Urbanicity and Depression among Chinese Youth: a Cross-Sectional Study Based on the China Labor-Force Dynamic Survey

Many of China’s youth are struggling with mental health problems, and 24.6% of them were threatened by depression in 2022. Although various factors, like housing prices and the social trust crisis arising from fast urbanization, have been found to be primary social determinants of depression among Chinese young adults, the socio-psychological pathways linking urbanicity and their risk of depression are still unclear. This study aims to investigate associations between urbanicity and the severity of depressive symptoms among Chinese youth and explore the mediating roles of regular physical exercise, social capital, housing prices, and housing congestion in these associations using data from the 2016 wave of China’s Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS). Structural Equation Modelling was used. Results show that a high level of urbanicity was negatively associated with young adults’ depressive symptoms. Housing prices significantly mediated the associations between the level of urbanicity and depressive symptoms; while, social capital, physical exercise and housing congestion were not associated between the level of urbanicity and depressive symptoms. Our findings may have policy implications regarding how to protect young people against depression in rapidly urbanizing China.