The impact of widowhood on the mental health of older adults and the buffering effect of social capital

• DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1385592
• Publication Date: 2024-04-24T04:58:00Z
• Authors: Jichao Zheng; Lei Yan
• Keywords: Depression

Background Widowhood is one of the most serious issues affecting mental health older persons. China currently has tens millions widowed adult, which a huge group. It great significance to study impacts widowhood on their and put forward some measures for improvement. Method We used Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data in 2020, included 4,184 adults. Linear regression examine relationship among widowhood, health, social capital. Results Both short-term medium- long-term lead significant increase depression, seriously affects people. At same time, community-level family-level capital have buffering effects loss caused by but this effect heterogeneous, with different types playing roles gender groups. Conclusion The provision care support children good neighborhood relationships can help mitigate psychological impact these are areas where policy make difference.