ShanghaiTech SEM Working Paper No. 2020-002
Yi Chen
Jinan University
Hanming Fang
University of Pennsylvania, ShanghaiTech University and the NBER
China introduced its stringent family planning policies from the early 1970s, known as the "Later, Longer, Fewer policies, and followed it with the One-Child Policy from 1979. The number of children born to Chinese parents signi cantly decreased from 5.7 in late 1960s to 2.5 in 1988. In Chen and Fang (2019), we show that family planning policies have drastically different effects on elderly parents' physical and mental well-beings. Whereas parents more exposed to the family planning policies consume more and enjoy slightly better physical health status, they report more severe depression symptoms. In this paper, we present a more complete picture of the difference in mental health among residents in rural and urban areas, between males and females, between different education groups, between those with one child and those with more than one children, and between widowed and non-widowed. We highlight the role of family support (from children and spouse) for the mental health status among the elderly Chinese.
Keywords: Family Planning; Mental Health; Socioeconomic Status; Family Support
Date Written: Janurary 15, 2020
Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3521072
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【No. 2020-002】The State of Mental Health Among the Elderly Chinese.pdf
