Job-housing distance, neighborhood environment, and mental health in suburban Shanghai: A gender difference perspective

This paper examines the gendered impacts of job-housing balance and neighborhood environments on mental health in the context of urban China. Using data of suburban commuters derived from a 2017 activity-travel survey in Shanghai, we employ ordered logistic regression models to test the effects of job-housing distance, commuting mode and neighborhood-scale environments on self-rated mental health status, and explore whether such effects vary between men and women. Model results indicate that, while longer job-housing distance generally predicts a lower level of self-reported mental health evaluations, this correlation is not significant among women. Compared with other travel modes, commuting by public transit is positively correlated with self-rated mental health, especially for women. Furthermore, whereas both men and women report better mental health status if living in a neighborhood with outdoor facilities and lower noise pollution, proximity to public space is negatively associated with mental health for men but not significant for women. Our findings entail the complexity of gendered mechanisms through which the physical environment – including the job-housing spatial relationship and neighborhood environment affects mental health among suburban commuters in rapidly urbanizing China.