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Welfare Participation and Depression Symptoms Among Youth in China

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Abstract

Background

Although welfare programs in China provide a safety net for low-income people by directly lifting their incomes, receiving benefits has the potential to affect recipients’ mental health because of the demanding and demeaning means-testing application process required by Chinese policymakers. However, little research has examined the relationship between welfare participation and mental health symptoms—particularly those of depression—among Chinese youth. This study aims to examine the relationship between family participation in the Dibao income-assistance program in China and symptoms of depression among youth.

Methods

This study used a youth sample (n = 4192) of nationally representative data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) survey. Multiple imputation was used to deal with missing data. The imputed data were analyzed using aggregated robust multiple regression. The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D-20) scale was used to measure depression symptoms. In addition, a variety of subgroup analyses were conducted to explore whether the relationship between Dibao participation and symptoms of depression differs significantly by the sociodemographic characteristics.

Results

Youth whose families received Dibao assistance had significantly greater risk for symptoms of depression when compared with peers who did not receive assistance. Results also showed that young women—and especially young mothers—whose families participated in the Dibao program in rural areas were at significantly higher risk compared with others.

Conclusion and Discussion

The relationship between welfare participation and symptoms of depression varies significantly by the characteristics of youths and their families. As a marker for collective disadvantage and adversity, welfare participation warrants research to study program processes and to distinguish pathways—possibly differentiated by gender—that may elevate risk for depression among Dibao program recipients.

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Acknowledgments

The data used in this article are from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) funded by 985 Program of Peking University and carried out by the Institute of Social Science Survey of Peking University. We thank the funders and CFPS team members for providing the data which makes this study possible.

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Correspondence to Shiyou Wu.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. The data collection process was in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Wu, S., Fraser, M.W., Gao, Q. et al. Welfare Participation and Depression Symptoms Among Youth in China. Glob Soc Welf 8, 117–126 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40609-020-00175-3

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