Children’s Relative Living Proximity and Intergenerational Support to Older Parents in China

Abstract

Although research has recognized the influence of geographic proximity on intergenerational support in Chinese families, the effect of siblings’ geographic proximity remains unexplored. Guided by the within-family differences approach, this study uses data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study to examine how the relativity of children’s and their siblings’ geographic proximity is associated with children’s support to older parents and how the association differs by child gender. Results show that living relatively farther among siblings is associated with providing less economic support and have less contact with parents, but this negative effect is less prominent on sons’ economic support and daughters’ contact with parents. Having siblings living at the same distance also affects children’s support behaviors. The findings reveal that support responsibilities could be differentially distributed by children’s relative living proximity among siblings and indicate the importance of considering sibling influences when studying intergenerational support in Chinese families.

Childlessness and sibling positioning in upward intergenerational support: Insights from Singapore

“…However, concerns may arise regarding the possibility that childless individuals have a higher likelihood of co-residing with their parents compared to the non-childless, potentially overestimating the impact of childlessness on associational support in our analysis. Following the common approach in the literature (Bao, 2022), we conducted robustness tests by restricting our sample to non-co-resident individuals to address the potential overestimation of the impact of childlessness. Our analysis findings remained robust; childless individuals visited their parents significantly more often than non-childless individuals, even after excluding co-resident cases (not shown).…”

China's aging population: A review of living arrangement, intergenerational support, and wellbeing

“…Available evidence suggests that the past concerns have underestimated the ability of Chinese families to cope with non‐coresident living by re‐arranging intergenerational support. New coping strategies include the growing prominence of spousal care‐giving [ 15 ], extensive support to non‐coresident parents by children living nearby [ 16 , 17 ], significant financial contributions to left‐behind parents from migrant children [ 18 , 19 ], and the step‐in of adult daughters to provide financial and emotional support to their natal parents [ 11 , 20 , 21 ].…”

“…Not surprisingly, longer living distance leads to less frequent visits and lower levels of instrumental support from adult children to their parents. However, children living farther away often provide more financial support [ 11 , 16 , 17 ]. Research in this line suggests that Chinese families tend to follow the model of compensation in allocation of care responsibilities among adult children, particularly between migrant and nonmigrant children [ 19 ].…”