The mediating effect of coping style on personality and mental health among elderly Chinese empty-nester: A cross-sectional study

Background: Mental health is a growing concern among older people all over the world. China has a rapidly aging population, and the number of elderly empty-nesters, who have no children or whose children have already left home, is on the rise. These older adults live alone or with a spouse. Therefore, we should be concerned about these empty-nester, especially their mental health, due to its vital role. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed from March to December 2015. The participants were 350 empty-nest elderly adults from Chifeng City in Inner Mongolia. Data were collected with the Elderly Mental Health Questionnaire, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short Scale for Chinese (EPQ-RSC) and the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire. For the analyses, correlations, regressions, and structural equation models were used. Bootstrapping was performed to confirm the mediation effect. Results: The mean age of the study population was 70.33 +/- 6.67 years. Mental health showed significant correlations with extraversion, neuroticism, and coping style (all P<0.01). Extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism were the independent variables, while mental health was the dependent variable in the linear regression model with stepwise analysis. Extraversion and neuroticism were entered into the regression equation. All standardized coefficients (beta) were significant (all P<0.01) in the model, and bootstrapping indicated that the mediating role of coping style was statistically significant. Conclusion: Coping style partially mediated the relationship between the personality and mental health of the empty-nest elderly. Consequently, to improve the mental health of the empty-nest elderly, coping style should be the focus.