Research On The Relationships Between Family Structure,Intergenerational Support And Rural Elderly Health In Mountainous And Upland Areas Of Sichuan Province

Population aging has become a worldwide problem,and China has the largest number of elderly people in the world,the population aged 65 and over in China has reached 144 million in 2015.Meanwhile,the aging rate and level of population in rural areas of China are higher than that in urban areas,and the aging is showing a severe phenomenon of ‘urban and rural inversion’ in China.However,as a result of the lack of a pension system,family support remains the main pension model in rural China,especially in relatively poor areas,by means of the intergenerational support of family members for the security of the elderly.For example,in mountainous and upland areas of Sichuan Province,due to the relative lag of economic development,the local government’s ability to pay for the rural elderly pension is more limited,resulting in a stronger dependence of the elderly on the intergenerational support of family members.Therefore,family structure has an important influence on the access to the intergenerational support and improving the level of welfare of the elderly.Nevertheless,the changes of family structure,such as miniaturization,core,empty-nested and intergenerational,are changing the traditional intergenerational support mode,which brings challenges to the family pension mode of the elderly in rural areas and affects the health status of the elderly.Elderly health is an important component of elderly welfare.Thus,the study on the relationships between family structure,intergenerational support and oldage health in rural areas can put forward some suggestions for improving the family pension model and improving the health level of the elderly,under the social situation that the family pension model is still the main old-age support model in rural areas of China.This is of great significance to improve the welfare level of the elderly in rural areas,promote social equity,and solve the increasingly serious aging problem in China.Based on the theory of health geography and from the perspective of interdisciplinary,using data of peasant households collected in Sichuan,China,this study describes the family structure of the rural elderly from three angles: residence arrangement,children’s situation and labor migration structure in household.Then this study measures the intergenerational support obtained by the elderly with economic,emotional and instrumental support,and measures the health level of the elderly from three dimensions: physical health,mental health and comprehensive self-rated health(SRH).After the analysis of the present situation of the family structure,intergenerational support and health level of the rural elderly in Sichuan Province,firstly the relationships between the three is analyzed by establishing a regression model.Secondly,the mediating role of intergenerational support is explored by using the multiple mediation model;and then the coupling framework of the three is constructed by using the structural equation model.At last,this study provides suggestions to adjust the intergenerational support at the micro level of peasant households and replenish social support at the macro level of government,in order to improve the health and welfare of rural elderly.The main findings of the study are as follows:(1)The characteristics of family structure,intergenerational support and health status of rural elderly in Sichuan Province are obvious.(1)In terms of family structure,inter-generational and empty-nested has become the main trend of rural households,37.78% and 37.04% respectively;The characteristics of multi-childization and son preference of the elderly are prominent,and the migration of labor force has become the norm of rural families.(2)As for intergenerational support,the elderly have better access to emotional support than to economic and instrumental support.(3)As far as the elderly’s health status is concerned,the overall health status of the sample elderly is good.Most elderly could maintain the normal function to complete activities of daily living,and their mental health and SRH are all not bad.(2)The correlations between family structure,intergenerational support and elderly health are significant.(1)In terms of the interrelationships between family structure and intergenerational support,the impact of residence arrangements,in particular whether to live with adult children,has been significant on elderly’s access to intergenerational support;The number of children was significantly correlated with the elderly’s access to economic and emotional support,but not with instrumental support;There was no significant correlation between the gender structure of adult children and the access of the elderly to economic support,but significant correlation with emotional and instrumental support;The correlations between labor migration and elderly’s access to intergenerational support are significant.(2)As for the correlations between intergenerational support and elderly health,intergenerational support is significantly correlated with the health level of the elderly.(3)As far as the relationships between family structure and the elderly’s health is concerned,the residence arrangement is significantly related to the health level of the elderly;The number of adult children is significantly correlated with the physical and self-rated health of the elderly,but not with mental health;The correlation between gender structure of children and health status of the elderly is unstable;Labor migration is significantly related to the elderly’s health.(3)Intergenerational support has a significant mediating effect between family structure and elderly health.(1)The overall mediating effect of intergenerational support between residence arrangement and elderly health is significant.It plays a partial intermediary role between elderly’s residence arrangements and their physical and mental health(37.23% and 24.33%),while it plays a full intermediary role between residence arrangements and SRH(52.78%).(2)The overall mediating effect of intergenerational support between the number of children and elderly’s physical,mental self-rated health are significant,and all plays a partial mediating role in each path(-11.16%,27.14% and 13.97% respectively),but the overall mediating effect between the gender structure of the children and elderly health is not significant.(3)The overall mediating effect of intergenerational support between family labor migration and elderly health is significant.Specifically,intergenerational support plays a partial intermediary role between family labor migration and the physical and self-rated health of the elderly(11.33% and 34.85%),while it plays a full intermediary role between family labor migration and the mental health of the elderly(53.59%).In addition,the most significant path between residence arrangement and elderly health is through instrumental support,while economic support is the most significant path between the number of children and elderly health.The most significant paths between labor migration and physical health of the elderly are through economic and instrumental support,while the most significant path between elderly’s mental and self-rated health is the emotional support.(4)The coupling mechanism of family structure,intergenerational support and elderly health is specific.When family structure,intergenerational support and elderly health are placed in one structural model,family structure has no significant effect on elderly health,but has a significant positive effect on intergenerational support(the path coefficient is 0.134),while intergenerational support has a significant positive effect on old age health(the path coefficient is 0.369).In addition,within the three elements,the main load factor affecting the family structure of the elderly is the elderly’s children situation.The main load factor affecting the level of intergenerational support of elderly is emotional support,followed by economic support,and the load coefficient of instrumental support is the smallest.The main load factor affecting the health status of the elderly is SRH,followed by mental health,and the physiological health with the least load coefficient.