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Do Longer Commutes Lead to Depression? Evidence from a Longitudinal Study - A growing number of studies have investigated the relationship between commuting to work and mental health, usually with cross-sectional data. In these studies, lengthy commutes are typically associated with stress and time scarcity, and lower well-being. But the more salient measures of mental health, such as the likelihood of depression, have been more rarely studied; and longitudinal data, which provide a more robust causal inference, have typically not been used in exploring the impacts of commuting on depression. Relying on data from the 2016 and 2018 China Family Panel Studies, this research explores the relationship between commuting and depression using longitudinal data in a series of multinomial logistic regression models. Results run contrary to the existing literature. Respondents who increased or decreased their commute distances were more likely to become slightly depressed than those without a change, controlling for a number of other factors; and a reduction in commute distance was significantly associated with an increase in major depression. These findings were found in various ways even considering differences in age and income groups. Moreover, people who experienced major events were more likely to become slightly depressed, those who changed jobs were more likely to become major depression, and those who experienced changes in marriage status were more likely to become or recover from major depression. The results of the study suggest the complexity of the relationship between travel and mental health, a complexity that is yet to be addressed by the literature.
