Childlessness, Parenthood, and Depressive Symptoms Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults
Childlessness, Parenthood, and Depressive Symptoms Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults
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DOI：
10.1177/0192513x08331114
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发表时间：
2009-05-01
影响因子：
1.7
通讯作者：
Loree, Michael
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bures, Regina M.;Koropeckyj-Cox, Tanya;Loree, Michael
之前的研究已经检验了为人父母是否与老年人的幸福感水平更高有关，但对父母地位的定义各不相同。作者研究了老年人的父母地位和抑郁症状之间的联系，比较了生物学和社会上对为人父母的定义。这项研究发现，亲生父母和社会父母之间几乎没有区别，但父母地位和抑郁症状之间的关系因性别和婚姻状况而有很大差异。在所有婚姻状况组中，从生物学角度和社会角度来看，没有孩子的成年人的抑郁预测水平最低。平均而言，丧偶男性的抑郁程度比其他男性要高。对于女性来说，从未结婚的亲生父母和比子女长寿的已婚女性的抑郁症状预测水平最高。增加对不太常见的父母亚群和不同亲属关系的抽样，以便在未来的研究中进行更准确的分类和考虑共同的婚姻-父母地位。
Prior research has examined whether parenthood is associated with higher levels of well-being among older adults, but definitions of parental status have varied. The authors examine links between parental status and depressive symptoms among older adults, comparing biological and social definitions of parenthood. The study finds few differences between biological and social parenthood but substantial variation in the relationship between parental status and depressive symptoms by gender and marital status. Biologically and socially childless adults had the lowest predicted levels of depression across all marital status groups. Widowed men averaged higher levels of depression than other men. For women, the highest predicted levels of depressive symptoms were observed among never-married biological parents and formerly married women who had outlived their children. Increased sampling of less common parental subgroups and diverse kinship relations to allow for more precise classifications and the consideration of joint marital-parental statuses in future research.