Social Participation and Mental Health in Later Life: The Role of Advantage Accumulation and Institutional Capital in China

Huanqi Niu

doi:doi:10.11648/j.si.20261403.17

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Social Participation and Mental Health in Later Life: The Role of Advantage Accumulation and Institutional Capital in China

Huanqi Niu^*

Published in Science Innovation (Volume 14, Issue 3)

Received: 26 April 2026 Accepted: 1 June 2026 Published: 9 June 2026

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Abstract

Against the backdrop of global population aging, social participation has been widely regarded as a key pathway to promote the mental health of older adults. However, existing studies often overlook the self-selection bias rooted in cumulative advantage, which may lead to an overestimation of participation effects. Based on the 2023 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), this study examines the real effect of social participation on mental health among older Chinese adults using Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to strip out the interference of institutional capital and psychological baselines. The matching covariate set innovatively incorporates Communist Party membership as institutional capital, alongside life satisfaction and perceived social fairness as psychological baseline variables, to more thoroughly identify the sources of selection effects. Ordered logistic regression shows that the composite social participation index is significantly positively associated with mental health, but heterogeneity analysis reveals that this effect is almost entirely driven by formal participation (voting), while informal participation is not statistically significant. After PSM removes cumulative advantage effects, the average treatment effect (ATT) of the composite index decreases by roughly one-third but remains significant, whereas sub-dimensional ATTs become non-significant. The findings confirm a dual structure of “selection gateway plus participation effect” and suggest that active aging policy in China should shift from mobilizing participation to empowering participation, lowering thresholds for disadvantaged older adults so that participation dividends extend from advantaged groups to all older adults.

Published in	Science Innovation (Volume 14, Issue 3)
DOI	10.11648/j.si.20261403.17
Page(s)	103-108
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2026. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Social Participation, Mental Health, Older Adults, Cumulative Advantage, Institutional Capital

1．引言

人口老龄化已成为全球性议题。联合国《世界人口展望2024》报告指出，到2030年代中期，80岁及以上人口预计将超过婴儿数量，达到2.65亿

[1]

。在这一背景下，世界卫生组织提出的积极老龄化框架已从单一的生理健康转向涵盖心理健康的全面健康观

[2]

，并将社会参与视为实现老年福祉的核心手段

[3]

。基于活动理论，个体的生活满意度取决于社会角色的维持

[4]

，大量实证研究证实，老年人通过社区治理、文体活动及社会交往等各类社会参与形式，能够重建社会联结、获得角色认同，从而降低抑郁水平、提升主观幸福感与心理健康水平

[5, 6]

。

然而，已有研究往往忽视参与行为背后的内生性问题，即自选择偏差。能够稳定参与社会活动的老年人，往往在参与前就具备较好的健康与社会资本。从生命历程视角的累积优势理论来看，社会参与可能并非改善心理健康的原发性诱因，而是个体既有累积优势的结果

[7]

；同时，心理健康较差者更易陷入社交退缩的循环

[8]

，进一步加剧二者关系的内生性。若不能在实证模型中剥离这种干扰，结论将系统性地高估社会参与的作用

[6]

。

为厘清社会参与对中国老年人心理健康的真实效应，本研究基于CGSS 2023年数据，通过倾向值匹配（PSM）构建反事实推断框架，在控制常规人口学变量基础上，创新性地纳入政治面貌（政治身份）这一制度资本变量与生活满意度、社会公平感等心理基线变量作为关键协变量，以剥离累积优势带来的干扰，为构建更具包容性与精准性的赋能参与政策体系提供经验证据。

2．文献回顾

2.1．社会参与与积极老龄化

作为积极老龄化框架的核心支柱，社会参与被普遍视为提升老年人心理健康的有效手段。该概念尚无统一定义，学者常从资源互换、人际互动、活动介入等角度加以界定

[9]

。在中国语境下，多指个体参与家庭和社会活动并融入其中的主观体验与互动过程。经典的活动理论

[10]

