The Impact Of Intergenerational Care On The Health Capital Of Grandparents

With the continuous extension of average life and healthy life,China’s aging has shown a trend of accelerating development,aging health is an important issue in the process of aging society.In China,grandparents have a long history of taking care of grandchildren.The idea of enjoying grandchildren and family happiness runs through the ancient and modern times.It is a traditional way of raising children that the elderly help to take care of children.At the same time,many young parents are busy with work,and China’s child care resources are facing serious problems.At this time,the leisure time brought by the extended life expectancy of grandparents has become an urgent external help for parents.In an aging society,intergenerational care may have an unpredictable impact on their health.Given the extent to which grandparent care is provided,measuring its impact on grandparent health should be of particular concern.As the population ageing deepens and grandparents can still play a positive role through generational care,the state should strive to tap into its human capital to promote a healthy ageing.This article selects the Chinese health and pension track(CHARLS)2013-2018 panel data to empirically:first using least square method and instrumental variable method,empirical research on the generation of insulation care of grandparent health capital,this paper could be divided into three levels health,physical health,mental health and social adaptation ability,in order to explore its effects.Secondly,four methods are used to test the robustness of the empirical results to ensure the robustness of the regression results.Thirdly,the research objects were divided according to household registration type,age and education status to conduct heterogeneity test.Finally,in order to determine the mechanism of the impact of intergenerational care on grandparents’ health,we introduce the grandparents’investment in medical services to test the variables.Through empirical research,the following conclusions are drawn:First,both low intensity and high intensity care will have a negative impact on grandparents’physical health,but the result is not significant.Second,low intensity care can significantly improve the mental health of grandparents,while high intensity care can harm the mental health of grandparents.Third,low intensity care has a positive impact on grandparents’ social adaptability,while high intensity care has a negative impact on grandparents’ social adaptability,with significant results.In addition,this paper adopts four methods to conduct robustness tests,and it can be found that the above conclusions are still significantly consistent,so the empirical results are robust and reliable.Heterogeneity test showed that low intensity care was beneficial to rural grandparents’ mental health and social adaptability,while high intensity care was beneficial to urban grandparents’ mental health and social adaptability.Low intensity care hinders the mental health and social adaptability of the elderly grandparents while high intensity care hinders the mental health and social adaptability of the young grandparents.The heterogeneity of education was found to be significant only in grandparents with educational experience.Finally,through path analysis,it is found that low intensity care will increase the preventive investment and reduce the therapeutic investment,while high intensity care will increase the therapeutic investment and reduce the preventive investment.Studies show that increased spending on medical services leads to an overall improvement in the health status of residents.In the context of huge differences between urban and rural areas in China,the per capita medical consumption level of rural residents is much lower than that of urban residents.At this point,investment in medical resources affecting the elderly through intergenerational care may be very effective in bringing health effects to the elderly.The significance of this paper lies in:Combined with Becker’s theory of household production and Grossman,health demand theory,empirical research and take care of this behavior to grandparents health capital,the influence of every generation to take care of the health effect of behavior can optimize the old team,improve the quality of life of the community,reduce the pressure of medical security,long-term and stable development of the economy has a positive effect,The discussion of how grandchild care affects the health of middle-aged and older adults provides policy implications for future grandchild care.From the perspective of medical service investment,the research on the influence of intergenerational care on the medical consumption and health of grandparents also provides a theoretical basis for promoting the investment of medical resources for the elderly and alleviating the demand pressure of social security.The possible innovations of this paper are as follows:First,previous studies have focused on the role of generational caregiving in female labor force participation and mental health of older adults.In the context of high fertility costs and aging,this paper explores the impact of intergenerational care on grandparents’health capital from three perspectives of decomposition of health capital(physical health,mental health and social adaptability).The research perspective is comprehensive and novel,which enrich the theory of intergenerational care.Secondly,entropy weight method,a method used in other fields,is used to construct comprehensive indicators for the health level of grandparents,and then evaluate them,so as to more accurately explain the health effects of intergenerational care behavior.In addition,from a new perspective--investment in medical services,to determine the direct impact path of intergenerational care on grandparents’ health makes the research more complete and more in-depth,and thus more scientific and targeted policy recommendations can be obtained.