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Do social contacts improve the mental health of middle-aged and older adults in China?

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Abstract

This paper aims to investigate how social contacts affect middle-aged and older adults’ (MOA) mental health, happiness, depression, and loneliness in China. The results show that social relations lead to an improvement of mental health and happiness and relief of depression and loneliness. For respondents who changed the status of their social contacts during the sample period, social relations benefit overall mental health and happiness but have no significant impact on depression and loneliness. Moreover, the loss in mental health and happiness from quitting the social activities exceeds the gain from joining. This asymmetrical impact between adding and dropping social contacts emphasizes the importance of maintaining the social relations of current participants. On average, the MOA’s willingness to pay (WTP) for social contacts ranges from $235 to $270, or 9.57–11.00% of income a year.

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  1. Department of Economics, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, 65409, USA

    Yishu Zhou

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  1. Yishu Zhou
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Correspondence to Yishu Zhou.

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Zhou, Y. Do social contacts improve the mental health of middle-aged and older adults in China?. China popul. dev. stud. 4, 98–113 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42379-020-00056-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42379-020-00056-4

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