DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c127-649944
title: Intergenerational relations between Chinese rural elders and their adult children: a multifaceted perspective

description: The issues of intergenerational relations are sparking international interests in recent year given various social transformations such as rapid aging, declining family size, altered workforce structures, and increasing geographic distance between family members. The knowledge of the patterns of intergenerational interactions and the sustainability of informal care will provide useful insights for policy-makers and social work practitioners seeking to meet the needs of increasing eldercare. ❧ The principle aim of this dissertation research is to add to the existing knowledge about intergenerational relations by investigating the dynamics of the relationships between older parents and their adult children who live in rural China. Using longitudinal data from a group of Chinese elders in rural Anhui province, China, this dissertation research had the following specific aims: 1) to investigate the changing patterns of care provided by Chinese adult children to their parents between 2001 and 2009 and to examine the sources of heterogeneity in the changes, 2) to examine the concept of intergenerational ambivalence among China’s rural older population and to examine the predictors of such ambivalent feelings, and 3) to examine the underlying patterns of parent–child relations among Chinese rural elders and their children. ❧ The findings of this dissertation research identified both similar and different patterns of intergenerational relations in rural China as compared to those in western societies. The first study revealed that Chinese sons increased their support to aging parents over the 8-year period whereas daughters decreased the amount of parental care over time. The changing patterns were mainly affected by parents’ functional capacity and the geographic proximity from the children. Other predictors of the care trajectories included children’s current life circumstances and the alternative care provided by other siblings in the family. The second study showed that a sizable percentage (12%) of parent-child ties in the study was characterized by ambivalent relationships. Chinese rural elders reported a greater level of ambivalence toward sons than toward daughters, and such feelings increased under conditions of children’s potential dependence on their parents. A lower socio-economic status of adult children in terms of being a farmer and/or having a rural household registration status were also associated with a higher level of ambivalent feelings reported by parents. The third study revealed five types of intergenerational relations in rural China: 1) tight-knit, 2) nearby but discordant, 3) distant and discordant, 4) distant reciprocal, and 5) distant ascending. Among them, “distant reciprocal” is a unique pattern different from respective findings of western studies. I argue that it reflected collaborative and mutually beneficial parent-child relations in the context of large out-migration of adult children in rural China. ❧ Altogether, the findings of this dissertation reflect adaptations of intergenerational relations to the larger social context in rural China. The strong son-preference in rural China, massive rural-to-urban migration, and China’s national political economies all shaped the nature of personal family relationships. By comparing the research findings of this study to respective findings from Western studies, the results of this research help to develop comparative theoretical models of intergenerational relations across different cultures.