Abstract

Objectives

This study examined whether cumulative exposure to poor housing conditions is negatively associated with psychological well-being, and whether this association varies by age.

Methods

Using fifteen waves of the Korean Welfare Panel Study between 2005 and 2019 (118,500 person-observations), this study employed fixed-effects regression models to account for unobserved individual-level heterogeneity. Exposure to poor housing conditions ranged from 1 to more than 5 annual waves. To formally test for age heterogeneity, interactive models were estimated.

Results

The trajectories of change in psychological well-being associated with cumulative exposure to poor housing conditions were different between young and middle-aged adults and older adults. Among young and middle-aged adults, the levels of depressive symptoms increased in the first year of exposure but remained at a similar level since then. In contrast, with the persistence of poor housing conditions, older adults continued to develop greater depressive symptoms over time. Similar age differences were found for life satisfaction. As exposure to poor housing conditions accumulated, life satisfaction persistently declined among older adults, but not young and middle-aged adults.

Conclusion

This study suggests that cumulative exposure to poor housing conditions has more adverse psychological consequences for older adults than young and middle-aged adults.

中文翻译：

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恶劣住房条件和心理健康的累积暴露：青壮年和老年人之间的关系是否不同？

摘要

目标

这项研究探讨了累积暴露于恶劣的住房条件是否与心理健康呈负相关，以及这种关联是否因年龄而异。

方法

本研究利用 2005 年至 2019 年间的 15 波韩国福利小组研究（118,500 人观察），采用固定效应回归模型来解释未观察到的个人层面的异质性。每年暴露于恶劣住房条件的情况为 1 至 5 次以上。为了正式测试年龄异质性，估计了交互模型。

结果

青壮年和老年人与累积暴露于恶劣住房条件相关的心理健康变化轨迹是不同的。在青壮年中，抑郁症状的水平在暴露的第一年有所增加，但此后一直保持在相似的水平。相比之下，由于住房条件持续恶劣，随着时间的推移，老年人的抑郁症状持续恶化。生活满意度也存在类似的年龄差异。随着恶劣住房条件的积累，老年人的生活满意度持续下降，但青壮年则不然。

结论

这项研究表明，与年轻人和中年人相比，长期暴露在恶劣的住房条件下对老年人产生更不利的心理后果。