Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-02T01:31:45.963Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

End-of-Life Co-residence of Older Parents and Their Sons in Rural China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2015

Zhen Cong  and
Merril Silverstein
Zhen Cong
Affiliation:
Texas Tech University
Merril Silverstein*
Affiliation:
Syracuse University
*
†La correspondance et les demandes de tirés-à-part doivent être adressées à: / Correspondence and requests for offprints should be sent to: Merril Silverstein, Ph.D. Syracuse University – Aging Studies Institute 314 Lyman Hall Syracuse, NY 13244 United States (merrils@syr.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examined how intergenerational exchanges with sons and daughters predicted older parents’ likelihood of co-residing with a son prior to death in a rural area of China’s Anhui Province. Our investigation drew on theories of contingent co-residence, modernization, and social exchange, conceptualizing co-residence as having practical and symbolic importance in rural Chinese culture. The sample included 470 older parents, reported as deceased during 2001–2009, and their posthumous informants. We used logistic regression to assess intergenerational support and cohesion as predictors of co-residence with a son just prior to death. Older parents who provided instrumental support to, and received instrumental support from, sons and had better emotional relationships with sons were more likely than their counterparts to co-reside with a son at the end of life. Living with sons demonstrates filial piety for older parents at the end of life, but its realization is sensitive to intergenerational transactions.

Résumé

Cette étude a examiné comment les échanges intergénérationnels avec des fils et des filles prédit la probabilité des parents âgés vivant ensemble avec un fils avant de mourir, dans une zone rurale de la province de l'Anhui de la Chine. Notre enquête puise des théories de la co-résidence dépendante, la modernisation et l'échange social; il a conceptualisé la co-résidence comme ayant une importance pratique et symbolique dans la culture chinoise rurale. L'échantillon comprenait 470 parents âgés qui ont été rapportés défunts au cours de la période 2001-2009, et leurs informateurs posthumes. Nous avons utilisé la régression logistique pour évaluer le soutien et la cohésion intergénérationnel entre les générations comme facteurs prédictifs de la co-résidence avec un fils juste avant la mort. Les parents âgés qui ont fourni soutien matériel à, et ont reçu soutien matériel de leur fils, et avait de meilleures relations affectives avec leurs fils, étaient plus susceptibles que leurs homologues de vivre avec un fils à la fin de la vie. Vivre avec les fils démontre la piété filiale pour les parents âgés à la fin de la vie, mais sa réalisation est sensible aux échanges entre les générations.

