论文标题：Is caregiving by baby boomer women related to the presence of depressive symptoms? Evidence from eight national surveys

期刊：BMC Women’s Health

作者：Chi Chiao and Yun-Yu Chen

发表时间：2018/12/19

数字识别码：10.1186/s12905-018-0696-8

原文链接：http://t.cn/AipDMg47

微信链接：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Ku5GHUSsQN1bF_0eeZDxwA

BMC Womens Health 近期发表的一项全球调查数据分析发现，出生于婴儿潮一代（上世纪40年代中期至60年代中期的）女性的抑郁症状与其承担的看护责任之间存在相关性，这一关系还受社会、文化、教育、就业情况等多因素的影响。接下来的分享主要围绕这一发现及其对公共卫生决策的意义进行讨论。

“看护”（Caregiving），即向有身体、心理或发育障碍或需求的亲属或熟人提供无偿帮助，对社会稳定非常重要。据估计，在美国，无偿护理的总价值约为3.2万亿美元，而在英国则为570亿英镑。但多项研究表明，看护行为提升了看护者的精神压力。这一问题对女性尤为重要，因为在许多国家和文化中，绝大部分看护责任由女性承担。平均而言，女性承担的无偿看护和家务劳动几乎是男性的2.5倍。

“婴儿潮一代”指的是1946年至1964年间出生的社会群体，他们成长于第二次世界大战后全球快速增长的时期。与前几代相比，“婴儿潮一代”普遍受教育程度较高，从事管理和专业岗位的比例也更高。这一趋势促使婴儿潮一代女性寻找其他看护方式，如疗养院、生活协助、托儿中心等以平衡工作和家庭。为了研究特定情境下的精神卫生需求，Chi Chiao和Yun-Yu Chen对婴儿潮一代女性的心理压力和看护情况进行了调查。

根据全球老龄化数据，Chiao和Chen共分析了8个包含婴儿潮一代群体的数据和相关变量的数据库；经过筛选，研究最终涵盖了16,733名婴儿潮一代女性。研究发现，承担看护责任的女性存在抑郁症状的可能性是不承担看护责任女性的1.3倍。有趣的是，单独的已婚或工作都与低抑郁程度相关，但已婚且工作的女性却更容易出现抑郁症状。

此外，随着教育水平的提高，出现抑郁症状的可能性逐渐降低，这突出了教育的重要作用。在就业状况方面，在女性从事专业或管理岗位比例高的国家，或女性从事不稳定职业（无偿家庭工作或自营职业）比例高的国家，妇女均面临更高的抑郁发生风险。

研究人员指出，上述结果可以用工作-家庭冲突模型解释：女性的工作和家庭责任常常发生冲突，导致女性精神压力增加，因而更容易出现抑郁症状。

尽管仍需更多的研究加以验证，但该项研究的结果强调了教育、就业和婚姻各自作为独立因素对婴儿潮一代女性的心理健康具有保护作用，在设计女性心理问题预防和干预项目时也必须考虑到婴儿潮一代女性特定的社会背景。

摘要：

Background

A common hypothesis is that caregiving is deleterious to women’s mental health. International studies continue to emphasize the importance of mental health issues for women. Yet only a few researchers have used population-based surveys to explore the association between caregiving and depressive symptomatology in the context of the community, and even less is known about this aspect of Baby Boomer women in a global context.

Methods

The present study uses eight international surveys covering nineteen nations (N = 15,100) and uses multilevel logistic models to examine possible linkages between caregiving and the likelihood of depressive symptoms among Baby Boomer women, when taking individual-level and country-level social factors into consideration.

Results

The various analyses found a significant variation in the likelihood of depressive symptoms among these Boomer women across the nations investigated and across both individual-level and country-level characteristics. The significant association of caregiving by women and the likelihood of depressive symptoms is related to their social status in some nations (OR = 1.30; p < 0.001). Boomer women living in countries with high rates of female participation in managerial/professional work (OR = 1.04; p < 0.05) and living in countries where women are often in vulnerable employment (OR = 1.01; p < 0.05) are at greater risk of depressive symptomatology.

Conclusions

These findings demonstrate that the depressive consequences of caregiving by women are, to some degree, contingent upon social context and structure. Policies aimed at promoting mental health among female Baby Boomers should therefore be context specific.

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期刊介绍:

BMC Womens Health(https://bmcwomenshealth.biomedcentral.com/,1.592 - 2-year Impact Factor,2.297 - 5-year Impact Factor) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on all aspects of the health and wellbeing of adolescent girls and women, with a particular focus on the physical, mental, and emotional health of women in developed and developing nations. The journal welcomes submissions on womens public health issues, health behaviours, breast cancer, gynecological diseases, mental health and health promotion.

（来源：科学网）