The Impact of Living Arrangements and Intergenerational Support on the Health Status of Older People in China

Research to-date has examined the impact of intergenerational support in terms of isolated types of support, or at one point in time, failing to provide strong evidence of the complex effect of support on older persons’ wellbeing. Using the Harmonised China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011, 2013 and 2015), this paper investigates the impact of older people’s living arrangements and intergenerational support provision/ receipt on their physical and psychological wellbeing, focusing on rural/ urban differences. The results show that receiving economic support from one’s adult children was a stronger predictor for higher life satisfaction among older rural residents compared to those in urban areas, while grandchild care provision was an important determinant for poor life satisfaction only for older urban residents. Receiving informal care from one’s adult children was associated with a poor (I)ADL functional status and with depressive symptoms among older rural people. Meanwhile, having weekly in-person and distant contact reduced the risk of depression among older people in both rural and urban areas. The paper shows that it is important to improve the level of public economic transfers and public social care towards vulnerable older people in rural areas, and more emphasis should be placed on improving the psychological well-being of urban older residents, such as with the early diagnosis of depression.

Transnational Caregiving for Older Adults and Caregivers’ Wellness in Japanese Americans during the Pandemic

Global migration has greatly affected intergenerational family support beyond national borders, in particular adult children’s transnational family caregiving for elderly parents. Specifically, the COVID-19 pandemic has largely influenced transnational caregiving due to the travel restrictions. Transnational caregiving for older adults includes adult children’s periodical returning to their home country and/or adult children’s caregiving for their parents in their settled country. The goal of this study was to identify trajectories between adult children’s transnational caregiving for their parents and caregivers’ wellness in Japanese Americans before and during the pandemic. We conducted semi-structured interviews with Japanese Americans 40 to 59 years of age (N=20) in California before the lockdown and during the increasing number of patients infected with the Delta variant. The qualitative data analysis showed some Japanese Americans periodically returned to Japan to provide caregiving for their parents before the pandemic, while others didn’t. However, the former group currently relied on their families in their home country more than before. The limitations led to not only distress over uncertainty but also release from a strong sense of reciprocity and filial responsibility, by changing from physical support to emotional and financial support via online. They also enhanced cultural identity as Japanese Americans, by thriving from discrimination against Asian Americans. Thus, our findings demonstrate important factors that impacted on transnational caregiving and caregivers' wellness, including cultural identity, family norms, beliefs and practices of intergenerational support, social and historical contexts, financial remittance, ICT use, and healthcare policies among the underrepresented populations across the Pacific.

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Intergenerational Support: Results Based on the Health and Retirement Study COVID-19 Module

This study examined relationships between COVID-19 exposure and intergenerational support patterns. The data was from the 2020 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) COVID-19 Module (N=3266). The latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify the types of intergenerational support based on respondents’ reports on whether they provided and received financial and instrumental support from either coresident children or non-coresident children. Two classes were identified, namely, the high interaction group and the low interaction group. Logistic regression showed that respondents who had COVID-19 and had increased spending as a result of COVID-19 were more likely to be in the high interaction group. Other types of COVID-19 exposure, i.e., knowing someone being diagnosed or knowing someone who died from COVID-19 were not significant.

Daughters-in-Law in Negotiating the Intergenerational Contract in Rural China: A Qualitative Case Study

Daughters-in-law play a key role in intergenerational relationships, especially in Rural China. Albeit, their voices are less heard and examined. This study explores how daughters-in-law in Rural China view and negotiate intergenerational contracts with their older adult parents-in-law. A qualitative case study design was used, and multiple data collection methods (including semi-structured interviews, observation and document review) with thematic analysis were employed. Findings highlight that daughters-in-law play a key role in shaping the intergenerational contracts between their spouse and their spouse’s parents. In particular, the daughters-in-law provided instrumental support to their parents-in-law who were without self-care abilities or at risk when their adult child (the daughter-in-law’s spouse) went to the city/county for work. There were also unique findings highlighting diverse negotiations of the intergenerational contract between daughters-in-law and their older adult parents-in-law. In the context of growing austerity and the current pandemic, whereby informal social supports and networks become key to older adults’ wellbeing, identifying strengths and barriers of intergenerational support from daughters-in-law, is significant to support both the individual members and family wellbeing.

A change is (not) gonna come: a 20-year overview of Italian grandparent–grandchild exchanges

Levels of coresidence, residential proximity, face-to-face contacts and intergenerational support exchanges remain overall high and stable across European countries. However, to date, few studies have focused on trends in grandparent–grandchild relations. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether and to what extent grandparent–grandchild exchanges have changed over time. We used data from the Italian Family and Social Subjects (FSS) Surveys, covering the years 1998–2016, and considered three different currencies of exchanges between grandparents and their grandchildren (coresidence, face-to-face contacts, and grandchild care provision). Our results showed stability over time in coresidence, a small reduction in daily contacts (from 47% in 1998 to 39% in 2016) and an increase in grandchildren care (from 78% in 1998 to 82% in 2016). In addition, we found little changes in the associations between such indicators of intergenerational exchanges and the demographic and socio-economic determinants usually used to explain them. Despite changes among Italian grandparents such as increases in their age profile, in education, and in marital disruption, the relations between grandparents and their grandchildren have so far remained stable over time, with generally high levels of intergenerational exchanges.