ArticleJournal of clinical psychology2026
Association of Online Parent-Child Interactions With Depressive Symptoms Among Middle-Aged and Older Empty Nesters in China.
Article in Journal of clinical psychology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveDepression is prevalent among empty nest older adults who do not live with their children. With rapid technological development, online interaction presents a new opportunity to improve older adults' mental health. However, the relationship of online parent-child interaction with depressive symptoms among empty nesters remains under-examined. Guided by the social support theory, this cross-sectional study examined the association between online parent-child interaction and depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older Chinese empty nesters.
methodsA total of 5198 Chinese empty nesters aged 45+ from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were included. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Participants reported the frequency they contacted their children via online. Negative binomial and Poisson regression were utilized. Interaction terms examined the moderation role of gender, marital status, and education in the relationship.
results36.5% of participants reported elevated depressive symptoms and 59.8% of them contacted their children weekly or biweekly. More frequent online parent-child interaction was significantly associated with lower risk of depressive symptoms (incident rate ratio = 0.981, 95% CI = 0.972, 0.990; relative risk = 0.978, 95% CI = 0.963, 0.993). The moderation role of gender and education was not significant (p > 0.05). However, married/partnered participants had stronger association than their partnerless counterparts.
conclusionOnline parent-child interaction was associated with fewer depressive symptoms among Chinese empty nesters in this cross-sectional study. These findings suggest that digital family communication may be a meaningful social context to understand their psychological well‑being.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.