Being Left Behind or Migrant? The Impacts of Migration on the Mental Health of Chinese Rural Older Adults

Dan Tang

Basing on the data of CLASS 2014, this paper discussed the impacts of migration on mental health of Chinese rural older adults. The rural older adults were divided into three groups: general older adults, left-behind older adults and migrant older adults. The depressive symptoms, family ties and friendship ties were compared among the three groups, and mediating and moderating effects of family ties and friendship ties in the associations between population migration and depressive symptoms were tested. Results show that: (1) Compared with the general older adults, the left-behind older adults had significantly less family ties and migrant old adults had less friendship ties. (2) Being left-behind was positive associated with depressive symptoms; however, there was not significant association between being migrant and depressive symptoms. (3) The associations between being left-behind and depressive symptoms were partially mediated by family ties.

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 Presented in Session 6. Health & Mortality & Aging