Of the Family Tree: Congruence on Filial Obligation between Older Parents and Adult Children in Japanese Canadian Families

RÉSUMÉS’inspirant de l’hypothèse d’enjeu intergénérationelle (Bengtson and Kuypers, 1971), cet’article étudie la congruence et l’in-congruence entre les générations sur l’obligation filiale, et les implications pour l’assistance sociale, entre les parents anciens nisei (la seconde génération) et les enfants adultes de sansei (la troisième génération) dans les familles canadiennes japonaises. À l’aide des données des entretiens semi-structurés avec 100 dyads parent-enfant en la Colombie Britannique, la congruence sur des réponses fermées aux déclarations de valeur (la congruence de degré) et la congruence de contenu des réponses ouvertes sont examinés. Les conclusions montrent que la majorité des dyads parent-enfant indique congruence globale (degré et contenu) en ligne directe d’obligation, surtout lorsqu’un parent est féminin, veuf, ou dont l’état de santé est mauvaise ou passable. Nous concluons que, malgré des expériences sensiblement différentes dans le cours de la vie et des processus d’acculturation différents, les deux générations continuent de considérer l’obligation filiale comme importante. Ces conclusions sont discutées quant aux implications pour les échanges de soutien social, étant donné une évaluation continue de l’obligation filiale en Asie post-immigrant (né en Amérique du Nord) et familles immigrantes.

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New Structure, Traditional Essence: Patterns of Helping Non-Coresident Parents by Own and Sibling(s)’ Gender in China

Research on Aging ◽

10.1177/01640275211018814 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 016402752110188

Author(s):

Yifei Hou ◽

Marissa Rurka ◽

Siyun Peng

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Longitudinal Study ◽

Family Structure ◽

Adult Children ◽

Parental Support ◽

The United States ◽

Sibship Size ◽

Older Parents ◽

Traditional Family ◽

The Family

As Chinese households are becoming smaller with increasing numbers of adult children and older parents living apart, the extent to which patterns of parental support reflect traditional gender dynamics is under debate. Integrating theories of sibling compensation with ceremonial giving, we tested whether helping non-coresident parents in China is affected by sibship size and how these patterns depend on own and sibling(s)’ gender using a sample of 4,359 non-coresident parent-child dyads nesting within 3,285 focal adult children from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2013. Opposite to patterns in the United States and Europe, we found substitutions of daughters with sons—having more brothers was associated with daughters’ reduced probabilities and hours of helping. Sons’ patterns of helping were independent of number of brothers and sisters in the family, consistent with the theory of ceremonial giving. These findings reflect the dominance of traditional family dynamics despite changes in family structure.

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Filial norms and family support in a comparative cross-national context: evidence from the OASIS study

Ageing and Society ◽

10.1017/s0144686x05004502 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 203-223 ◽

Cited By ~ 118

Author(s):

ARIELA LOWENSTEIN ◽

SVEIN OLAV DAATLAND

Keyword(s):

Adult Children ◽

Filial Obligation ◽

Older Parents ◽

Opportunity Structures ◽

The North ◽

Emotional Bonds ◽

Different Types ◽

Specific Factors ◽

Country Specific ◽

Cross National

The article aims to answer three questions: How strong are the bonds of obligations and expectations between generations? To what extent are different types of support exchanged between generations? What are the impacts of filial norms, opportunity structures and emotional bonds on the exchange of inter-generational support between adult children and older parents across societies? It reports findings from the five-country (Norway, England, Germany, Spain and Israel) OASIS study, which collected data from representative, age-stratified, urban-community samples of about 1,200 respondents in each country. The findings indicate that solidarity is general and considerable although the strengths of its dimensions vary by country. Most respondents acknowledged some degree of filial obligation, although the proportions were higher in Spain and Israel than in the northern countries, and there was greater variation in the tangible forms than in the expressed norms. Adult children were net providers of support, but older parents provided emotional support and financial help. Most support was provided to unmarried older parents with physical-function limitations. The effect of filial norms on help provision by adult children was moderate but significant and variable across the five countries, appearing more prescriptive in the south than in the north, where inter-generational exchanges were more open to negotiation. The findings demonstrate that cross-national analyses provide insights into both country-specific factors and the sometimes unexpected similarities among them.

