Abstract: As a life event, fertility behavior has accumulative impacts on individuals' later-life health. This paper examines the effect of the number of births on Chinese older adults' depression by applying OLS and Probit models on data from the 2013 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Older adults with more children have more depressive symptoms. This negative association is more pronounced among those having three or more children. The mediation analysis suggests that the number of children affects the mental health of the older adults because it influences individuals' physical health and support from children. Analyses on the subgroups suggest that the influence of fertility on depressive symptoms is significant among rural older adults, adults aged 60-70 and older women. Other reproductive behaviors such as an older age at first birth and a longer reproductive period also adversely affect the mental health of older adults.

Keywords: Number of Births, Reproductive Behavior, Older Adults, Depression, Mental Health

摘要： 抑郁作为常见的心理疾病严重影响了老年人的晚年生活质量，生育作为重要的生命事件会对个体老年期的健康状况产生累积影响。中国当前生育政策的放开将改变人们的生育模式，其中，最直接的就是生育数量的改变。为科学地回答生育数量如何影响老年人心理健康这一关乎晚年福祉的现实问题，基于2013年中国健康与养老追踪调查数据，采用OLS和Probit模型考察了中国老年人的生育数量对其晚年抑郁的影响。经验求证后发现，生育数量增加对老年人的抑郁程度存在显著的恶化影响，在生育3个及以上孩子的老年人中尤其明显。中介分析发现，生育数量通过改变个体生理健康和子女的家庭支持影响老年人的心理健康。进一步分析发现，在中国农村、60～70岁以及女性老年人中这种恶化作用更加突出，较晚的初育年龄、较长的生育期也对老年群体的心理健康产生不利影响。

关键词: 生育数量, 生育行为, 老年人, 抑郁, 精神健康