认为，社会参与是老年人退出劳动力市场后重建社会联结、获得替代性角色的关键途径，能够有效缓解角色中断带来的心理失落感，从而提升自我效能感并降低抑郁水平

[11]

。中国本土研究亦已证实，老年人通过社会参与可以拓展社会网络、获取社会支持、缓解孤独感，对其心理健康产生积极影响

[5]

。

2.2．参与类型与健康效应的异质性

与其他国家相比，中国老年人的社会参与率整体较低

[12]

，但政治活动参与率较高

[13]

，且呈现显著的跨文化差异：政治参与与欧洲老年人的抑郁症状呈正相关

[14]

，而与中国老年人的抑郁症状呈负相关

[15]

。在中国独特的制度环境下，以选举投票为代表的正式参与往往与个体的政治面貌和体制内身份高度相关，体现公共领域对个体价值的制度性确认

[12, 16]

。相比之下，以邻里往来为代表的非正式参与发生频率更高，但其情感效应可能受互惠规范与人情成本的制约。根据健康行为理论，不同参与类型的健康效应差异明显

[17]

。

2.3．内生性挑战与入场券效应

既有研究在肯定社会参与健康促进效应的同时也发现存在自选择偏差。能够积极参与的老年人，往往在参与前就具备较好的身体素质与更充足的社会资本，对生活满意者更可能参与地方选举

[15]

。若不剥离这一内生性干扰，结论会高估社会参与的健康效应

[6]

。倾向值匹配通过为处理组匹配特征相似的对照组，构建近似随机实验的反事实框架，但其效果取决于协变量选择的充分性，若制度性资本与心理态度等关键混淆变量未被纳入，估计值仍可能存在残余偏差。本研究将上述变量纳入匹配协变量集，以更充分地识别选择效应来源。

2.4．生命历程视角下的累积优势

本研究将累积优势理论（CAD）作为核心解释框架。CAD源于默顿提出的马太效应

[18]

，后发展为理解不平等如何跨越时间再生产的工具

[19]

。社会参与嵌套于个体既有的资源积累轨迹之中，那些在生命历程早期通过教育、就业与政治身份积累了较多制度性资本者，进入老年期时拥有更强的参与能力与意愿

[20]

。在中国制度背景下，政治身份作为最具代表性的制度性资本之一，伴随更稳定的退休保障与较高的社会声望

[21]

，至老年期则转化为更强的参与动力与更好的心理基线。同时，生活满意度与社会公平感等心理资本具有相对稳定性，更接近原生认知模式而非当下心理状态的瞬时反映。已有文献中观察到的社会参与健康红利，可能是制度性资本与长期稳定的积极心理共同塑造的结果。

基于以上文献梳理，本研究提出以下研究假设:

H1：社会参与与中国老年人的心理健康呈正相关。

H2：正式社会参与对老年人心理健康的促进效应强于非正式社会参与。

3．研究方法

3.1．数据与样本

本研究数据来源于中国综合社会调查（CGSS）2023年截面数据，该调查覆盖全国31个省（自治区、直辖市），具有良好的全国代表性。本研究将分析对象限定为调查当年年满60周岁的被访者，剔除核心变量缺失值后，最终纳入有效样本量2882份。

3.2．测量

因变量为老年人心理健康，以“过去四周内感到抑郁或沮丧的频繁程度”一题测量（5点Likert量表，反向编码后高分代表更好的自评心理健康水平）。核心自变量社会参与构建为邻里社交频率与朋友社交频率，经z-score标准化取均值构成非正式参与指数（Soc_informal），居委会/村委会选举投票（0/1）作为正式参与指数（Soc_vote），三项标准化后等权加总为综合参与指数（Social_index）。

匹配协变量包括制度性资本（政治身份），用以控制体制内身份带来的资源禀赋差异以及心理基线变量（生活满意度、社会公平感），具有相对的跨时间稳定性，更接近原生认知模式。此外控制年龄（及年龄平方）、性别、受教育年限、户口、婚姻、代际同住、自评健康、工作状态及个人收入对数（1%缩尾）等人口学与社会经济特征。

