TY - JOUR
T1 - Social support, cognition, and mental health among older people in China
T2 - A longitudinal life course study
AU - Long, Chengxu
AU - Yang, Wei
AU - Glaser, Karen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Authors
PY - 2025/6/6
Y1 - 2025/6/6
N2 - Research suggests that stronger social support systems across life stages facilitate continuous learning and emotional well-being, contributing to better cognition and mental health. However, evidence on the cumulative effect of social support over the life course remains scarce, and even less is known about the impact of broader neighborhood-level social support on individuals’ cognition—a crucial dimension in many countries, where neighborhoods serve as key support units for individuals. Using data from 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2020 waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, we employed mediation analysis to explore how individual and neighborhood social support accumulated across life stages are associated with cognition and depression at older ages. Our findings indicate that receiving individual support in youth was associated with a 0.5-point improvement in later-life cognitive scores, although no direct association was observed with depression. In addition, a one-point increase in the neighborhood support score was associated with a 1.2-point improvement in cognitive scores and 0.5 fewer depressive symptoms at older ages. These associations persist among individuals who were socioeconomically disadvantaged in their youth. Furthermore, both individual and neighborhood support in youth exert indirect effects on later-life cognition and depression by helping individuals maintain social support as they age. Our findings contribute theoretical insights into the importance of social support across life stages and highlight the stronger role of neighborhood support in shaping cognition and depression. Strengthening neighborhood social support and fostering lifelong supportive environments may help mitigate disadvantages in earlier life stages and reduce health disparities.
AB - Research suggests that stronger social support systems across life stages facilitate continuous learning and emotional well-being, contributing to better cognition and mental health. However, evidence on the cumulative effect of social support over the life course remains scarce, and even less is known about the impact of broader neighborhood-level social support on individuals’ cognition—a crucial dimension in many countries, where neighborhoods serve as key support units for individuals. Using data from 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2020 waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, we employed mediation analysis to explore how individual and neighborhood social support accumulated across life stages are associated with cognition and depression at older ages. Our findings indicate that receiving individual support in youth was associated with a 0.5-point improvement in later-life cognitive scores, although no direct association was observed with depression. In addition, a one-point increase in the neighborhood support score was associated with a 1.2-point improvement in cognitive scores and 0.5 fewer depressive symptoms at older ages. These associations persist among individuals who were socioeconomically disadvantaged in their youth. Furthermore, both individual and neighborhood support in youth exert indirect effects on later-life cognition and depression by helping individuals maintain social support as they age. Our findings contribute theoretical insights into the importance of social support across life stages and highlight the stronger role of neighborhood support in shaping cognition and depression. Strengthening neighborhood social support and fostering lifelong supportive environments may help mitigate disadvantages in earlier life stages and reduce health disparities.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105007153604&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118279
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118279
M3 - Article
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 381
JO - Social Science & Medicine
JF - Social Science & Medicine
M1 - 118279
ER -
