Having more children doesn't ward off depression, UTSA researcher finds

APRIL 2, 2025 — A new study exploring mental health among older Chinese parents produced surprising results: Having more children does not correlate with better mental well-being for parents. In the survey, parents with one adult child were less likely to report depressive symptoms than their counterparts with multiple grown children. The difference was particularly pronounced among parents under age 75.

Zhiyong Lin, assistant professor of sociology and demography in the UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy, was part of the research team behind the findings.

The researchers, led by Renmin University of China researcher Dan Tang, used data from the 2018 Chinese Longitudinal Aging Society Survey (CLASS) involving 4,673 participants who were subject to the nation's strict one-child policy. The study was published in China Population and Development Studies.

“I was surprised to find that single-child parents report fewer depressive symptoms than those with multiple children.”

The researchers initially expected to find the opposite trend, reasoning that single-child parents have only one person to support them in their older years, and they face more years as “empty-nesters.”

"I was surprised to find that single-child parents report fewer depressive symptoms than those with multiple children,” said Lin. “This challenges the common belief that more children provide a stronger support network.”

He added, “My first thought was that the strong emotional bond between single-child parents and their only child may play a significant role in reducing depressive symptoms.”

Lin was driven to explore the topic because of his own family and experience.

"My parents only have me, which makes me concerned about their mental health as they age,” he said.

Lin said he was particularly interested in exploring how the quality of the parent-child relationship in single-child families contributes to their well-being, “especially in the context of Chinese culture, where filial piety plays a central role,” he added.

Lin hopes to explore this facet of the research further, building on a study he published in 2018 examining how the closeness of parent-child relationships may impact the well-being of aging parents.

“I hypothesize that only-child parents may experience stronger emotional closeness with their child,” said Lin. “I also expect that adult only children may have higher socioeconomic status than those with siblings, which could contribute to better mental health outcomes for their parents.”

These demographic trends were evident in the team’s study, which reports, “compared with multiple-child parents, only-child parents were younger, better educated, more likely to be married, reported better health, and were less likely to live with their children.” The study also noted that only-child parents were more likely to have worked in the public sector, and many had pensions.

The research team also explored the role of friends and family in the lives of older parents. Unsurprisingly, single-child parents had fewer family ties than multi-child parents, having only one person to link them with a network of in-laws and grandchildren. But less predictably, single-child parents did not compensate for this shortage by making more friends than their peers with multiple children; both sets of parents had friend groups that were roughly the same size.

“Friendship ties, at least in quantity, do not play a compensatory role,” said Lin. “However, it’s possible that single-child parents have more quality time with their friends.”

While having only one child is not a risk factor for depression, the overarching number of family and friends in parents’ lives does appear to be significant.

“It’s important to keep this factor in mind,” said Lin, “for example, if the government is creating policy that will affect mental health for older adults, we need to recognize the impact of those relationships.”

— Audrey Gray