3.3．分析策略

本研究首先采用有序逻辑斯蒂（O-Logit）回归检验总效应，并按非正式与正式两个子维度分别建模。第二，采用1：1近邻倾向值匹配（卡尺值=0.05）估计ATT。第三，检验匹配前后协变量的标准化偏差以评估匹配质量。

4．研究结果

4.1．描述性分析

样本心理健康均值处于中等偏上水平，但其标准差揭示群体内部存在不可忽视的分化。综合参与指数呈右偏分布，说明高水平参与并非普遍现象。非正式参与较为普遍，正式参与（投票）比例约为三分之一

[12]

，政治群体约占样本一成半。主要变量的描述性统计见表1。

表1 主要变量的描述性统计。

类型	变量	均值(SD)
因变量	心理健康	3.77 (0.98)
自变量	综合参与指数	0.00 (1.00)
	非正式参与	0.00 (1.00)
	正式参与(投票)	0.37 (0.48)
匹配变量	政治身份	0.15(0.35)
	生活满意度	3.91 (0.86)
	社会公平感	3.37 (0.99)
控制变量	人口学/SES变量	略

4.2．基准回归结果

基准有序逻辑斯蒂回归结果见表2。模型M1仅纳入控制变量，自评健康、受教育年限、个人收入与代际同住对老年人心理健康均具有显著的正向预测作用。模型M2加入综合参与指数后，回归系数方向为正并在p<0.10水平上呈边缘显著，为研究假设H1提供了初步支持。

表2 社会参与对心理健康的主效应检验（O-Logit）。

变量	M1 (控制)	M2 (主效应)
社会参与综合指数	—	0.08*
自评健康	0.74***	0.79***
受教育年限	0.03***	0.06***
个人收入(ln)	0.04***	0.05***
代际同住	0.24***	0.24***
其他控制变量	已控制	已控制
Pseudo R²	0.08	0.10

注：***p<0.01， **p<0.05， *p<0.1；部分控制变量系数省略。

按非正式与正式两个子维度分别建模（见表3），结果显示非正式参与系数不显著，而正式参与系数在p<0.01水平上显著为正。这表明M2中观察到的综合指数显著性几乎完全由正式参与所驱动，为H2提供了基准回归层面的支持，并推动进一步探究：正式参与的显著性究竟是参与行为的因果效应，还是制度性身份的投射？

Table 表3 不同类型社会参与的机制分析.

变量	M_Inf (非正式)	M_For (正式)
非正式参与(社交)	0.03	—
正式参与(投票)	—	0.24***
控制变量	已控制	已控制
Pseudo R²	0.10	0.10

注：控制变量与表2一致；***p<0.01，**p<0.05，*p<0.1

4.3．基于倾向值匹配的因果推断

PSM估计的ATT结果见表4。匹配前处理组与对照组在心理健康上存在显著的原始差异。在剥离可观测的制度性资本与心理基线优势后，综合参与指数的ATT较匹配前衰减约三分之一，但仍保持统计显著（p<0.05）。这说明，基准回归捕捉到的参与效应约三分之一来自累积优势所导致的选择偏差，从经验上印证了中国老年人社会参与存在实质性的参与门槛；其余约三分之二的效应在剥离上述优势后仍然存在，说明综合参与模式对心理健康的作用不能完全被选择偏差所解释。

表4 基于倾向值匹配的平均处理效应。

变量	匹配前差异	ATT (T值)	结果
综合指数	0.21 (4.21)	0.14 (=2.1)	显著（p<0.05）
非正式参与	0.14 (=2.84)	0.04 (=0.52)	不显著
正式参与	0.10 (=1.97)	0.11 (=1.56)	不显著

注：匹配方法为1：1近邻匹配，卡尺值=0.05

正式参与在匹配后ATT明显下降至不显著水平，说明投票等正式参与行为主要反映的是政治身份等制度性资本，而非投票行为本身对心理健康的独立作用；非正式参与的ATT接近于零，同样不显著。子维度ATT均不显著但综合指数ATT显著的这一组合效应说明，社会参与的心理收益可能源自多种参与形式的协同模式，而非任何单一参与形式的独立作用。综合来看，研究假设H1在剥离选择效应后获得较弱支持，H2在基准回归层面获得支持，但在因果识别层面并未获得稳健支持。

