苦乐参半：二孩政策时代的隔代抚养与老年人心理健康
Bittersweet: Grandparenting and elderly mental health in the two-child policy era
Journal of Development Economics · 2025 · [{"name": "Dapeng Chen", "affiliation": ["Lehigh University"]}, {"name": "Shin‐Yi Chou", "affiliation": ["National Bureau of Economic Research", "Lehigh University"]}, {"name": "Bingjin Xue", "affiliation": ["University of New Hampshire", "University of New Hampshire at Manchester"]}]
中文摘要
我们利用中国的全面二孩政策以及成年子女出生队列的差异，考察计划生育政策对祖辈照料和老年人心理健康福祉的因果影响。采用双重差分（DID）设计，我们发现该政策显著增加了孙辈数量，并强化了祖辈参与——提高了非正式照料、每周照料时间、与成年子女的同住和接触。这些变化伴随着CESD-10抑郁得分上升6.8%，以及睡眠不安、易怒、注意力难以集中和绝望感等基础症状增加8.9%—14.3%。我们未发现收入、消费或医疗服务使用方面的显著变化，这表明心理健康效应最可能是由照料需求增加所驱动。这些影响在城市祖辈和父系祖辈中最为显著，尤其是父系祖母。尽管出现这些心理健康方面的下降，我们并未发现严重临床抑郁风险升高的证据。
Abstract
We exploit China's universal two-child policy and variations in adult children's birth cohort to examine the causal impact of the family-planning policy on grandparenting and elderly mental well-being. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that the policy significantly increased the number of grandchildren and intensified grandparental involvement—raising informal caregiving, weekly hours spent, co-residence, and contact with adult children. These changes were accompanied by a 6.8 % increase in CESD-10 depression scores and 8.9 %–14.3 % increase in underlying symptoms such as restless sleep, irritability, difficulty concentrating, and hopelessness. We find no significant changes in income, consumption, or healthcare use, suggesting that the mental health effects are most plausibly driven by increased caregiving demands. The impacts are most pronounced among urban and paternal grandparents, especially paternal grandmothers. Despite these declines, we find no evidence of elevated risk of severe clinical depression.