The Association Between Material Hardship and Depression Among Single-Person Households

Background and Purposes: The rise in single-person households has been one of the most important demographic shifts of recent decades in Korea. This type of households have marked the second-highest poverty rate among all groups of people, including children, the employed and single-parent households since 2013. Not only experiencing material hardship but mental hardship of being alone is expected to be an important issues for this group. However, there have been no studies examining associations between material hardship and depression among one-person households in Korea. To fill this gap, this study explored (1) whether material hardship causes an increase in depression of the single-person households, (2) what types of material hardship is closely related to depression, and (3) how this relationship differs based on different characteristics of one-person households.

Methods: Using data from the Korean Welfare Panel Study (KWPS) from 2012, single-person households were retained for analysis (N=1,474). Material hardship was categorized into four types as housing (unable to afford heat in winter, forced to move out), utility (unable to pay bills, experience utility company's shutting off the service), medical (receive medical services, unable to visit hospital), and food (unable to buy food and/or have balanced diets, etc.). These indicators were constructed as dummy variables and if respondents answered yes in one of the questions under each indicator, it was considered that he or she is experiencing the specific type of material hardship. The dependent variable, depression, was measured by CES-D scale (1=depressed and 0=not depressed). In order to specify construction of the single-person households, six types of households were constructed by gender (male vs. female) and whether or not to be older than 65 (old male/female vs. non-old male/female). Logistic regression was conducted.

Results: The number of material hardship was associated with significantly higher probability of being depressed across three groups (male: OR=1.266, p<.05, female: OR=1.346, p<.001, old female: OR=1.485, p<.001). Among four types of material hardship, food was the strongest effect on depression for female (including old and non-old) and/or female-old group (female: OR=2.692, p<.0001, old female: OR=2.588, p<.0001). For male and/or old male group, utility was associated with significantly higher probability of being depressed (male: OR=3.371, p<.05, old male: OR=6.446, p<.01). None of the four indicators of material hardship had significant effect to non-old male and female group.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings show that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the challenges facing single-person households regarding material hardship and depression. To illustrate, the government’s recent social support services for senior citizens living alone sloganing ‘promoting safer, warner, healthier environment’ needs to shifted to ‘ensuring food security and safety’ when targeting female single-person households. Different strategies should be implemented to secure material resources and it should be tailored to the unique needs of different characteristics of the one-person households.