图1展示了匹配前后协变量的标准化偏差（% bias）分布。匹配前，高参与组与低参与组在自评健康、受教育年限、生活满意度、政治身份、个人收入、社会公平感及代际同住等关键变量上呈现显著的正向偏差，在年龄、城市户口与性别上呈现负向偏差，证实了选择效应的存在。经过1：1近邻匹配后，所有协变量的标准化偏差均降至低水平，处理组与对照组达到可比状态，表明匹配协变量集已较为充分地涵盖了影响参与决策的关键混淆因素。

Download: Download full-size image

Figure 1. 图1 匹配前后协变量的标准化偏差（%bias）。

5．讨论

本研究的核心发现是，社会参与对心理健康的健康红利由两部分叠加形成。在控制政治身份、生活满意度与社会公平感等制度性资本与心理基线协变量后，综合参与指数的ATT较匹配前衰减约三分之一但仍保持显著。这一衰减为中国老年人社会参与的资源门槛提供了直接的经验证据：参与效应约三分之一源于累积优势所导致的选择偏误——活跃参与者在参与之前已拥有更健康的身体、更积极的心态与更丰厚的制度性资源；剩余三分之二的效应在剥离上述优势后仍然存在，说明综合参与模式的促进作用不能被选择假象完全解释，参与行为本身仍具有独立的心理功能。

参与类型的异质性分析揭示了综合效应的内部结构。基准回归中高度显著的正式参与在PSM之后ATT明显下降且不再显著，说明投票等正式参与行为更像是政治身份等制度性资本的投影；非正式参与的ATT接近于零，亦不显著。两个子维度均不显著而综合指数仍保持显著，表明心理收益源自多种参与形式的协同而非单一形式的独立作用，这与“参与组合优于单一行为”的观点一致

[16]

。这一发现对实践具有重要意义：单纯增加某一类活动的频率不足以转化为健康收益，关键在于提供多样化的参与机会以促成参与组合。

基于上述发现，中国老龄化政策的逻辑应从动员参与转向赋能参与。社会参与无法直接解决所有心理健康问题，特别是对于处于边缘地位的弱势老人。未来政策重心不应盲目增加活动频率，而应通过适老化改造降低物理参与门槛，并通过包容性社区文化建设降低非政治、低学历老人的心理参与门槛；同时强化兜底性的心理服务，在老年人主动参与之前，通过前置性的心理疏导和家庭支持提升其参与能力与心理基线，从而真正实现积极老龄化的公平性与普惠性。

本研究仍存在局限。其一，研究属于横截面设计，尽管通过PSM构建了反事实框架，仍无法锁定个体内部参与行为变化与心理健康变化之间的动态因果链条；其二，对正式参与的操作化较为单一（仅含村/居委会选举投票），未能涵盖志愿服务、慈善捐赠等其他形式的制度性参与，这可能是正式参与子维度ATT在PSM后变得不显著的部分原因。

6．结论

本研究基于CGSS 2023数据发现，中国老年人社会参与对心理健康的作用呈现双重性：约三分之一可归因于累积优势所导致的选择效应，残余效应则在综合参与模式层面依然存在。这一发现确认了参与门槛在中国老龄化社会中的结构性存在，避免了将社会参与简单定性为纯粹自选择假象的论断。对政策制定者而言，积极老龄化的方向不应是笼统的动员参与，而应是针对弱势老年群体真实参与壁垒的情境化赋能——通过适老化改造降低物理门槛、通过包容性社区文化降低身份门槛、通过兜底性心理服务前置提升参与能力。

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Niu, H. (2026). Social Participation and Mental Health in Later Life: The Role of Advantage Accumulation and Institutional Capital in China. Science Innovation, 14(3), 103-108. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.si.20261403.17

