Childhood neighbourhood quality, peer relationships, and trajectory of depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older Chinese adults

This study aimed to examine childhood neighbourhood quality, peer relationships, and trajectories of depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older Chinese adults.

The data came from the longitudinal dataset from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS, 2011–2018). Depressive symptoms were measured repeatedly using the ten-item Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D-10). Latent growth modelling was used to capture the trajectory of depressive symptoms by childhood neighbourhood quality, and peer relationships.

The mean level of depressive symptoms increased gradually in the follow-up period. Poorer childhood neighbourhood quality, and peer relationships were significantly associated with higher levels of depression in later life (β = 0.18 and β = 0.28 for aged 45–59, p < 0.001; β = 0.16 and β = 0.33 for aged 60 and over, p < 0.001) at baseline and a faster increase in depressive symptoms with age for childhood neighbourhood quality (β = 0.03, p < 0.01 for aged 45–59; β = 0.05, p < 0.01 for aged 60 and over). For males and females, poorer childhood neighbourhood quality, and peer relationships predicted higher levels of depression at baseline (β = 0.17 and β = 0.36 for males, p < 0.001; β = 0.16 and β = 0.27 for females, p < 0.001), and only neighbourhood quality was associated with a higher rate of change in depression during follow-up (β = 0.03, and β = 0.04, p < 0.05, respectively).

Poorer childhood neighbourhood quality was associated with the slope of change in depressive symptoms. Efforts towards improving childhood living conditions may help to prevent the detrimental health effects of such early life disadvantages.