Keywords

agingaging familiesChinese familiesco-residenceintergenerational supportliving arrangementsvieillissmentfamilles vieillissantesfamilles chinoisesco-residencesoutien intergénérationnelmodes de vie
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 34 , Special Issue 3 , September 2015 , pp. 331 - 341
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bernheim, D., Shleifer, A., & Summers, L. (1985). The strategic bequest motive. Journal of Political Economy, 93(6), 1045–1076.Google Scholar
Cai, F. (Ed.). (2006). Report on China’s population and labor: Demographic transition and its social and economic consequences (Vol. 7). Beijing: Social Sciences Documentation Publishing House.Google Scholar
Chan, W. C. H., Tse, H. S., & Chan, T. H. Y. (2006). What is good death: Bridging the gap between research and intervention. In Chan, C. L. W., & Chow, A. Y. M. (Eds.), Death, dying and bereavement (pp. 127–135). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google Scholar
Chao, P. (1983). Chinese kinship. Boston, MA: Kegan Paul International.Google Scholar
Chaohu Statistical Bureau. (2001). Chaohu statistical annals. Chaohu: Chaohu Statistical Bureau.Google Scholar
Chen, F. (2005). Residential patterns of parents and their married children in contemporary China: A life course approach. Population Research and Policy Review, 24(2), 125–148.Google Scholar
Cogwill, P. (1974). Aging and modernization: A revision of theory. In Gubrium, J. (Ed.), Later life: Community and environmental policies (pp. 123–146). New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Coleman, J. S. (1990). Foundations of social theory. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cong, Z., & Silverstein, M. (2008). Intergenerational support and depression among elders in rural China: Do daughters-in-law matter? Journal of Marriage and Family, 70(3), 599–612.Google Scholar
Cong, Z., & Silverstein, M. (2010). Which sons live with their older parents in rural China? The role of migration and intergenerational exchanges. Family Science, 1(1), 67–71.Google Scholar
Cong, Z., & Silverstein, M. (2012). Caring for grandchildren and intergenerational support in rural China: A gendered extended family perspective. Ageing & Society, 32(3), 425–450.Google Scholar
Cox, D. (1987). Motives for private income transfers. Journal of Political Economy, 95(3), 508–546.Google Scholar
Davis-Friedmann, D. (1991). Long lives: Chinese elderly and the communist revolution (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Frankenberg, E., Lillard, L., & Willis, R. J. (2002). Patterns of intergenerational transfers in Southeast Asia. Journal of Marriage and Family, 64(3), 627–641.Google Scholar
Giles, J., & Mu, R. (2007). Elderly parent health and the migration decisions of adult children: Evidence from rural China. Demography, 44(2), 265–288.Google Scholar
Gu, D., Liu, G., Vlosky, D. A., & Zeng, Y. (2007). Factors associated with place of death among the Chinese oldest old. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 26(1), 34–57.Google Scholar
Karantzas, G. C., Evans, L., & Foddy, M. (2010). The role of attachment in current and future parent caregiving. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 65B(5), 573–580.Google Scholar
Knodel, J., & Ofstedal, M. B. (2002). Patterns and determinants of living arrangements. In Hermalin, A. I. (Ed.), The well-being of the elderly in Asian: A four-country comparative study (pp. 143–184). Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Korinek, K., Zimmer, Z., & Gu, D. (2011). Transitions in marital status and functional health and patterns of intergenerational coresidence among China’s elderly population. Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 66B(2), 260–270.Google Scholar
Lee, Y. (2000). Support between rural parents and migrant children in a rapidly industrializing society: South Korea. In Mason, A., & Tapinos, G. (Eds.), Sharing the wealth: Demographic change and economic transfers between generations (pp. 282–305). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Y. J., Parish, W. L., & Willis, R. J. (1994). Sons, daughters, and intergenerational support in Taiwan. American Journal of Sociology, 99(4), 1010–1041.Google Scholar
Lee, Y., & Xiao, Z. (1998). Children's support for elderly parents in urban and rural China: Results from a national survey. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 13(1), 39–62.Google Scholar
Lillard, L. A., & Willis, R. (1997). Motives for Intergenerational Transfers: Evidence from Malaysia. Demography, 34(1), 115–134.Google Scholar
Litwak, E. & Kulis, S. (1987). Technology, proximity, and measures of kin support. Journal of Marriage and Family, 49, 649–661.Google Scholar
Mangen, D., Bengtson, V. L., & Landry, P. H. Jr. (Eds.). (1988). The measurement of intergenerational relations. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Pezzin, L. E., Pollak, R. A., & Schone, B. S. (2007). Efficiency in family bargaining: Living arrangements and caregiving decisions of adult children and disabled elderly parents. CESifo Economic Studies, 53(1), 69–96.Google Scholar
Pillemer, K., & Suitor, J. J. (2006). Making choices: A within-family study of caregiver selection. Gerontologist, 46(4), 439–448.Google Scholar
Pimentel, E. E. (2005). Patrilineal coresidence in urban China: A life course perspective. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 3, 63–91.Google Scholar
Secondi, G. (1997). Private monetary transfers in rural China: Are families altruistic? Journal of Development Studies, 33(4), 487–511.Google Scholar
Silverstein, M., Cong, Z., & Li, S. (2006). Intergenerational transfers and living arrangements of older people in rural China: Consequences for psychological well-being. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 61B(5), S256–S266.Google Scholar
Silverstein, M., Conroy, S. J., Wang, H., Giarrusso, R., & Bengtson, V. L. (2002). Reciprocity in parent-child relations over the life course. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 57B(1), S3–S13.Google Scholar
Sun, R. (2002). Old age support in contemporary urban China from both parents’ and children’s perspectives. Research on Aging, 24, 337–359.Google Scholar
Sung, K. T. (1998). Exploration of actions of filial piety. Journal of Aging Studies, 12(4), 369–386.Google Scholar
Takagi, E., Silverstein, M., & Crimmins, E. M. (2007). Intergenerational coresidence of older adults in Japan: Conditions for cultural plasticity. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 62B(5), S330–S339.Google Scholar
Tang, S. T. (2000). Meanings of dying at home for Chinese patients in Taiwan with terminal cancer: A literature review. Cancer Nursing, 23(5), 367–370.Google Scholar
Wang, W. W., & Fan, C. C. (2006). Success or failure: Selectivity and reasons of return migration in Sichuan and Anhui, China. Environment and Planning, 38(5), 939–958.Google Scholar
Yamada, K. (2006). Intra-family transfers in Japan: Intergenerational co-residence, distance, and contact. Applied Economics, 38(16), 1839–1861.Google Scholar
Yan, Y. (2003). Private life under socialism: Love, intimacy, and family change in a Chinese village, 1949–1999. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Yan, S., Chen, J., & Yang, S. (2003). Living arrangements and old-age support. In Whyte, M. K. (Ed.), China’s revolutions and intergenerational relations (pp. 143–166). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies.Google Scholar
Yang, H. (1996). The distributive norm of monetary support to older parents: A study in China. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58(2), 404–415.Google Scholar
Zeng, Y., & George, L. (2001). Extremely rapid ageing and the living arrangements of the elderly: The case of China. Population Bulletin of the United Nations, 42/43, 255–287.Google Scholar
Zeng, Y., & Wang, Z. (2003). Dynamics of family and elderly living arrangements in China: New lessons learned from the 2000 census. The China Review, 3(2), 95–119.Google Scholar
Zhang, Q. F. (2004). Economic transition and new patterns of parent-adult child coresidence in urban China. Journal of Marriage and Family, 66(5), 1231–1245.Google Scholar
Zhang, W., & Wang, Y. (2010). Meal and residence rotation of elderly parents in contemporary rural Northern China. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 25(3), 217–237.Google Scholar
Zimmer, Z., Kaneda, T., Tang, Z., & Fang, X. (2010). Explaining late life urban vs. rural health discrepancies in Beijing. Social Forces, 88(4), 1885–1908.Google Scholar
Zimmer, Z., & Kim, K. (2008). Does family size predict whether an older adult lives with or proximate to an adult child in the Asia-Pacific region? Asian Population Studies, 4(2), 135–159.Google Scholar
Zimmer, Z., & Korinek, K. (2010). Shifting coresidence near the end of life: Comparing decedents and survivors of a follow-up study in China. Demography, 47(3), 537–554.Google Scholar