Childhood neighbourhood quality, peer relationships, and trajectory of depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older Chinese adults

Purpose This study aimed to examine childhood neighbourhood quality, peer relationships, and trajectories of depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older Chinese adults. Methods The data came from the longitudinal dataset from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS, 2011-2018). Depressive symptoms were measured repeatedly using the ten-item Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D-10). Latent growth modelling was used to capture the trajectory of depressive symptoms by childhood neighbourhood quality, and peer relationships. Results The mean level of depressive symptoms increased gradually in the follow-up period. Poorer childhood neighbourhood quality, and peer relationships were significantly associated with higher levels of depression in later life (beta = 0.18 and beta = 0.28 for aged 45-59, p < 0.001; beta = 0.16 and beta = 0.33 for aged 60 and over, p < 0.001) at baseline and a faster increase in depressive symptoms with age for childhood neighbourhood quality (beta = 0.03, p < 0.01 for aged 45-59; beta = 0.05, p < 0.01 for aged 60 and over). For males and females, poorer childhood neighbourhood quality, and peer relationships predicted higher levels of depression at baseline (beta = 0.17 and beta = 0.36 for males, p < 0.001; beta = 0.16 and beta = 0.27 for females, p < 0.001), and only neighbourhood quality was associated with a higher rate of change in depression during follow-up (beta = 0.03, and beta = 0.04, p < 0.05, respectively). Conclusion Poorer childhood neighbourhood quality was associated with the slope of change in depressive symptoms. Efforts towards improving childhood living conditions may help to prevent the detrimental health effects of such early life disadvantages.