Intergenerational transfers and informal care for disabled elderly persons in China: evidence from CHARLS

Abstract

Aiming at 'ageing healthier and ageing better', a certain amount of high-quality informal care should be available for elderly persons with physical disability as formal care is barely accessible in China. The demographic transition and family structural changes have dramatically weakened traditional norms of filial piety and the structure of intergenerational transfers. This article employed nationwide representative data from the first wave (2011) of Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) in order to identify the duration of informal care provision at home for frail elders (1122 in rural areas and 577 in urban areas, total 1699), measured in monthly hours, before estimating the associations between intergenerational transfers and the received time of informal care with Tobit Model analysis. Results showed that financial support from the younger generation was unexpectedly negatively associated with the monthly hours of care, implying a reduction of caring support along with increasing financial transfers towards older parents. The lack of informal care could not be compensated by having more children, co-residing with children, or increasing the parent-to-child/grandchild transfers. Spouses were shown to replace children as the major caregivers. In addition, the community-based long-term care system needs to be promoted to sustain and develop informal care, as the latter will become increasingly important with changing family dynamics. Finally, the received time of informal care, rather than the severity of physical disability measured by difficulty with ADLs or IADLs, was introduced to identify the actual demand for care by elders. The paper argues that it is important to reconceptualise and re-investigate the duration of care provision in the Chinese context in order to develop standards of payment as part of long-term care policies.

Financial transfers from adult children and depressive symptoms among mid-aged and elderly residents in China - evidence from the China health and retirement longitudinal study

“…Our study shows that economic resources between parents and adult children flow mainly from children to parents ( n = 10,935), while it finds a very small number of transfers from parents to children. Additionally, compared to the amount of elders’ received financial support, the amount given to their adult children was relatively small in China [ 4 , 10 , 21 , 26 ]. That is in line with the transfer direction in some Asian countries, such as in Korea and Philippines [ 26 , 27 ].…”

“…Financial and in-kind support from non-co-resident children in the past 1 year were used to assess financial transfers. The sum value of all children’s supports was calculated, and the logarithm of the sum was taken as independent variable value as in a related study [ 21 ]. The economic supports including total money support and total in-kind support, calculated in Chinese Renminbi Yuan (1 yuan = 0.1582 US dollars).…”

The Impact of Disability on Intergenerational Care Needs of the Elderly in China

“…There is a negative correlation between children’s financial support to parents and their monthly care time. 17 , 22 There is a similar substitution relationship between siblings’ financial and time care for parents. 23 Therefore, this study would comprehensively consider the 2 aspects and analyze the impact of intergenerational support on the elderly from the perspective of intergenerational support.…”

Factors associated with death in bedridden patients in China: A longitudinal study

“…In China, the aging population has become an important social problem. The number of partially and completely disabled older adults has reached more than 40 million, and it is difficult for the care system to cope with large numbers of older people with functional disabilities or chronic diseases [15]. Immobility is more common among this group.…”