近些年,关于老年人自杀、抑郁的报道屡见报端,这预示着随着老龄化的加剧,老年问题已经悄然影响到人们的社会生活,而老年人精神健康相对还是一个盲区。老年人精神健康有其社会文化根源,当下老年群体尤其是农村老年群体的精神健康问题,有必要将其放在转型的社会文化背景当中,才有可能解释一种精神健康症状的特征、原因和过程。转型期农村老年人的家庭地位下降。大部分老年人已不具备从事非农就业的人力资本优势,他们只能留守农村从事农业生产。由此,家庭不同代际成员的地位因适应市场化和城市化的能力存在差异而出现调整。父辈与子辈之间在劳动收入上产生了明显的分化,父辈在家庭中的地位亦随之下降,选择“单过”的老年家庭越来越多。高龄老人独立生活 In recent years, there have been many reports of suicide and depression among the elderly. This indicates that with the aging, the problem of old age has quietly affected people’s social life, and the mental health of the elderly is still a blind spot. The mental health of the elderly has its own social and cultural roots. The current mental health problems of the elderly, especially the elderly in rural areas need to be placed in the socio-cultural context of the transition, it is possible to explain the characteristics of a mental health symptoms, causes and process. The family status of rural elderly in transition has been declining. Most of the elderly do not have the advantage of human capital to engage in non-agricultural employment. They can only stay in rural areas engaged in agricultural production. As a result, the status of intergenerational family members has changed as a result of differences in their ability to adapt to marketization and urbanization. There was a clear division of labor income between parents and children, and the status of fathers in the family also declined. More and more elderly families chose to be “single-handed”. Older seniors live independently