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Niu, H. Social Participation and Mental Health in Later Life: The Role of Advantage Accumulation and Institutional Capital in China. Sci. Innov. 2026, 14(3), 103-108. doi: 10.11648/j.si.20261403.17

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Niu H. Social Participation and Mental Health in Later Life: The Role of Advantage Accumulation and Institutional Capital in China. Sci Innov. 2026;14(3):103-108. doi: 10.11648/j.si.20261403.17

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@article{10.11648/j.si.20261403.17,
  author = {Huanqi Niu},
  title = {Social Participation and Mental Health in Later Life: The Role of Advantage Accumulation and Institutional Capital in China},
  journal = {Science Innovation},
  volume = {14},
  number = {3},
  pages = {103-108},
  doi = {10.11648/j.si.20261403.17},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.si.20261403.17},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.si.20261403.17},
  abstract = {Against the backdrop of global population aging, social participation has been widely regarded as a key pathway to promote the mental health of older adults. However, existing studies often overlook the self-selection bias rooted in cumulative advantage, which may lead to an overestimation of participation effects. Based on the 2023 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), this study examines the real effect of social participation on mental health among older Chinese adults using Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to strip out the interference of institutional capital and psychological baselines. The matching covariate set innovatively incorporates Communist Party membership as institutional capital, alongside life satisfaction and perceived social fairness as psychological baseline variables, to more thoroughly identify the sources of selection effects. Ordered logistic regression shows that the composite social participation index is significantly positively associated with mental health, but heterogeneity analysis reveals that this effect is almost entirely driven by formal participation (voting), while informal participation is not statistically significant. After PSM removes cumulative advantage effects, the average treatment effect (ATT) of the composite index decreases by roughly one-third but remains significant, whereas sub-dimensional ATTs become non-significant. The findings confirm a dual structure of “selection gateway plus participation effect” and suggest that active aging policy in China should shift from mobilizing participation to empowering participation, lowering thresholds for disadvantaged older adults so that participation dividends extend from advantaged groups to all older adults.},
 year = {2026}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Social Participation and Mental Health in Later Life: The Role of Advantage Accumulation and Institutional Capital in China
AU  - Huanqi Niu
Y1  - 2026/06/09
PY  - 2026
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.si.20261403.17
DO  - 10.11648/j.si.20261403.17
T2  - Science Innovation
JF  - Science Innovation
JO  - Science Innovation
SP  - 103
EP  - 108
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2328-787X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.si.20261403.17
AB  - Against the backdrop of global population aging, social participation has been widely regarded as a key pathway to promote the mental health of older adults. However, existing studies often overlook the self-selection bias rooted in cumulative advantage, which may lead to an overestimation of participation effects. Based on the 2023 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), this study examines the real effect of social participation on mental health among older Chinese adults using Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to strip out the interference of institutional capital and psychological baselines. The matching covariate set innovatively incorporates Communist Party membership as institutional capital, alongside life satisfaction and perceived social fairness as psychological baseline variables, to more thoroughly identify the sources of selection effects. Ordered logistic regression shows that the composite social participation index is significantly positively associated with mental health, but heterogeneity analysis reveals that this effect is almost entirely driven by formal participation (voting), while informal participation is not statistically significant. After PSM removes cumulative advantage effects, the average treatment effect (ATT) of the composite index decreases by roughly one-third but remains significant, whereas sub-dimensional ATTs become non-significant. The findings confirm a dual structure of “selection gateway plus participation effect” and suggest that active aging policy in China should shift from mobilizing participation to empowering participation, lowering thresholds for disadvantaged older adults so that participation dividends extend from advantaged groups to all older adults.
VL  - 14
IS  - 3
ER  -

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Author Information

Huanqi Niu

School of Humanities and Social Science, Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi' an, China

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http://orcid.org/0009-0004-1570-5641

