title: Intergenerational relationships and the trajectory of depressive symptoms among older Chinese adults in rural migrant families.
abstract: This study examined the trajectory patterns of depressive symptoms of older rural Chinese adults in migrant families and the role of intergenerational relationships in predicting trajectory class memberships.
  
  
  
  Data were derived from the 2001, 2003, 2006, and 2009 waves of a longitudinal survey titled The Well-being of Older People in Anhui Province. The sample featured 486 respondents who had at least one migrant adult children at all four waves. Growth mixture modeling was used to investigate the trajectory classifications of depressive symptoms from 2001 to 2009 and antecedents in differentiating among class memberships.
  
  
  
  The findings suggested a two-class model to interpret depressive symptom trajectory patterns: persistently high symptoms and low but increasing symptoms. Older adults who had better intergenerational relationships at baseline were more likely to have low but increasing depressive symptoms after controlling for other covariates.
  
  
  
  The findings suggest that intergenerational relationships have long-term impacts on depressive symptom trajectory classes. Policy and intervention implications are discussed.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Social Work, School of Sociology and Population Studies , Renmin University of China , Beijing , China.
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: b School of Social Work, University of Texas at Arlington , Arlington , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: c Department of Social Work & Social Administration , The University of Hong Kong , Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Vivian W Q
authors.initials: VWQ
authors.lastname: Lou
authors.affiliation: d Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work , University of Southern California , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Chi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002681:China; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014171:Transients and Migrants / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Trajectory; depressive symptoms; intergenerational relationships; older rural Chinese adults