Poor childhood health is associated with higher levels of
depressive symptoms, as is being a recent widow or widower,
and a recent child death for women. The coefficients on these
variables are large in magnitude, more so even than the education
coefficients. These results illustrate the importance of family
support even in current China. Given that future cohorts of Chinese
elderly will have fewer children to support them because of
the past decline in fertility, this will become more an issue with
time