Stressful Life Events and Chinese Older People Depression: Moderating Role of Social Support

Aim: This study analyzes the effects of retrospective stressful life events on current depression among Chinese older people and how these effects are moderated by social support. Stressful life events comprise bereavement, divorce, health adversities, accidents, and financial losses due to fraud.Data and Method: Data were drawn from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) of the 2015 panel, and responses from 9,619 older people aged over 60 years were used. The least-squares regression method was applied to measure the linear effects. Propensity score matching minimized selection bias and enabled the measurement of the net effects of stressful life events. The bias-corrected matching estimator was also used to correct the inexact matching bias from propensity score matching.Result: Experienced stressful life events and exposure to cumulative stressful life events were found to lead to depression in older people. When older people experienced stressful life events but with more social activities, and higher satisfaction and frequent contact with children, their depressive levels were lower. The results of the propensity score matching showed that stressful life events resulted in depression in older people. Furthermore, individuals with family support were able to moderate stressful life events effects; however, the moderating effects of social activity separately were negligible. In sum, with the moderating role of family support and social activity, the average differences in older people depression caused by stressful life events decreased.Conclusion: Experiencing stressful life events is detrimental to the psychological health of the older people. Social support, including family support and social activity, has buffered detrimental effects on depression caused by stressful life events.Interpretations: The study underscores the need to supply effective interventions for the older people who experienced stressful life events. First, society should improve the capability of community care centers to supply mental health services. Second, family members should pay attention to mental condition of older people, and specific support should concord with the needs of Chinese older people. In addition, support suppliers can move from being confined to kinship relationships to close relationships, such as the community partners and neighbors.

The media image of Chinese older people: From stigmatic stereotype to diverse self-representation

From the perspective of communication and media studies, this article explores a comparison between the image of older adults presented on media and online self-representation facilitated by the use of smartphones. The qualitative textual analysis was conducted with a sample (228 posts, from 1 January to 31 December,2019) selected from a representative WeChat Public Account targeting at older adults in China. The results demonstrate that leisure and recreation is the most frequently mentioned topic (58%) with memories of past life receiving the least references (3%). The striking features of popular posts among older people include a highly emotional tone, bright colours and multimedia. Sentiment analyses shows 68.42%, 13.16% and 18.42% of positive, neutral and negative emotions, respectively. A generally positive attitude of self-representation is in a sharp contrast with the stigmatic media image of older adults. The article concludes that the visibility of Chinese older people may help to reduce the stigma surrounding old age in China.

Effects of a culturally adapted group based Montessori based activities on engagement and affect in Chinese older people with dementia: a randomized controlled trial

Background The Montessori Method underpinned by the principle of person-centered care has been widely adopted to design activities for people with dementia. However, the methodological quality of the existing evidence is fair. The objectives of this study are to examine the feasibility and effects of a culturally adapted group-based Montessori Method for Dementia program in Chinese community on engagement and affect in community-dwelling people with dementia. Methods This was a two-arm randomized controlled trial. People who were aged 60 years or over and with mild to moderate dementia were recruited and randomly assigned to the intervention group to receive Montessori-based activities or the comparison group to receive conventional group activities over eight weeks. The attendance rates were recorded for evaluating the feasibility. The Menorah Park Engagement Scale and the Apparent Affect Rating Scale were used to assess the engagement and affect during the activities based on observations. Generalized Estimating Equation model was used to examine the intervention effect on the outcomes across the sessions. Results A total of 108 people with dementia were recruited. The average attendance rate of the intervention group (81.5%) was higher than that of the comparison group (76.3%). There was a significant time-by-group intervention effect on constructive engagement in the first 10 minutes of the sessions (Wald χ2 = 15.21–19.93, ps = 0.006–0.033), as well as on pleasure (Wald χ2 = 25.37–25.73, ps ≤ 0.001) and interest (Wald χ2 = 19.14–21.11, ps = 0.004–0.008) in the first and the middle 10 minutes of the sessions, adjusted for cognitive functioning. Conclusions This study provide evidence that Montessori-based group activities adapted to the local cultural context could effectively engage community-dwelling Chinese older people with mild to moderate dementia in social interactions and meaningful activities and significantly increase their positive affect. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04352387. Registered 20 April 2020. Retrospectively registered.

The missing group? Situating transnational contacts in defamilisation research

Defamilisation research is increasingly seen as an important component of studies of welfare and social work. It is concerned with people’s vulnerability to defamilisation risks, which are caused by insufficient opportunities for people to choose whether and how they participate in the family. Despite an increasing emphasis on defamilisation research, there has been insufficient attention given to how studies of transnational contacts contribute to defamilisation research. This article argues for the need to expand the scope of defamilisation research to incorporate the concept of ‘transnational contact-led strategies’ using evidence from focus groups with Chinese older people in the United Kingdom.