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Figure 1

Figure 1. 图 1 匹配前后协变量的标准化偏差（%bias）。

Table 1

表1 主要变量的描述性统计。
Table 2

表2 社会参与对心理健康的主效应检验（O-Logit）。
Table 表3 不同类型社会参与的机制分析

Table 表3 不同类型社会参与的机制分析.
Table 4

表4 基于倾向值匹配的平均处理效应。

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Niu, H. (2026). Social Participation and Mental Health in Later Life: The Role of Advantage Accumulation and Institutional Capital in China. Science Innovation, 14(3), 103-108. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.si.20261403.17

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ACS Style

Niu, H. Social Participation and Mental Health in Later Life: The Role of Advantage Accumulation and Institutional Capital in China. Sci. Innov. 2026, 14(3), 103-108. doi: 10.11648/j.si.20261403.17

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AMA Style

Niu H. Social Participation and Mental Health in Later Life: The Role of Advantage Accumulation and Institutional Capital in China. Sci Innov. 2026;14(3):103-108. doi: 10.11648/j.si.20261403.17

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@article{10.11648/j.si.20261403.17,
  author = {Huanqi Niu},
  title = {Social Participation and Mental Health in Later Life: The Role of Advantage Accumulation and Institutional Capital in China},
  journal = {Science Innovation},
  volume = {14},
  number = {3},
  pages = {103-108},
  doi = {10.11648/j.si.20261403.17},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.si.20261403.17},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.si.20261403.17},
  abstract = {Against the backdrop of global population aging, social participation has been widely regarded as a key pathway to promote the mental health of older adults. However, existing studies often overlook the self-selection bias rooted in cumulative advantage, which may lead to an overestimation of participation effects. Based on the 2023 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), this study examines the real effect of social participation on mental health among older Chinese adults using Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to strip out the interference of institutional capital and psychological baselines. The matching covariate set innovatively incorporates Communist Party membership as institutional capital, alongside life satisfaction and perceived social fairness as psychological baseline variables, to more thoroughly identify the sources of selection effects. Ordered logistic regression shows that the composite social participation index is significantly positively associated with mental health, but heterogeneity analysis reveals that this effect is almost entirely driven by formal participation (voting), while informal participation is not statistically significant. After PSM removes cumulative advantage effects, the average treatment effect (ATT) of the composite index decreases by roughly one-third but remains significant, whereas sub-dimensional ATTs become non-significant. The findings confirm a dual structure of “selection gateway plus participation effect” and suggest that active aging policy in China should shift from mobilizing participation to empowering participation, lowering thresholds for disadvantaged older adults so that participation dividends extend from advantaged groups to all older adults.},
 year = {2026}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Social Participation and Mental Health in Later Life: The Role of Advantage Accumulation and Institutional Capital in China
AU  - Huanqi Niu
Y1  - 2026/06/09
PY  - 2026
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.si.20261403.17
DO  - 10.11648/j.si.20261403.17
T2  - Science Innovation
JF  - Science Innovation
JO  - Science Innovation
SP  - 103
EP  - 108
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2328-787X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.si.20261403.17
AB  - Against the backdrop of global population aging, social participation has been widely regarded as a key pathway to promote the mental health of older adults. However, existing studies often overlook the self-selection bias rooted in cumulative advantage, which may lead to an overestimation of participation effects. Based on the 2023 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), this study examines the real effect of social participation on mental health among older Chinese adults using Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to strip out the interference of institutional capital and psychological baselines. The matching covariate set innovatively incorporates Communist Party membership as institutional capital, alongside life satisfaction and perceived social fairness as psychological baseline variables, to more thoroughly identify the sources of selection effects. Ordered logistic regression shows that the composite social participation index is significantly positively associated with mental health, but heterogeneity analysis reveals that this effect is almost entirely driven by formal participation (voting), while informal participation is not statistically significant. After PSM removes cumulative advantage effects, the average treatment effect (ATT) of the composite index decreases by roughly one-third but remains significant, whereas sub-dimensional ATTs become non-significant. The findings confirm a dual structure of “selection gateway plus participation effect” and suggest that active aging policy in China should shift from mobilizing participation to empowering participation, lowering thresholds for disadvantaged older adults so that participation dividends extend from advantaged groups to all older adults.
VL  - 14
IS  - 3
ER  -

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