Haolin Wang, Qing Ge

School of Finance and Public Administration, Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Bengbu City, Anhui Province, 233030, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Qing Ge, School of Finance and Public Administration, Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Caoshan Road 962, Bengbu City, Anhui Province, 233030, People’s Republic of China, Email 3202300441@aufe.edu.cn

Background: As China undergoes rapid modernization concurrent with accelerated aging, older adults are exposed to multifaceted cultural dynamics. Consequently, employment may carry multidimensional significance as a status passage. This study aimed to investigate the impact of employment on the mental health of elderly persons in China, leveraging middle-range theory to understand the nuanced social significance of employment as a status passage.
Methods: This paper selected older adults aged 60 to 75 years from three waves (2015, 2018, and 2020) of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) survey data as the analytical cohort. The analytical approach involved fixed effects models for the core empirical analysis, propensity score matching (PSM) to address selection bias, and instrumental variable techniques to tackle reverse causality.
Results: The study demonstrates that employment retains positive properties of status passage for Chinese older adults in multicultural contexts, with empirical evidence showing significant reduction in depressive symptoms (β = − 0.3945, p < 0.01) and consequent improvement in mental health outcomes. However, these effects exhibit substantial heterogeneity across gender, employment types, and rural–urban residency. Notably, male elderly benefitted more from employment due to cultural and structural factors. Properties of employment status passage vary in rural areas of China, where the effect of self-employment is not significant, however the effect of Wage-employment is significant. Retirees may re-enter a social structure through status passages of employment or social participation. The study indicates that employment does not crowd out the elderly social participation but rather promotes their social participation, which is only reflected in elderly women and elderly persons in cities. This underscores the multifaceted mental health benefits of employment beyond mere economic contribution.
Conclusion: It is suggested to implement a flexible delayed retirement policy based on individual wishes, which would result in greater social welfare. For rural areas, it is imperative to address deficiencies in public cultural services while tapping into local cultural resources, thereby enhancing older residents’ mental health and well-being.

Keywords: employment, elderly persons, mental health, middle-range theory, status passage