Impact of adult sons’ marriage squeeze on the mental health of parents in rural China

Studying the influencing factors and interventions of mental health in rural China has important practical significance for promoting personal development and social progress. Using the 2016 waves of the China Family Panel Studies data, this paper examined the effect of adult sons’ marriage squeeze on parents’ mental health in rural China and its corresponding mechanisms. Our study showed a significant negative association between adult sons’ marriage squeeze and the mental health status of rural parents. Moreover, the negative association of adult sons’ marriage squeeze with mental health is larger for female parents, parents who are less than 60 years old and parents living with children. In addition, we investigated possible mechanisms of the effect, including intergenerational support, intergenerational relationship and neighborhood relationship, and that adult sons’ marriage squeeze mainly damages the mental health of rural parents by increasing the downstream intergenerational support of rural parents and worsening intergenerational and neighborhood relationships.