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Care-giving dynamics and futures planning among ageing parents of adult offspring with intellectual disability

Ageing and Society ◽

10.1017/s0144686x18000144 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 39 (7) ◽

pp. 1512-1527 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

RUTH WALKER ◽

CLAIRE HUTCHINSON

Keyword(s):

Intellectual Disability ◽

Adult Children ◽

Service Providers ◽

Theoretical Perspective ◽

Older Parents ◽

Supported Accommodation ◽

Care Giving ◽

The Family ◽

The Future ◽

Family Home

ABSTRACTThe number of older parents ageing in tandem with their adult children with intellectual disability (ID) is increasing. This unique situation calls for greater research that investigates how older parents experience this extended care-giving role, including the extent to which they are engaging in futures planning. Participants were recruited via disability service providers in South Australia. Using the theoretical perspective of hermeneutic phenomenology to understand lived experiences, semi-structured in-depth interviews were carried out with older parents (N = 17, mean age 70 years). Six offspring were living in the family home while the remainder were in supported accommodation. Main themes to emerge from the data were: (a) perpetual parenting, (b) costs and rewards and (c) planning to plan. Parents were providing care across a range of areas, regardless of whether their offspring lived at home or in supported accommodation. While aware of the need to plan for the future, most did not have a firm plan in place. Parents are providing a high level of support to their adult children with ID regardless of whether they live in supported accommodation or the family home. While some have started to think about future care arrangements, most appear unclear over what the future holds.

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The implications of today's family structures for support giving to older parents

Ageing and Society ◽

10.1017/s0144686x07006666 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 413-434 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

MARIA C. STUIFBERGEN ◽

JOHANNES J. M. VAN DELDEN ◽

PEARL A. DYKSTRA

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Adult Children ◽

Parent Child Relationship ◽

Filial Obligation ◽

Cultural Changes ◽

Family Structures ◽

Older Parents ◽

Elderly Parents ◽

Parents And Children ◽

Practical Support

ABSTRACTThere is considerable debate about the effects of today's family structures on support arrangements for older people. Using representative data from The Netherlands, the study reported in this paper investigates which socio-demographic characteristics of adult children and their elderly parents, and which motivations of the adult children, correlate with children giving practical and social support to their parents. The findings indicate that the strongest socio-demographic correlates of a higher likelihood of giving support were: having few siblings, having a widowed parent without a new partner and, for practical support, a short geographical distance between the parent's and child's homes. Single mothers were more likely to receive support than mothers with partners, irrespective of whether their situation followed divorce or widowhood. Widowed fathers also received more support, but only with housework. A good parent-child relationship was the most important motivator for giving support, whereas subscribing to filial obligation norms was a much weaker motivator, especially for social support. Insofar as demographic and cultural changes in family structures predict a lower likelihood of support from children to elderly parents, this applies to practical support, and derives mainly from increased geographical separation distances and from the growing trend for parents to take new partners. Social support is unlikely to be affected by these changes if parents and children maintain good relationships.

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Examining the disjunctures between policy and care in Canada’s Parent and Grandparent Supervisa

International Journal of Migration Health and Social Care ◽

10.1108/ijmhsc-08-2014-0030 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 253-267 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Ilyan Ferrer

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Adult Children ◽

Service Providers ◽

Global South ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Older Parents ◽

Content Type ◽

Family Unit ◽

Starting Point ◽

The Family

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine disjunctures between the ways in which Canada’s Parent and Grandparent Supervisa is framed within policy documents and press releases, and how it is actually experienced by older adults and their adult children from the Global South who engage in intergenerational care exchanges once they reunify. Design/methodology/approach – A case study involving qualitative interviews with a married couple (adult children), and official texts from Citizenship and Immigration Canada were analyzed, and subsequently categorized according to themes. Findings – The findings of this paper first demonstrate how policies such as the Parent and Grandparent Supervisa and the revamped Family Sponsorship program are ostensibly made to alleviate the significant backlog of family reunification applications, but in reality streamline and categorize older adults from the Global South as visitors who are given minimal state entitlements. Second, the Parent and Grandparent Supervisa reinforces forms of structured dependency by placing the responsibility and burden of care onto sponsors who must provide financial, social, and health care to their older parents. Finally, official statements on the Parent and Grandparent Supervisa and restructured Family Sponsorship program ignore the complex intergenerational exchanges that take place to ensure the survival of the family unit. Research limitations/implications – Given the nature of the case study’s design, the study’s findings speak to the experiences of Analyn and Edwin; adult children who sponsored an older parent under the Parent and Grandparent Supervisa. Given the recency of the program, the issues highlighted provide a much-needed starting point in examining the Supervisa’s impact on families from the Global South. Moreover, future studies could critically assess how the highly gendered nature of care is experienced under Canada’s temporary reunification programs. Practical implications – The study highlights the everyday challenges of sponsoring a parent under the Parent and Grandparent Supervisa. These issues are particularly important for policy makers and practitioners to assess and understand how such policies transform dynamics of care for families from the Global South. The unbalanced power dynamics raises questions on how to best support overburdened adult children, and vulnerable older parents who have no access to state resources. Originality/value – The findings of this paper further the understanding of how families from the Global South provide and receive care under the Parent and Grandparent Supervisa. These experiences, however, are neglected within official state policies which frame older newcomers as visitors who are managed, and denied entitlements to state resources. Revealing disjunctures between policy and lived experiences can assist service providers, professionals, and policy makers to recognize how programs like the Parent and Grandparent Supervisa overburden the family unit, and exacerbate conditions of poverty and marginalization.

