Document Type

Article

Date

May 2011

Keywords

caring for grandchildren, emotional support, financial support, intergenerational support, rural China.

Disciplines

Social Work

Description/Abstract

This investigation examines how support from adult children is affected by their parents’ involvement in grandchild care. Instead of focusing on dyadic interactions, we adopt a gendered extended family perspective to examine how financial and emotional support from children was influenced when their siblings received help with child care from their elder parents. The data were from a two-wave (2001, 2003) longitudinal study of 4,791 parent–child dyads with 1,162 parents, aged 60 and older, living in rural areas of Anhui Province, China. Random effects regression showed that emotional support from both sons and daughters was strengthened when parents provided more child care for their other adult children; in addition, daughters were more emotionally responsive than sons under this situation. Concerning dyadic parent–child relationships, daughter and sons increased their financial support, and sons increased their emotional support when they themselves received help with child care from parents. We suggest taking a gendered extended family perspective when studying intergenerational relationships in rural China.

Additional Information

Copyright (2011) . This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and Ageing and Society. The article may be found at http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2F4183_5AF80CD1FF2E47C34764F372845FC5C6_journals__ASO_ASO32_03_S0144686X11000420a.pdf&cover=Y&code=c0d0f481f57f7cc9559d97c60a9e146d

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