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The Roads One Must Walk Down: Commute and Depression for Beijing’s Residents

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  • Wang, Xize

    (National University of Singapore)

  • Liu, Tao

Abstract

As a vital aspect of individual’s quality of life, mental health has been included as an important component of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. This study focuses on a specific aspect of mental health: depression, and examines its relationship with commute patterns. Using survey data from 1,528 residents in Beijing, China, we find that every 10 additional minutes of commute time is associated with 1.1% higher probability of depression. We test for the mechanisms of the commute-depression link and find that commute is associated with depression as a direct stressor rather than triggering higher work stress. When decomposing commute time into mode-specific time, we found that time on mopeds/motorcycles has the strongest association with depression. Moreover, the commute-depression associations are stronger for older workers and blue-collar workers. Hence, policies that could reduce commute time, encourage work from home, improve job-housing balance or increase motorcyclists’ safety would help promote mental health.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Xize & Liu, Tao, 2022. "The Roads One Must Walk Down: Commute and Depression for Beijing’s Residents," SocArXiv dj8av_v1, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:dj8av_v1
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/dj8av_v1
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