ArticleFrontiers in public health2025
The impact of intergenerational support on the mental health of older adults: a discussion of three dimensions of support.
Article in Frontiers in public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Family Structure and Its Changes and Depressive Symptoms in Later Life: How Intergenerational Support Makes a Difference.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Perceived social support and life engagement among older adults using thermal health tourism services: the moderating role of aging anxiety.Frontiers in health services · 2026Article
- Sentiment trajectory modeling in mental health discussions via transformer-based analysis.Frontiers in artificial intelligence · 2026Article
- The impact of China's home and community-based older adult care reform policies on the mental health of older adults: a nationwide quasi-experimental study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Multivariate Patterns in Mental Health Burden and Psychiatric Resource Allocation in Europe: A Principal Component Analysis.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The temporal relationship between social adaptation and depression: based on cross-lagged network analysis.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Psychological Well-Being Among Older Chinese Migrants in Chiang Mai, Thailand: A Cross-Sectional Study on Structural and Psychosocial Resources.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2025Article
- The impact of bidirectional emotional support on social isolation in older adults: the mediating role of depression and the moderating role of activities of daily living.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Demoralization profiles and their association with active aging in Chinese older adults with disabilities: a latent profile analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
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4 authors.
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Abstract
Introduction: This paper examines the effects of intergenerational support on the mental health of older adults and elucidates the mechanisms underlying these effects. Methods: Utilizing data from the 2020 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), We examine the effects of different dimensions of intergenerational support on the positive and negative emotions of older adults based on the main effect model and the buffer model. Then we employ instrumental variable methods to address key endogeneity concerns. The indirect effect mechanism through which children's economic support influences the mental health of the older adults was examined using a mediation model. In addition, robustness tests and heterogeneity analyses were conducted. Results: The intergenerational support from children has a significant impact on the mental health of older adults. All three types of support contribute to the positive emotions of older adults. In terms of the impact on negative emotions, the regression coefficients for financial support and emotional support are significantly negative, while the direction of the effect of caregiving support is positive. Additionally, financial support promotes the mental health of the older adults by influencing their social participation. Heterogeneity analysis further indicates that the impact of intergenerational support varies across different subpopulations, with rural older adults particularly benefiting from emotional support. Discussion: Our findings reveal that financial support from adult children enhances older adults' mental health by improving positive emotions and reducing negative emotions, and emotional support from children has a similar effect. However, while caregiving by adult children significantly boosts positive emotions among older adults, long-term caregiving also engenders feelings of guilt, which in turn exacerbates negative emotions and diminishes overall mental health. Our study emphasizes the need to consider Filial Piety Culture, social care support and social participation in order to improve older adults' mental health.
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