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Does social capital aid in leveling the income gradient in child mental health? A structural analysis of the left-behind and not-left-behind Chinese children

BACKGROUND: Few prior studies have investigated the income gradient in child mental health from a socio-environmental perspective. In an age when child mental health problems in a rapidly changing social environment have become a worldwide issue, an understanding of the socio-environmental mechanism...

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Autores principales: Gu, Lijuan, Yang, Linsheng, Li, Hairong
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10360305/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37474894
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16264-9
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author Gu, Lijuan
Yang, Linsheng
Li, Hairong
author_facet Gu, Lijuan
Yang, Linsheng
Li, Hairong
author_sort Gu, Lijuan
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Few prior studies have investigated the income gradient in child mental health from a socio-environmental perspective. In an age when child mental health problems in a rapidly changing social environment have become a worldwide issue, an understanding of the socio-environmental mechanisms of the income disparities in child mental health outcomes is imperative and cost-effective. METHODS: By conducting structural equation analyses with Chinese nationally representative survey data, this study explored the family income gradient in child depression and its potential socio-environmental pathways at the neighborhood, family and school levels, differentiating left-behind and not-left-behind children. RESULTS: We found a robust family income gradient in depressive symptoms. Neighborhood cohesion mitigated the income gradient in depressive symptoms by playing a suppression role. School social capital acted as a mediator. Neighborhood trust, neighborhood safety and family social capital played no significant impact. The mitigating and mediating roles of social capital components were significant among only the not-left-behind children. CONCLUSIONS: To reduce income-related inequalities in child mental health in the long run, integrating policies that directly reduce poverty with policies that improve distal socio-environments is necessary. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-023-16264-9.
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spelling pubmed-103603052023-07-22 Does social capital aid in leveling the income gradient in child mental health? A structural analysis of the left-behind and not-left-behind Chinese children Gu, Lijuan Yang, Linsheng Li, Hairong BMC Public Health Research BACKGROUND: Few prior studies have investigated the income gradient in child mental health from a socio-environmental perspective. In an age when child mental health problems in a rapidly changing social environment have become a worldwide issue, an understanding of the socio-environmental mechanisms of the income disparities in child mental health outcomes is imperative and cost-effective. METHODS: By conducting structural equation analyses with Chinese nationally representative survey data, this study explored the family income gradient in child depression and its potential socio-environmental pathways at the neighborhood, family and school levels, differentiating left-behind and not-left-behind children. RESULTS: We found a robust family income gradient in depressive symptoms. Neighborhood cohesion mitigated the income gradient in depressive symptoms by playing a suppression role. School social capital acted as a mediator. Neighborhood trust, neighborhood safety and family social capital played no significant impact. The mitigating and mediating roles of social capital components were significant among only the not-left-behind children. CONCLUSIONS: To reduce income-related inequalities in child mental health in the long run, integrating policies that directly reduce poverty with policies that improve distal socio-environments is necessary. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-023-16264-9. BioMed Central 2023-07-20 /pmc/articles/PMC10360305/ /pubmed/37474894 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16264-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Gu, Lijuan
Yang, Linsheng
Li, Hairong
Does social capital aid in leveling the income gradient in child mental health? A structural analysis of the left-behind and not-left-behind Chinese children
title Does social capital aid in leveling the income gradient in child mental health? A structural analysis of the left-behind and not-left-behind Chinese children
title_full Does social capital aid in leveling the income gradient in child mental health? A structural analysis of the left-behind and not-left-behind Chinese children
title_fullStr Does social capital aid in leveling the income gradient in child mental health? A structural analysis of the left-behind and not-left-behind Chinese children
title_full_unstemmed Does social capital aid in leveling the income gradient in child mental health? A structural analysis of the left-behind and not-left-behind Chinese children
title_short Does social capital aid in leveling the income gradient in child mental health? A structural analysis of the left-behind and not-left-behind Chinese children
title_sort does social capital aid in leveling the income gradient in child mental health? a structural analysis of the left-behind and not-left-behind chinese children
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10360305/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37474894
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16264-9
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