Family Support For The Elderly In Rural China During Economic Transition

Economic transition and social development have had significant impacts on the family support for the elderly in rural China. Macro-factors that influence family support for the elderly include followings: declined parent's control power over family; labor force participation of women, the main care-givers of the family support for the elderly; decrease in number of children; migration of the rural youth; and so on.This study aims at examining on a household basis the living arrangements and economic status of the elderly, the two key issues on exploring the status of the rural elderly during economic transition. These can be further decomposed into follow sub-objectives: exploration of sources of vulnerability and instability of the rural elderly; investigation of living arrangements of the elderly based on household survey; examination of economic status of the elderly based both on household and individual level information. In order to attain the proposed objectives within limited time and financial budget, this study employed the micro household economic approach which combine structured household survey with a number of intensive quantitative techniques, including direct observations, in-depth interviews and focused-group discussions. Qualitative methods included statistical analysis and econometric modeling.Living arrangements of the elderly was first explored under an assumption that the effect of social economic status on economic support for the elderly is mediated through, or specified by, changes in living arrangements of the elderly. The economic status of the elderly was then investigated. Investigation was implemented both from household level and individual level.The comparisons between households with different age composition and different age group were also made. Main findings and conclusions of this study are as follows. 1. The effects of micro social-economic changes on family support for the elderly is generally negative; 2. Fundamental framework of analysis for the elderly support in rural China is that family strategy for the elderly is under rural household livelihood strategy and is based on household resources; 3. Living arrangement and economic status are two key issues on exploring family support for the elderly. Living with at least one child is still the main living arrangements for the rural elderly and living with spouse only will be a voluntarily selection process among the elderly; 4. From the age-group point of view, the elderly is generally not economically worse than the middle-aged.There is no urgent crisis for the family support to the elderly. That makes it possible that the policy should pay more attention to the long run strategy for the rural elderly support. Fundamental works for the rural elderly support should climb to an important policy agenda. Major policy attention should also be paid to establishment of basic theoretical and practical framework for the elderly support in rural China. Those old people who living with spouse only should be further investigated to prepare for future strategies of the elderly support. Those old people who living in poor areas should be financially support at current stage.