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Providing instrumental support to older parents of multi-child families in China: are there different within-family patterns?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2021

Jia Chen Open the ORCID record for Jia Chen [Opens in a new window] ,
Xiaochen Zhou  and
Nan Lu Open the ORCID record for Nan Lu [Opens in a new window]
Jia Chen*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Work, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
Xiaochen Zhou
Affiliation:
Department of Social Work and Social Administration, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong (SAR), China
Nan Lu
Affiliation:
Department of Social Work and Social Policy, School of Sociology and Population Studies, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
*
*Corresponding author. Email: chenjialingcool@gmail.com
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Abstract

Older parents in China rely heavily on their adult children for instrumental assistance. In different multi-child families, multiple offspring may co-operate in providing instrumental support to older parents in distinct ways in terms of how much support they provide on average and how much differentiation exists between them when they provide such support within a family. We aimed to identify different within-family patterns in relation to multiple offspring's instrumental support to an older parent in Chinese multi-child families, and to investigate potential predictors for different within-family patterns. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (2016), we had a working sample of 5,790 older adults aged 60+ (mean = 68.54, standard deviation = 6.60). We employed latent profile analysis (LPA) to classify within-family patterns and multinomial logistic regression to investigate predictors. Our findings identified three within-family patterns: dissociated (59.10%), highly differentiated (29.60%) and united-filial (11.30%). Older parents in the highly differentiated families tended to be older, mothers, divorced/widowed and to have poorer physical health compared to their counterparts in the dissociated families. In contrast, the composition characteristics of multiple adult children played more important roles in determining the united-filial within-family pattern. The united-filial families were more likely to have fewer adult children, at least one adult daughter and at least one co-residing adult child.

Keywords

intergenerational supportinstrumental supportparent–adult child relationselderly carecare arrangementcare-givingChinese
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 41 , Issue 8 , August 2021 , pp. 1770 - 1787
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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