Children's impact on the mental health of their older mothers and fathers:: findings from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe
Children's impact on the mental health of their older mothers and fathers:: findings from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe
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DOI：
10.1007/s10433-008-0074-8
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发表时间：
2008-03-01
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Engelhardt, Henriette
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Buber, Isabella;Engelhardt, Henriette
社会支持与心理健康之间的关系已经得到了深入的研究，社会网络的结构特征被广泛认为是社会支持的重要组成部分。本研究的目的是阐明儿童与其年长父母的抑郁情绪状态之间的联系。基于欧洲健康、老龄化和退休调查的国际比较数据，我们使用EURO-D指数分析了子女数量、子女的接近程度以及年长父母与子女之间的联系频率与老年人心理健康的关系。我们的结果表明，由于没有孩子的男性和女性报告的抑郁症状更多，因此儿童和抑郁情绪之间存在正相关。此外，很少与儿童接触与抑郁症状的增加有关。家庭状况也与心理健康有关：与配偶或伴侣同居的老年男性和女性抑郁程度最低。有趣的是，配偶或伴侣的存在与老年人的心理健康相比，与其子女的存在或接触更相关。
The relation between social support and mental health has been thoroughly researched and structural characteristics of the social network have been widely recognised as being an important component of social support. The aim of this paper is to clarify the association between children and depressive mood states of their older parents. Based on international comparative data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe we analysed how the number of children, their proximity and the frequency of contact between older parents and their children are associated with the mental health of older people, using the EURO-D index. Our results indicate a positive association of children and depressive mood since childless men and women report more depressive symptoms. Moreover, few contacts with children were associated with an increased number of depressive symptoms. The family status was related to mental health as well: older men and women living with a spouse or partner had the lowest levels of depression. Interestingly, the presence of a spouse or partner was more relevant for the mental health of older people than the presence of, or contact with, their children.