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Childhood neighbourhood quality, peer relationships, and trajectory of depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older Chinese adults

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to examine childhood neighbourhood quality, peer relationships, and trajectories of depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older Chinese adults.

Methods

The data came from the longitudinal dataset from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS, 2011–2018). Depressive symptoms were measured repeatedly using the ten-item Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D-10). Latent growth modelling was used to capture the trajectory of depressive symptoms by childhood neighbourhood quality, and peer relationships.

Results

The mean level of depressive symptoms increased gradually in the follow-up period. Poorer childhood neighbourhood quality, and peer relationships were significantly associated with higher levels of depression in later life (β = 0.18 and β = 0.28 for aged 45–59, p < 0.001; β = 0.16 and β = 0.33 for aged 60 and over, p < 0.001) at baseline and a faster increase in depressive symptoms with age for childhood neighbourhood quality (β = 0.03, p < 0.01 for aged 45–59; β = 0.05, p < 0.01 for aged 60 and over). For males and females, poorer childhood neighbourhood quality, and peer relationships predicted higher levels of depression at baseline (β = 0.17 and β = 0.36 for males, p < 0.001; β = 0.16 and β = 0.27 for females, p < 0.001), and only neighbourhood quality was associated with a higher rate of change in depression during follow-up (β = 0.03, and β = 0.04, p < 0.05, respectively).

Conclusion

Poorer childhood neighbourhood quality was associated with the slope of change in depressive symptoms. Efforts towards improving childhood living conditions may help to prevent the detrimental health effects of such early life disadvantages.

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Data availability

Researchers can access the CHARLS data via the link http://charls.pku.edu.cn/en/.

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Acknowledgements

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The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.

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  1. School of Public Administration, Beihang University, 37 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China

    Lei Yang

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Yang, L. Childhood neighbourhood quality, peer relationships, and trajectory of depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older Chinese adults. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-024-02612-6

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