Yuxin Wang*, Haoyue Ma, Lan Zheng
International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, Vol.25, No.5, pp. 673-686, 2023, DOI:10.32604/ijmhp.2023.026394
- 28 April 2023
Abstract This study empirically examines whether child characteristics mitigate the negative impact of widowhood on the elderly’s mental health using follow-up survey data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). A total of 5,326 older adults aged 60 years and older are selected from three waves of panel data (2013, 2015, and 2018). The findings suggest that respondents who experienced widowhood exhibit an increase in depressive symptoms. However, the higher income of children and frequent face-to-face emotional interactions improve the mental health of the widowed elderly. Moreover, heterogeneity analyses show that the buffering effect… More >