IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dem/wpaper/wp-2025-005.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Adult children’s unemployment and parental mental health in India: social and economic moderators

Author

Listed:
  • Rishabh Tyagi

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

  • Anna Baranowska-Rataj
  • Alexi Gugushvili

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between adult children's unemployment and parental mental health. Given India's vast inequalities in social capital and income, we examine their moderating effects on this relationship. We use data from the Longitudinal Ageing Survey of India, including 73,396 individuals aged 45 and above. We consider exposure to the unemployment of adult children as a treatment and measure parental risk of depression using the CES-D score, with respondents reporting four or more symptoms out of 10 considered “depressed”. We employ inverse probability weighting based on the logistic regression model to form a pseudo-control group, accounting for the confounding demographic and socio-economic factors. Our findings show a 3.11 percentage point (ppt) increase in absolute terms (and a 12.30% relative increase) in the probability of parental depression associated with adult children's unemployment. Moderation analyses reveal that among older adults with high social participation, there is no increase in their risk of depression following their children's unemployment. Similarly, among older adults residing in low and medium-income inequality states, the negative consequences of their children's unemployment are weaker. Overall, this research concludes that while adult children’s unemployment is associated with an increased risk of parental depression, higher social participation and residing in low or medium-income inequality states have protective effects on older adults’ mental health following their children's unemployment. Governments may consider expanding labour market policies supporting youth labour market entry as a means to improve not only the employability of younger individuals, but also the well-being of older generations.

Suggested Citation

  • Rishabh Tyagi & Anna Baranowska-Rataj & Alexi Gugushvili, 2025. "Adult children’s unemployment and parental mental health in India: social and economic moderators," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2025-005, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2025-005
    DOI: 10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2025-005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/working/wp-2025-005.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2025-005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Young, Anne F. & Russell, Anne & Powers, Jennifer R., 2004. "The sense of belonging to a neighbourhood: can it be measured and is it related to health and well being in older women?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(12), pages 2627-2637, December.
    2. Levasseur, Mélanie & Richard, Lucie & Gauvin, Lise & Raymond, Émilie, 2010. "Inventory and analysis of definitions of social participation found in the aging literature: Proposed taxonomy of social activities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(12), pages 2141-2149, December.
    3. Ang, Shannon, 2018. "Social participation and health over the adult life course: Does the association strengthen with age?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 51-59.
    4. S. Chandrasekhar & Karthikeya Naraparaju & Ajay Sharma, 2021. "Spatial disparities in household earnings in India: Role of urbanization, sectoral inequalities, and rural-urban differences," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2021-009, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    5. Hansen, Kerstin F. & Stutzer, Alois, 2022. "Parental unemployment, social insurance and child well-being across countries," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 600-617.
    6. Pickett, Kate E. & Wilkinson, Richard G., 2015. "Income inequality and health: A causal review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 316-326.
    7. Sirven, Nicolas & Debrand, Thierry, 2008. "Social participation and healthy ageing: An international comparison using SHARE data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 2017-2026, December.
    8. Villalonga-Olives, E. & Kawachi, I., 2017. "The dark side of social capital: A systematic review of the negative health effects of social capital," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 105-127.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hong, Andy & Sallis, James F. & King, Abby C. & Conway, Terry L. & Saelens, Brian & Cain, Kelli L. & Fox, Eric H. & Frank, Lawrence D., 2018. "Linking green space to neighborhood social capital in older adults: The role of perceived safety," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 38-45.
    2. Oberndorfer, Moritz & Leyland, Alastair H. & Pearce, Jamie & Grabovac, Igor & Hannah, Mary K. & Dorner, Thomas E., 2023. "Unequally Unequal? Contextual-level status inequality and social cohesion moderating the association between individual-level socioeconomic position and systemic chronic inflammation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 333(C).
    3. Elgar, Frank J. & Stefaniak, Anna & Wohl, Michael J.A., 2020. "The trouble with trust: Time-series analysis of social capital, income inequality, and COVID-19 deaths in 84 countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    4. Takashi Oshio & Kemmyo Sugiyama & Toyo Ashida, 2024. "Can Social Participation Reduce and Postpone the Need for Long-Term Care? Evidence from a 17-Wave Nationwide Survey in Japan," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 19(3), pages 1293-1308, June.
    5. Thomas Akintayo & Niina Häkälä & Katja Ropponen & Elsa Paronen & Sari Rissanen, 2016. "Predictive Factors for Voluntary and/or Paid Work among Adults in their Sixties," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 1387-1404, September.
    6. Santini, Ziggi Ivan & Jose, Paul E. & Koyanagi, Ai & Meilstrup, Charlotte & Nielsen, Line & Madsen, Katrine R. & Koushede, Vibeke, 2020. "Formal social participation protects physical health through enhanced mental health: A longitudinal mediation analysis using three consecutive waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in E," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    7. Vu, Trung V., 2020. "Economic complexity and health outcomes: A global perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    8. Ilaria Natali & Mathias Dewatripont & Victor Ginsburgh & Michel Goldman & Patrick Legros, 2023. "Prescription opioids and economic hardship in France," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 24(9), pages 1473-1504, December.
    9. Ofori, Isaac K. & Osei, Dennis B. & Alagidede, Imhotep P., 2022. "Inclusive growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Exploring the interaction between ICT diffusion and financial development," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 46(7).
    10. Gan, Daniel R.Y. & Fung, John Chye & Cho, Im Sik, 2021. "Neighborhood atmosphere modifies the eudaimonic impact of cohesion and friendship among older adults: A multilevel mixed-methods study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    11. Keim, Jan & Müller, Susan & Dey, Pascal, 2024. "Whatever the problem, entrepreneurship is the solution! Confronting the panacea myth of entrepreneurship with structural injustice," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).
    12. Carolina Mayen Huerta & Ariane Utomo, 2022. "Barriers Affecting Women’s Access to Urban Green Spaces during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-18, April.
    13. Isaac K. Ofori & Mark K. Armah & Emmanuel E. Asmah, 2021. "Towards the Reversal of Poverty and Income Inequality Setbacks Due to COVID-19: The Role of Globalisation and Resource Allocation," Working Papers 21/043, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    14. Irakli Japaridze & Nagham Sayour, 2021. "Dying from envy: The role of inequality," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1374-1392, June.
    15. Koyama, Yuna & Fujiwara, Takeo & Yagi, Junko & Mashiko, Hirobumi, 2022. "Association of parental dissatisfaction and perceived inequality of post-disaster recovery process with child mental health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    16. Rory Horner & David Hulme, 2019. "From International to Global Development: New Geographies of 21st Century Development," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 50(2), pages 347-378, March.
    17. Sinha, Kompal & Davillas, Apostolos & Jones, Andrew M. & Sharma, Anurag, 2021. "Do socioeconomic health gradients persist over time and beyond income? A distributional analysis using UK biomarker data," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    18. Michael Cauvel & Miguel Alejandro Sanchez, 2023. "Life Expectancy and the Labor Share in the U.S," Working Papers PKWP2308, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    19. Daza, Sebastian & palloni, alberto, 2018. "Income Mobility, Income Inequality and Mortality in the U.S," SocArXiv gdz2a_v1, Center for Open Science.
    20. Anson Au, 2023. "Reassessing the econometric measurement of inequality and poverty: toward a cost-of-living approach," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    India; inequality; mental health; social capital; unemployment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2025-005. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Wilhelm (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.