Proceedings of the 2022 5th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2022)

Effects of Parental Favoritism in Childhood on Depression among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Evidence from China

Authors
Wenxin Jiang1, Zhengxiu Sun2, Chao Ma1, *
1School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210009, China
2School of Economics and Management, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211102, China
*Corresponding author. Email: machao@seu.edu.cn
Corresponding Author
Chao Ma
Available Online 30 December 2022.
DOI
10.2991/978-2-494069-89-3_77How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Parental favoritism in childhood; Depression; Middle-aged and older adults; Life course theory; CHARLS
Abstract

Based on the life course theory, we quantitatively analyze the effects of parental favoritism in childhood on the depression of middle-aged and older adults. Using the 2014 and 2018 data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS), we found that the damaging effects of parental favoritism in childhood on depression among middle-aged and elderly adults were statistically significant (P<0.05). Moreover, there is gender heterogeneity in this effect. The respondents' middle-aged and late-life depression is statistically related to same-sex caregiver favoritism only. Respondents' self-reported parental favoritism is not just a feeling but is significantly related to allocating resources such as family education and nutrition in the early years. Policymakers should take early action to guide multi-child families with fair parenting and scientific education, prevent middle-aged and elderly depression, and improve this group's whole life health based on the life course perspective.

Copyright
© 2022 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 2022 5th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2022)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
30 December 2022
ISBN
978-2-494069-89-3
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/978-2-494069-89-3_77How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2022 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

TY  - CONF
AU  - Wenxin Jiang
AU  - Zhengxiu Sun
AU  - Chao Ma
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/12/30
TI  - Effects of Parental Favoritism in Childhood on Depression among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Evidence from China
BT  - Proceedings of the 2022 5th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 646
EP  - 660
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-494069-89-3_77
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-494069-89-3_77
ID  - Jiang2022
ER  -