Co-residence with Adult Children and Elderly Mental Health: Evidence from India

Lakshmi Ullas and and Amrita Chatterjee ()
Additional contact information
Lakshmi Ullas: Madras School of Economics, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, 600025
and Amrita Chatterjee: (corresponding author) Madras School of Economics, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, 600025

Working Papers from Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India

Abstract: Ageing is associated with increased vulnerabilities, decline in social skills and other capabilities. Prevalence of depression among elderly people is much higher in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) and adult children are considered as the primary care givers in these countries. It is the general perception that co-residence with adult children facilitates their daily activities and provide financial support. International literature shows mixed results in this context though Indian studies are showing the positive impact of co-residence with adult children on mental health of elderly patents. However, no study corrects the possible endogeneity in the relationship neither they explore the possible role of formal and informal health care services in mental health-co-residence relationship. The current study examines the effect of co-residence with children on the mental health of elderly people in the age category of 60 and above using Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) 2017-18. After correcting for endogeneity through Propensity Score Matching and Instrumental Variable method, the results suggest that elderly parents living with their children are less likely to be in a state of depression. However, this relationship crucially depends on the formal or informal health care the parents need.

Keywords: Ageing population; Mental health; Living arrangement: LASI (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J11 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2025-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mse.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Working-paper-284.pdf (application/pdf)

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:mad:wpaper:2025-284

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Geetha G ().