Latent Class Analysis of Depression Symptom Among the Only-child-lost Persons

Objective: To perform latent class analysis among the only-child-lost persons, to explore the individual differences of the depression symptom among the only-child-lost persons, and to explore the effects of different demographic characteristics on the latent class. Methods: 249 only-child-lost persons were selected as study subjects by using stratified cluster random sampling method from September 2014 to December 2015, the latent class analysis was used to identify the depression, and cases were asked to complete the self-rating depression scale(SDS). And the effect of gender, age, marital status and home location on the latent class was analyzed. Results: A total of 249 questionnaires were distributed, among which 30 had no answer, 219 were effective, the effective recovery rate was 88.0%. This study explored 1-5 latent class models. The values of AIC, BIC and aBIC dereased with the increase of number of classes. The value of Entropy would be the largest when the latent class was a four-classes model. However, at that time, the value of LMR was not significant and the value of BIC was larger than that in the three-classes model. In summary, three-classes model was the most reasonable model. And the probability class of C1, C2, C3 were 0.428, 0.305, 0.267 respectively. According to conditional probability of C1, C2, C3 on 20 items of SDS, the three-classes could be named as high-depression group(42.9%), physical-pessimistic group(31.5%), low depression optimistic group(25.6%). There was no significant difference in the effect of gender, age, marital status on the latent class among groups(P>0.05), and there was significant difference in the effect of home location on the latent class among groups(P<0.05). Conclusion: The only-child-lost persons have obvious grouping features, which can be divided into three latent classes: high-depression, physical-pessimistic, low depression optimistic. The home location can influence latent class.