丧偶冲击与老年人心理福利:基于PSM-DID方法的证据

The Shock of Widowhood and Psychological Welfare of Older Adults:Evidence Based on the PSM-DID Method

将丧偶视作一项事件冲击,构建“压力事件-压力易感因素-心理福利”分析框架,运用中国老年健康影响因素跟踪调查(CLHLS)2014-2018年数据,结合PSM-DID因果推断方法,考察丧偶事件对中国老年人心理福利的冲击效应。结果表明:丧偶前后老年人心理福利变化显著,整体心理福利、积极心理福利更差,消极心理福利更明显。进一步分析表明:丧偶事件带来的冲击效应在高龄、男性、家庭活动型(每天做家务、每天看电视、更少参加社交活动)、高学历、有子女的老年群体中更加显著。运用所罗门实验逻辑进行稳健性分析,结果与主效应一致。老龄化加深必然导致丧偶老年人口不断增多,关注丧偶老年人的心理健康与晚年生活质量,是健康中国战略的题中应有之义。

Regarding widowhood as an event of shock,we constructed an analytical framework of'stressful events-stress susceptibility factors-psychological welfare".Then the impact of widowhood on psychological welfare of Chinese older adults was explored by using data of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey(CLHLS)from 2014 to 2018 and the PSM-DID causal inference method.Results show that psychological welfare of older adults changes significantly before and after widowhood,the positive and overall psychological welfare become worse,and the negative psychological welfare is more obvious.A further analysis shows that the effect of widowhood is more significant in people at an advanced age,elderly men,family-active older adults(doing housework almost every day,watching TV every day,participating in social activities less),older people with a high level of education,and elders with children.The results of robustness analysis using Solomon's experimental logic were consistent with the main effect.The deepening of population ageing will inevitably lead to an increasing number of widowed older people.Therefore,paying attention to the mental health and quality of life of widowed elders in their later life is part of the Healthy China strategy.