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

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 33-33
Author(s):  
Cheng Shi ◽  
Yajing Zhu ◽  
Gloria Hoi Yan Wong

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.

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 811-841 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN KNODEL ◽  
JIRAPORN KESPICHAYAWATTANA ◽  
CHANPEN SAENGTIENCHAI ◽  
SUVINEE WIWATWANICH

ABSTRACTThe consequences of adult children's migration from rural areas for older parents who remain behind are keenly debated. While the mass media and international advocacy organisations favour an ‘alarmist’ view of desertion, the academic literature makes more sanguine assessments using the ‘household strategy’ and ‘modified extended family’ perspectives. We examine the relationship between the migration of adult children and various dimensions of older parents' wellbeing in Thailand using evidence from a survey that focused on the issues. The results provide little support for the alarmist view, but instead suggest that parents and adult children adapt to the social and economic changes associated with development in ways not necessarily detrimental to intergenerational relations. The migration of children, especially to urban areas, often benefits parents' material support while the recent spread of cell phones has radically increased their ability to maintain social contact. Nevertheless, changing living arrangements through increased migration and the smaller family sizes of the youngest age groups of older people pose serious challenges for aspects of filial support, especially at advanced ages when chronic illness and frailty require long-term personal care. Dealing with this emerging situation in a context of social, economic and technological change is among the most critical issues facing those concerned with the implications of rapid population ageing in Thailand and elsewhere.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 512-513
Author(s):  
Jia Chen ◽  
Xiaochen Zhou

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.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Jia Chen ◽  
Xiaochen Zhou ◽  
Nan Lu

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.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Marcela Ballesteros ◽  
José Moreno-Montoya ◽  
Wilhelmus Johannes Andreas Grooten ◽  
Pedro Barrera-López ◽  
José A. De la Hoz-Valle

Abstract BackgroundMultimorbidity prevalence in the elderly is increasing worldwide. Variations regarding the socioeconomic characteristics of the individuals and their context have been described, mostly in high-income scenarios. This study aims to assess the magnitude and the socioeconomic factors associated with variations on multimorbidity in Colombia.MethodsA cross-sectional multilevel study with a nationally representative sample of 23 694 Colombian adults aged 60 years and older was conducted. Individual socioeconomic, demographic, childhood and health related characteristics, as well as group level variables (multidimensional poverty index and infectious diseases mortality rate) were analyzed. A two-level stepwise structural equation model was used to simultaneously adjust the individual and contextual effects. ResultsMultimorbidity prevalence was 62.3% (95% CI 61.7–62.9). In the multilevel adjusted models, age, female sex, having functional limitations, non-white ethnicity, high body mass index, higher income, physical inactivity, poverty during childhood and living in urban areas were associated with multimorbidity. The mediation analysis showed that living in rural areas was significantly associated with infectious disease mortality rate and other individual associations with multimorbidity were mediated by the multidimensional poverty variable. ConclusionsThis paper demonstrates a strong association between multimorbidity and poverty in a low-middle income country. Differences in the factors involved in the etiology of multimorbidity are expected among wealthy and poor countries regarding availability and prioritization of health services.


1985 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 131-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda C. Brunn

Elderly ailing parents with dependent adult children face a complex set of problems that may seem insurmountable. A Services for Older Persons Unit of a family service agency has developed a clinical approach for dealing with these problems and of involving families and the community.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S324-S324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soohyoung r Lee

Abstract Even though the coresidence of older parents and their adult children is no longer a rare phenomenon in current society, a little is known about the benefit of living with adult children from older adults’ perspectives compared to the risk of this living situation. Previous research suggests that older adults’ psychological well-being is low when they live with their adult children, and this become more salient among single parents, such as widowed or divorced. The current paper utilizes the National Health Measurement Study with a sample of age 55 and over, and their SF-36 Mental Health Component score, and psychological well-being self-acceptance score was measured. Path analysis reveals while mental health and psychological well-being scores are lower among single older adults at the time of the survey (e.g., divorced, widowed) than non-single, coresidence of older adults and adult children completely mediates the negative relationship between being single and both mental health psychological well-being. A complete mediation effect of living with an adult child on older adults’ mental health and psychological well-being is consistent with both white and non-white minority older adults. This suggests that living with adult child benefits older adults’ mental health and psychological well-being. The current study seeks to stimulate ideas that might generate the next answer to community-based care in our current aging society.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guri Bitnes Wiik ◽  
Siri Devik ◽  
Ove Hellzen

