Childhood Poverty and Depressive Symptoms for Older Adults in Mexico: A Life-Course Analysis

• Published in: Journal of cross-cultural gerontology Vol. 28; no. 3; pp. 317 - 337
• Main Authors: Torres, Jacqueline M., Wong, Rebeca
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.09.2013; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Aging; Anthropology; Child; Child, Preschool; Childhood; Children & youth; Depression; Depression (Psychology); Depression - epidemiology; Educational Attainment; Elderly; Female; Geriatrics/Gerontology; Humans; Life cycles; Life Events; Male; Mental depression; Mexico; Mexico - epidemiology; Middle Aged; Old age; Older people; Original Article; Philosophy of Medicine; Poverty; Poverty - psychology; Regression Analysis; Social Sciences; Socioeconomic Status; Theory of Medicine/Bioethics; Mexico; Depressive symptoms; Mexico; Older adults; Life-course; Childhood socio-economic status
• ISSN: 0169-3816; 1573-0719
• DOI: 10.1007/s10823-013-9198-1

This study applies life-course theories of latent (direct), pathway (indirect) and conditional effects in an analysis of childhood poverty on later-life depressive symptoms among older adults in Mexico. Data are from the 2001 Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), a nationally representative sample of older adults born before 1951 (n = 8696). Respondents had a mean of 3.6 past-week depressive symptoms and 71 % had no household sanitation facilities before age 10; this measure served as a proxy for childhood poverty. Childhood poverty is significantly related to scores on an adapted 9-item CES-D scale in the full model (b = 0.27, p < 0.001). This effect is partially mediated by four adult socio-economic status measures, although decomposition analysis reveals the mediation effect to be primarily driven by educational achievement. These findings have important implications for Mexico’s rapidly aging population as well as efforts for childhood poverty reduction and gains in education.