The Impact of Childhood and Adult Educational and Economic Status on Depressive Symptoms

Background and Purpose: A life-course perspective highlights that early life experiences affect later adult health. However, researchers have paid less attention to how SES differences are transmitted from one generation to the next. Because the relationships remain unclear, we examined whether SES in childhood is related to adult educational attainment and economic status and also examine whether such effects related to depressive symptoms in adulthood. Our research questions were as follow: First, does childhood SES have lasting effects on depressive symptoms in adulthood? Second, does adult SES mediate the relationship between childhood SES and later depressive symptoms in adulthood?

Methods: We used the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families (KLoWF) collected by the Korean Women’s Development Institute in South Korea. We analyze data from the first and fourth waves (2007, 2012), which contain the variables of interest in this study. We used available KLoWF data on parents’ education attainment and economic status (Generation1, G1) and adult women’s education attainment and economic status and depressive symptoms (G2): the G1 information came from G2 data. G2 reported G1’s SES and their father’s and mother’s education in wave 1. G2 years of education were measured in wave 1 as a continuous variable and they reported their current economic status in wave 1 with one five-point Likert scale question. G2 depressive symptoms were measured in wave 4 using the CES-D as adapted for use with Korean adults. Also we controlled for several variables such as age, employment status, living arrangement, income. We employed path model analysis to explore the effects of childhood SES on depressive symptoms through educational attainment and economic status.

Results: The resulting model showed a reasonable fit with the data (χ² (11)= 59.98, CFI = 0.91, RMSEA = 0.06, N=9,997). Both G1fathers’ and mothers’ primary school graduation was significantly related to G2 economic status (β = .19, p < .05, β = .26, p < .01, respectively), indicating that G2 women who grew up with parents who did not graduate from primary school recognized that their current economic status was worse than others’. G1 economic status significantly affected G2 years of education (β = -.30, p < .001) and was significantly related to both G2 economic status (β = .16, p < .05) and their depressive symptoms (β = .14, p < .05); that is, G2 who perceived that their families were poor when they were 15, experienced less educational attainment, lower SES, and more depressive symptoms in middle age. Furthermore, G2 year of education significantly affected their depressive symptoms (β = -.20, p < .05): Higher educational attainment was related to fewer depressive symptoms in middle age.

Discussion and Implications: This study provides the important evidence that early economic hardship significantly contributed to later depressive symptoms and that education level played a role in mediating this relationship in the long term. Practitioners and policy makers should consider the benefits of upward mobility through better education for women may reduce differences in SES and depressive symptoms.