FSS-DSOC Luncheon Seminar: “Assortative Mating and Depression Among Older Chinese: Education and Parental Education, Gender”, by Ms. Yixuan Tang

Previous studies have demonstrated a positive association between personal education and health. However, the roles of assortative mating and gender in the associations of education and health have not been well established. Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), this study aims to examine the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES), assortative mating, gender, and depressive symptoms in later life. We measure the assortative mating patterns in education at both personal and parental-level. Our evidence shows that: (1) older individuals’ education and parental education are both negatively associated with depression; (2) older individuals in hypergamous marriages tend to report more depressive symptoms than those in homogamous marriage. Furthermore, we identify a three-way interaction effect on depressive symptoms by individuals’ education/parental education, mating patterns, and gender. The findings reveal that gender differences in depression are different among older individuals with different levels of parental education in different mating patterns. Specifically, we find that women whose parents have middle or above education tend to report the highest depression in hypergamous marriage.

Ms. Yixuan Tang is currently the Ph.D. student at Department of Sociology, FSS. Her research interests are Family and Marriage, Aging, Population health, Gender, Casual inference.