Depressive symptoms in three Chinese older workforce groups: the interplay of work stress with family and community factors

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Sun ◽  
Wanlian Li ◽  
Lin Jiang ◽  
Jaewon Lee

ABSTRACTBackground:More people remain in the workforce into their late life as people’s life expectancy increases. This study examined the relationship between work stress and depressive symptoms of older workers in mainland China, focusing on the interplay between work stress with family and community factors in three (i.e., urban, rural, and migrant) settings.Methods:National representative survey data on the Chinese labor force collected by the Social Science Research Center of Sun-Yetsen University in 2014 were used. The sample consisted of 5,751 workers aged 50 and above recruited from 29 out of 31 provinces in mainland China.Results:Work stress had a consistent and robust effect on depressive symptoms across older worker groups. Moreover, it interacted with family and community factors differentially in three settings. For migrant older workers, work stress was a dominant factor affecting their depressive symptoms. Among rural older workers, the influence of work stress on depressive symptoms depended on their family debt and neighborhood cohesion levels.Conclusion:Stressors from work, family, and community comprised a general model that explains depressive symptoms in Chinese older workers. Interventions or service programs aimed at reducing work stress and improving mental health among older adults should consider the complexity of intertwining family and community dynamics as well as respective strengths in urban, rural, and migrant communities.

Rural History ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Flynn ◽  
Philip Lowe ◽  
Michael Winter

England has one of the longest histories of industrialisation and urbanisation of any West European country. This has inevitably had a formative influence in the structuring of its social science research. For political scientists it has involved an almost overwhelming concern with urban political systems and industrial cleavages. An analysis of class based voting has been a major focal point with its implicit assumption that any other cleavages based, for example, on religious or regional identities are marginal or atavistic. Certainly there has been little acknowledgement of any significant urban–rural divide. In consequence the study of rural politics has been something of an intellectual backwater and there has been no attempt to define or identify rural politics as an object of study. The blinkered vision of political scientists is disappointing. It unduly ignores a number of studies that have engaged with mainstream debates and frequently made worthwhile contributions, most notably, with reference to the case of agriculture, in the understanding of relations between government and industry (Cox et al, 1986; Grant, 1983). There are also signs that some political scientists are beginning to reject models of national (i.e. urban) voting behaviour and political systems in favour of more spatially sensitive work in which greater prominence is given to regional and local differences (Dunleavy, 1990; Johnston, 1985, 1987; Johnston et al, 1988).


Author(s):  
Anna Sun

This chapter discusses the long-standing problem of identifying Confucians in China (and East Asia in general) through social science research methods—a problem deeply rooted in the nineteenth-century conceptualization of Confucianism and the overall classification of Chinese religions. It investigates different types of empirical data—national censuses and surveys—from Mainland China, as well as from Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, in order to answer two questions. First is about whether “Confucianism” is a category in religious classifications in these East Asian countries and regions; the second asks about how many people are counted as “Confucians” in China.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Garcia ◽  
Gabriel R. Sanchez ◽  
Shannon Sanchez-Youngman ◽  
Edward D. Vargas ◽  
Vickie D. Ybarra

AbstractA growing body of social science research has sought to conceptualize race as a multi-dimensional concept in which context, societal relations, and institutional dynamics are key components. Utilizing a specially-designed survey, we develop and use multiple measures of race (skin color, ascribed race, and discrimination experiences) to capture race as a “lived experience” and assess these measures’ impact on Latinos’ self-rated health status. We model these measures of race as lived experience to test the explanatory power of race, both independently and as an integrated scale, with categorical regression, scaling, and dimensional analyses. Our analyses show that our multiple measures of race have significant and negative effects on Latinos’ self-reported health. Skin color is a dominant factor that impacts self-reported health both directly and indirectly. We then advocate for the utilization of multiple measures of race, adding to those used in our analysis, and their application to research regarding inequities in other health and social outcomes. Our analysis provides important contributions to research across a wide range of health, illness, social, and political disparities for communities of color.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Lin Zhang ◽  
Yuanyuan Shang ◽  
Ying Huang ◽  
Gunnar Sivertsen

The past 40 years have witnessed profound changes in the international competitiveness of Mainland China’s scientific research. Based on publication data from Chinese researchers in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) from the Web of Science (WoS), this study aims to provide a bird’s-eye view of how social science research in Mainland China has internationalized over the past four decades. The findings show that the number of social science articles published by Chinese authors in international journals has experienced a noticeable increase, and the collaboration networks of researchers from Mainland China have broadened, with the number of articles with a Chinese first author showing a strong upward trend. In addition, findings show that Chinese scholars are published in a wider range of journals, and there has been a steady increase in their appearance in higher impact journals (influenced in part by certain journals). Finally, different social science disciplines show various degrees of internationalization . This study provides a broad view from which to examine the internationalization process in Mainland China’s social science landscape in the last four decades, while also noting some of the possible explanations for these changes, thereby deepening our understanding of social science research stemming from the region.


2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-325
Author(s):  
Wanlian Li ◽  
Fei Sun ◽  
Steven Anderson

Purpose: This study aimed to examine differences in depressive symptoms between urban and rural workers in mainland China and to identify community factors that could contribute to such residential differences. Methods: This study used nationally representative data from the 2014 China’s Labor Force Dynamic Survey. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews on a sample of 22,073 participants from 29 provinces of China, including 15,098 rural workers (Mage = 44.92, standard deviation ( SD) = 14.85) and 6,975 urban workers (Mage = 43.28, SD = 13.62). Mediators included community cohesion, foreseeable community threat, supportive network size and medical benefit coverage. Mediation analyses were conducted using Hayes’ SPSS Macro Process for multiple mediators. Results: Urban participants reported fewer depressive symptoms than their rural counterparts. Lower levels of community cohesion, higher community foreseeable threat and poorer medical coverage were related to fewer depressive symptoms. Rural–urban differences were mediated by community cohesion ( B = −0.12, p < .01), foreseeable community threat ( B = −0.08, p < .01) and medical benefit coverage ( B = 0.25, p < .01). Conclusion: This study sheds light on distinctive roles of community factors in explaining rural–urban differences in depressive symptoms. Policies or programs should be designed to promote strengths and address weaknesses in rural communities.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Zhang ◽  
Yuanyuan Shang ◽  
Ying HUANG ◽  
Gunnar Sivertsen

The past 40 years have witnessed profound changes in the international connectivity and competitiveness of Mainland China’s scientific research. Based on publication data about Chinese researchers in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) from the Web of Science (WoS), this study aims to provide a birds-eye view of how social science research in Mainland China has internationalized over the past four decades. The findings show that the number of social science articles published by Chinese authors in international journals has experienced a noticeable increase over the period and the collaboration networks of researchers from Mainland China have broadened, with the number of articles with a Chinese first author showing a strong upward trend. In addition, findings show that Chinese scholars are published in a wider range of journals and there has been a steady increase in their appearance in higher impact journals (influenced in part by certain journals). Finally, different social science disciplines show various degrees of internationalization, with Psychology and Business, Economics, Planning accounting for a high proportion of international collaboration articles, while the proportion of Mainland China-led articles and Q1 articles are relatively higher in the areas of Education, Media &amp; Information, and Community &amp; Social Issues. This study provides a broad view from which to examine the internationalization process in Mainland China’s social science landscape in the last four decades while also noting some of the possible underlying explanations for these changes, thereby deepening our understanding of social science research stemming from the region.


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