Work-family life course trajectories and mental well-being: evidence from CHARLS, SHARE, ELSA, HRS, NCDS and BCS70

TL;DR

Stable work and family patterns over a lifetime are linked to better mental health in older adults, with differences seen across countries like China, Europe, and the U.S.

Contribution

The study compares work-family life course trajectories across six international datasets using harmonized methods to assess mental well-being.

Findings

Stable full-time employment, long-term partnerships, and having one to two children are consistently associated with better mental health outcomes.

In China, agricultural work with early marriage and many children is linked to higher depressive symptoms and worse self-rated health.

Gender disparities in mental health are largest in China and smallest in the U.S., with results robust to various adjustments.

Abstract

Later-life mental well-being is shaped by cumulative work, partnership, and parenting histories, yet few studies compare these life-course patterns across diverse regions using harmonized designs. We analyzed 61,132 adults aged ≥50 from four HRS-sister studies—the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS;n=9,276), Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE;n=35,087), English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA;n=5,283), and Health and Retirement Study (HRS;n=11,486)—and supplemented with two prospective British birth cohorts for robustness. Using multi-channel sequence analysis and hidden Markov mixture models, we identified 5–6 work–family trajectory clusters from ages 15 to 50. Stable full-time employment, sustained partnerships, and one to two children were consistently linked to better outcomes. In CHARLS, the agricultural, early marriage, ≥5 children cluster had depressive symptoms 0.271 SD higher (95% CI:0.233–0.310) and self-rated health 0.108 SD lower (95%CI:−0.138 to − 0.077) than the stable non-agricultural, later marriage,1–2 children group. In SHARE, the Home/family+Early Stable+2-Kids cluster had depressive symptoms 0.076 SD higher (95%CI:0.059–0.094) and self-rated health 0.045 SD lower (95% CI:−0.061to −0.029) than the full-time, early stable, two-child cluster. In HRS, the Home/family focus+Early Diverse + ≥3 children cluster had depressive symptoms 0.227 SD higher (95%CI:0.188–0.267) and self-rated health 0.219 SD lower (95%CI:−0.257 to − 0.181) than the stable reference. Gender disparities were largest in China and smallest in the U.S. Results were robust to early-life adjustment, attrition weighting, and exclusion of adult mediators. This cross-national design highlights the mental-health benefits of stable, balanced work–family patterns and supports policies promoting employment stability, gender equity, and caregiving support across the life course.