Neighborhood, social cohesion, and the Elderly's depression in Shanghai

Jia Miao, Xiaogang Wu and Xiulin Sun

Social Science & Medicine, 2019, vol. 229, issue C, 134-143

Abstract: Neighborhood plays an important role in the provision of elderly care in the context of rapid population aging and dwindling traditional family support in China. This study investigates the association between neighborhood characteristics and depression and its mechanisms among older adults in Shanghai, focusing on social cohesion and social engagement. Based on data from the first wave of Shanghai Urban Neighborhood Survey (SUNS), we show that social cohesion is a channel through which neighborhood attributes are linked with the elderly's subjective well-being. Different from findings in Western societies, Chinese older adults living in neighborhoods of lower socioeconomic status are more likely to interact with their neighbors and thus perceive a higher level of social cohesion. Social cohesion, in turn, is associated with a lower rate of depression. We argue that housing policy in the pre-reform period that integrated work and housing led to the formation of unique Chinese neighborhoods, and that those living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods have strong social ties, which moderate the negative consequences of living in a disadvantaged one. Moreover, a neighborhood with a lower dependency ratio provides more opportunities for volunteer participation which significantly associates with increased social cohesion and decreased depressive symptoms.

Keywords: Neighborhood; Social cohesion; Social engagement; Depression; Chinese elderly (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953618304465
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:229:y:2019:i:c:p:134-143

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.08.022

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().