Balance Or Unbalance: Family Intergenerational Relations And Old Age Support In Rural China

This dissertation investigates the issues of family supporting in rural China byexamining various dimensions of intergenerational relations in later life. Relying onfamily modernization and intergenerational relation theories, the author replies to thedebate of intergenerational balance or unbalance topics.Using data from756old parents and2630parent-child pairs in19Chinese villages,the author concludes in four parts.1) Elderly parents have paid a lot for children indifferent family stages, such as66%of them built house and nearly half are stillproviding much assistance for children. However, only46%intergenerational relationsare reported intimate;2) Intergenerational balance is kept when considering children’seconomic support for elderly. About72%of elderly parents received money from theirchildren last year, and people who have more children, ever built house for children,and cared grandchildren can be more possible to get this. But this balance is not suitablein the behavior of emotional support, in which not the investments of parents but theintimate relations that really work;3) Mechanism of maintaining intimate relations withadult children differs between nearby and migration ones. For nearby children, whooccupy58%, elderly parents maintain intimate relations through providing houseworksupport. And for the migration ones, these derive from grandchildren care;4) Needs ofparents and their status in family are also significant factors affecting old age support.The theoretical significances of this dissertation lie on it not only tests hypothesisraised by modernization theory, but also reexamines the issues of “intergenerationalunbalance” under the perspectives of intergenerational relation theories. The authorpoints out that borders of family remain covering families of parents and adult children,which is shown as frequent intergenerational interactions and old age support. However,compared to the increasing input of parents, returns from children are under uncertaintybecause of lacking emotion. So the author proposes an ideal intergenerational relationwhich is characterized as limited responsibilities and emotional intimate relations.