The majority of older people wish to continue to live at home for as long as possible. As a consequence, the healthcare system, including cancer care, is located in urban areas and people living in rural areas must commute to gain access to the services offered. The aim of this study was to investigate how older people, who live on their own, experience living with incurable cancer and commuting for palliative care in rural Norway. A case study was designed and informants were recruited not because they were typical but because they were deemed to have the potential to contribute to knowledge about the phenomenon of being an older person who has been diagnosed with incurable cancer and lives alone in a rural area. Three major categories were identified: &ldquo;<em>Hovering between hope and fear</em>, <em>Stressful commuting to palliative care</em>, and <em>Being exhausted</em>. The findings indicated that older people who have been stricken with incurable cancer and who live alone in rural areas have to<em> walk the palliative path alone</em>. A common feature of all the informants is that they do not speak out and they do not complain. Even though the trend in healthcare is towards centralized treatment, shorter and more effective stays in hospital, and policlinic (policlinic services are a place where healthcare services can be accessed without the need for an overnight stay in hospital, usually such clinics are located close to a hospital) treatment and care, not all older persons manage to take care of themselves. The findings suggest that nurses should pay more attention to these patients&rsquo; needs for care at different levels of the healthcare service.


2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-369
Author(s):  
Sourav Saha

 Higher education plays a crucial role in socio-economic transformation of a country. At present the rate of female participation in higher education has been increasing, especially in the urban and sub-urban areas of the State Assam. But this scenario is very much disheartening in the State’s rural areas. Very recently, some new universities have been established in Assam which makes the rate of female participation in higher education increased. However, the involvement of female in different technical and job oriented courses is still lagging behind. The present study is therefore an attempt to analyse the trend and pattern of women participation in different faculties of Gauhati University and also to investigate the socio-cultural factors behind the low rate of female participation in some particular faculties. The study is based on secondary data collected from the office of the university.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1113-1117
Author(s):  
Alan C.K. Cheung

Rural areas are the product of the development of productivity to a certain stage. Generally, rural areas are geographical areas located outside of cities and towns. The Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines the term “rural” as “...not including all population, housing, and territory in urban areas. Anything that is not in a city is regarded as a rural area” (HRSA, 2021). From the perspective of production methods, rural areas refer to “a place where people mainly engaged in agricultural production live together” (The Dictionary Editing Office of the Institute of Languages, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 2005). When productivity has not yet reached a high level of development, there are still essential differences between urban and rural areas. Affected by economic transformation and geographical location, rural economic growth has been restricted. According to United Nations statistics, in 2018, the rural population accounted for more than half of the global population, and the rural poor accounted for 79% of the worldwide poverty population; the poverty rate in rural areas was more than three times that of urban areas. Of the 2 billion people in the world who do not have basic health services, 70% live in rural areas; the ratio of energy access in rural areas is about 75%, while that in urban areas is 96% (United Nations General Assembly, 2018).


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 162-167
Author(s):  
Cosmina-Simona Toader ◽  
Malgorzata Zajdel ◽  
Andrea Ana Feher ◽  
Malgorzata Michalcewicz-Kaniowska

The rural area is an extremely varied area, agricultural area, the area occupied by forests and grazing the surface of non-agricultural lands (Riviera sea, etc.) and rural agglomerations is a separate entity from the urban areas characterized by a high demographic concentration and vertical and horizontal structures. Being often under the impact of old production systems, characterized by accelerated development and irrational of industry, the countryside has been subject to economic transformation, social and environmental, which mostly resulted in exodus and impoverishment of the rural population. Given this situation, are downright remarkable efforts of developed countries and not only to balance rural-urban ratio, reconciliation and revival of rural areas is kept of unique material and spiritual values. Rural areas are the result of interactions between man and nature, between interdependencies relations, who are specific to diversity of social actions and their natural environment, between the material and spiritual civilization, which for centuries coexist and evolve in a particular national territory. Image of rural area is emphasized by its size, which is the synthetic expression of social activities that are conducted using specific processes and phenomena of nature. All specific features of rural areas (natural, human, material and spiritual), which define the dimension of rural areas, are highlighted by the following components of the system: territorial administrative, demographic, economic and infrastructural. European rural area was and is the subject of extensive restructuring processes that were the result of a complex interaction of social phenomena, economic, sectoral and regional transfers. In circumstances where over half of the 27 Member States of the European Union lives in rural areas, and it occupies over 80% of the total territory, rural areas have considerable potential for growth, with a vital social role. Rural population and surface area occupied and the importance of rural life for a country, make the problem of rural development to gain a national and international importance. In this article the authors presents rural areas as an important part of a country with all its components. The authors elaborated a comparative analysis of rural areas from Poland and Romania from demographic perspective. The analysis was elaborated using indicators like population density, population structure by gender and age, migrations of population, relying on data from national and european statistics.  


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