ordinary least squares model was used to evaluate the association between social capital and health. Social capital included family trust, friend/neighbour trust, stranger trust, social participation, and network size and density. Health outcomes included basic and instrumental activities of daily living (BADL and IADL) and depression. RESULTS:Elevated family trust, friend/neighbour trust, stranger trust, high-level participation and middle-level network density were associated with reduced depression (b=-3.23, p<0.001; b=-0.41, p<0.001; b=-0.76, p<0.01; b=-1.04, p<0.05; b=-0.74, p<0.05, respectively). High-level participation and network density were also associated with elevated BADL (b=0.16, p<0.05; b=0.24, p<0.05, respectively). Elevated family trust (b=-2.86, p<0.05 in men; b=-3.86, p<0.001 in women), stranger trust (b=-0.68, p<0.05 in men; b=-0.80, p<0.05 in women) and high-level participation (b=-0.92, p<0.05 in men; b=-1.22, p<0.01 in women) were associated with reduced depression in both sexes. By contrast, elevated friend/neighbour trust was associated with reduced depression (b=-0.56, p<0.001) in women, high-level participation was associated with elevated BADL (b=0.19, p<0.05) and IADL (b=0.43, p<0.05) in men, and high-level network density was associated with elevated BADL (b=0.44, p<0.05) and IADL (b=0.57, p<0.05) and reduced depression (b=-1.05, p<0.05) in women. CONCLUSIONS:Social capital is closely related to left-behind older adults' health in rural China. More attention should be paid to increasing the stock of social capital in this special population, with a particular focus on the sex disparity.

SUBMITTER: Ke Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6886947 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundParent-child separation is a considerable adversity for left-behind children (LBC), but there is little evidence on the association between detailed characteristics of parent-child separation and social-emotional development among LBC. This study examined the characteristics of parent-child separation and its impacts on developmental delay among under-3 LBC in poor rural China.MethodsWe used data from 811 LBC surveyed in five poor counties in rural China in 2018. Detailed characteristics of their parental migration were recalled by their primary caregivers in face-to-face interviews. The children's social-emotional development was measured by using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional. Logistic regression was employed to examine the association of detailed characteristics of parent-child separation with early social-emotional problems after adjusting for the children's and primary caregivers' sociodemographic characteristics.Results287 (35.4%) children were left behind by fathers and cared for by mothers (FM-MC), while 524 (64.6%) were left behind by both parents and cared for by grandparents (PM-GC). The rate of social-emotional problems among LBC was 36.8% (PM-GC vs FM-MC: 40.6% vs 29.5%; aOR 1.51, 95% CI: 1.06 to 2.16). For paternal migration, the medians of the child's age at the first migration and average duration per migration were 3 months (IQR: 1 to 9 months) and 4.48 months (IQR: 2.38 to 7.54 months), respectively. For maternal migration, the corresponding values were 9 months (IQR: 6 to 13 months) and 4.65 months (IQR: 2.71 to 7.62 months), respectively. On average, LBC had been separated from fathers for 72% of their life due to paternal migration and from mothers for 52% of their life due to maternal migration. No significant association was found between the detailed characteristics of paternal migration and social-emotional development among LBC, while social-emotional problems among LBC were significantly associated with the proportion of cumulative duration of maternal migration in the child's lifetime (aOR 2.83; 95% CI: 1.13 to 7.10).ConclusionsLBC under 3 years had a high risk of social-emotional problems in poor rural China. Cumulative exposure to maternal migration may be detrimental to LBC's early social-emotional development. Programs are necessary to support these children as well as their families.

Project description:BackgroundThe situation of mental health and discipline behaviors of left-behind children's caregivers were not optimistic in rural China. Caregivers' depression might increase the risk of using violent discipline. However, the specific ways in which depressive symptoms impact violent discipline have rarely been explored in rural areas. This study aims to assess the prevalence of violent discipline among left-behind children under 6 years of age in rural China and explore the potential mechanisms of how caregivers' depressive symptoms affect violent discipline.MethodsWe enrolled a total of 396 pairs of left-behind children and their caregivers in our study, which was conducted in 5 counties of Hebei, Henan, Jiangxi, Guizhou, and Sichuan provinces in China. The depressive symptoms of caregivers were measured by using Zung Self-rating Depression Scale (ZSDS) and violent discipline was assessed by the Child Discipline Module of Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS). A self-designed questionnaire was utilized to measure caregiver's parenting attitude. Based on the cross-sectional data, controlling for potential confounders, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess the direct and indirect effects of the mediation models by applying the weighted least squares with mean and variance adjusted (WLSMV) estimate.ResultsThe prevalence of violent discipline, psychological aggression, and physical punishment was 72.7%, 59.3%, and 60.4% respectively of left-behind children under 6 years of age. According to the results of SEM, parenting attitude acted as a suppressor, suppressing the association between caregivers' depressive symptoms and physical punishment/psychological aggression/violent discipline. The caregivers' depressive symptoms positively influenced all the outcome variables by affecting parenting attitudes (p = 0.002, p = 0.013, p = 0.002).ConclusionsThe presence of depressive symptoms in caregivers increases the use of violent discipline through negative parenting attitudes. The mental health status of primary caregivers of left-behind children in rural China needed emphasis and improvement.

Project description:Existing research has found that parental migration may negatively impact the psychological adjustment of left-behind children. However, limited longitudinal research has examined if and how future orientation (individual protective factor) and social support (contextual protective factor) are associated with the indicators of psychological adjustment (i.e., life satisfaction, school satisfaction, happiness, and loneliness) of left-behind children. In the current longitudinal study, we examined the differences in psychological adjustment between left-behind children and non-left behind children (comparison children) in rural areas, and explored the protective roles of future orientation and social support on the immediate (cross-sectional effects) and subsequent (lagged effects) status of psychological adjustment for both groups of children, respectively. The sample included 897 rural children (Mage = 14.09, SD = 1.40) who participated in two waves of surveys across six months. Among the participants, 227 were left-behind children with two parents migrating, 176 were with one parent migrating, and 485 were comparison children. Results showed that, (1) left-behind children reported lower levels of life satisfaction, school satisfaction, and happiness, as well as a higher level of loneliness in both waves; (2) After controlling for several demographics and characteristics of parental migration among left-behind children, future orientation significantly predicted life satisfaction, school satisfaction, and happiness in both cross-sectional and longitudinal regression models, as well as loneliness in the longitudinal regression analysis. Social support predicted immediate life satisfaction, school satisfaction, and happiness, as well as subsequent school satisfaction. Similar to left-behind children, comparison children who reported higher scores in future orientation, especially future expectation, were likely to have higher scores in most indicators of psychological adjustment measured at the same time and subsequently. However, social support seemed not exhibit as important in the immediate status of psychological adjustment of comparison children as that of left-behind children. Findings, implications, and limitations of the present study were discussed.

Dataset Information

Social capital and the health of left-behind older adults in rural China: a cross-sectional study.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets