Research On Children Influence In Care For Poor Elderly People

The poor old people's life and welfare state are important livelihood issues.Traditionally,our nation's pension needs are met within the family.However,due to the reduction of family size,the change of living style,and the shaking of traditional family ethics norms by the trend of modernization,the "feedback mode" has encountered many practical difficulties.For the poor elderly,the lack of family economic resources further limits their children's ability to support.In this context,this paper hopes to understand the status quo of the care for the poor elderly;whether their old-age status is significantly affected by their children;if so,whether the influence is significantly different between sons or daughters,and whether the traditional concept of raising children for old age still has practical significance.This research adopts the quantitative analysis method and selects the survey data of "improving the social assistance system" in Hubei province.The research takes the care status of the poor elderly as the dependent variable and operationalizes it into economic status,living status,and mental status.The independent variable is the situation of children of the poor elderly,including whether they have children and the gender composition of their children.In addition,six control variables including gender,age,urban-rural distribution,health status,marital status and family relationship are selected from both individual and family levels.The research describes the demographic and sociological characteristics of the poor elderly firstly.Then,the care status of the poor elderly is compared in different children condition.Finally,according to different types of dependent variables,linear regression or binary Logistic regression model is used to analyze the influence of whether having children and the gender composition of their children on economic,living and mental status of the poor elderly.The research has found that the current status of care for the poor elderly is not good on the whole;whether having children has a "threshold effect" on the care for the poor elderly,poor elderly without children are more vulnerable.That means childless poor elderly has lower per capita income,larger possibility to living beyond means and viewing the economy as insecure;also,they have less basic living facilities,worse living conditions,larger possibility to thinking the medical as insecure,heavier worry for their elderly life and more mental pressure.For the comparison of the roles of sons or daughters,there is a trend of transition from raising sons for old age to "dual system" for the aged.In economy,although the poor elderly who only have sons have the highest per capita income,the poor elderly only having daughters are most likely to have economic balance and more likely to be financially secure than those only with sons.In living,the poor elderly who only have daughters have largest number of basic facilities,while the poor elderly having sons are more likely to feel medically secure.In spiritual comfort,the poor elderly who have sons are less worried about their elderly life than those without sons.According to the research findings,focusing on the establishment of the social support network for the poor elderly,suggestions are put forward in three aspects: the compensation of children's absence,the strengthening for children's utility and the supplement of children's utility by using social forces.At policy level,in the case of no children or children's inaction,the precise and service-oriented orientation of social assistance policies should be advocated in order to provide guarantee for the poor elderly.At family level,in order to enhance children support,harmonious family traditions should be fostered,inter-generational mutual assistance should be developed,the rights and interests of the daughters need to be protected,and gender equality in support ethics needs to be promoted.At social level,the development of home-based services and mutual support for the aged,the provision of family-like care in institutions are all useful supplement for children's support.