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The Confucian Filial Obligation and Care for Aged Parents

The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy ◽

10.5840/wcp20-paideia19985125 ◽

1998 ◽

pp. 120-128

Author(s):

James Wang

Keyword(s):

Adult Children ◽

Moral Obligation ◽

Filial Obligation ◽

The West ◽

Elderly Parents ◽

Norman Daniels ◽

The Family ◽

The World ◽

Filial Obligations ◽

Familial Obligations

Some moral philosophers in the West (e.g., Norman Daniels and Jane English) hold that adult children have no more moral obligation to support their elderly parents than does any other person in the society, no matter how much sacrifice their parents made for them or what misery their parents are presently suffering. This is because children do not ask to be brought into the world or to be adopted. Therefore, there is a "basic asymmetry between parental and the filial obligations." I argue against the Daniels/English thesis by employing the traditional Confucian view of the nature of filial obligation. On the basis of a distinction between 'moral duty' and 'moral responsibility' and the Confucian concept of justice, I argue that the filial obligation of adult children to care respectfully for their aged parents is not necessarily self-imposed. I conclude that due to the naturalistic character of the family, the nature of our familial obligations (such as parental caring for young children and adult children's respectful caring for aged parents) cannot be consensual, contractarian and voluntarist, but instead existential, communal and historical.

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Do Older People Expect Reciprocity When Providing Care? Evidence From a National Cohort

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.106 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 33-33

Author(s):

Cheng Shi ◽

Yajing Zhu ◽

Gloria Hoi Yan Wong

Keyword(s):

Adult Children ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Older Persons ◽

Driving Forces ◽

Adult Child ◽

Economic Transformation ◽

Filial Obligation ◽

Older Parents

Abstract Background: The debate on whether caregiving is selfless or self-serving is unresolved. From the perspective of caregiving as a moral responsibility, the motivation to provide care is altruistic. The exchange or reciprocity perspective suggests that care is provided with an expectation to be cared for in the future. The context of filial obligation and rapid socio-economic transformation in recent decades in urban and rural China provided a unique opportunity to investigate these two driving forces. Methods: We tested the effects of caregiving experience in older persons on their care expectation from their children using data from the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (n=8,308). Using a multiple-indicator multiple-cause model, a special form of structural equation modelling, we examined the effect of caring for one’s older parents, helping adult children with housework, and caring for grandchildren on older persons’ care expectation from their children. Results: Older persons in urban areas had higher expectation for future care from their children if they have helped them with housework or took care of their grandchildren, whereas their experience of taking care of their own parents is related to a lower care expectation from their children. Although a similar pattern was observed in rural areas, only the experience of helping adult children with housework significantly increased care expectation. Discussion: Both altruistic and exchange motivations are involved in caregiving. Caring for older parents was more likely altruistic. Caring for an adult child in both urban and rural areas, and grandparenting in urban areas, were motivated by reciprocity.

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Within-Family Patterns of Sharing Instrumental Support to Older Parents of Multi-Child Families in China

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.1654 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 512-513

Author(s):

Jia Chen ◽

Xiaochen Zhou

Keyword(s):

Adult Children ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Latent Profile Analysis ◽

Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽

Adult Child ◽

Instrumental Support ◽

Adult Daughter ◽

Older Parents ◽

Family Patterns ◽

The Family

Abstract In different multi-child families, adult children may share their instrumental support to older parents in distinct ways regarding its family mean level and differentiation among multiple offspring within families. Based on the family systems theory and the collective ambivalence perspective, we aimed (1) to identify different within-family patterns in relation to multiple offspring’s sharing instrumental support to an older parent in Chinese multi-child families; (2) to investigate potential individual and family predictors for different within-family patterns. Applying data from the China Family Panel Studies (2016, N=5791 older adults aged 60+), we employed latent profile analysis for classifying patterns and multinomial logistic regression for investigating predictors. Results showed three within-family patterns identified: independent (59.78%), highly-ambivalent (30.41%) and filial-cohesive (9.81%). Compared with the independent families, older parents in highly-ambivalent families were more likely to be older (OR=1.03), divorced/widowed (OR=0.61), to have lower educational levels(OR=0.84, ), poorer physical health (OR=0.92), to live in rural areas (OR=0.84), to have at least one adult daughter (OR=1.95)and one coresiding adult child (OR=3.22). Older parents in filial-cohesive families tended to be mothers (OR=0.82), divorced/widowed (OR=0.62), to have fewer adult children (OR=0.78) ,to have at least one adult daughter (OR=1.67) and one coresiding adult child (OR=2.16). The youngest adult children in filial-cohesive families tended to be older (OR=1.04). This study highlighted the importance of capturing different within-family dynamics regarding instrumental support to older parents among multiple adult children at the family level. It also uncovered the commons and differences between multi-child aging families in contemporary China.

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