Research On Family Endowment And Well-Being Of Rural Elderly Under The Family Structure Change

Family endowment has a long history and cultural heritage and it is the most basic and reliable pension model in our country,but with the acceleration of urbanization and the mobility of prime rural labors,family structure has changed significantly and has presernted the smaller family structure and family size and empty-nested phenomenon.The traditional old caring patterns faces huge challenges by family structure change.However,there have been few empirical studies of the effect of family structure change on family endowment and well-being for the rural elderly.Using data from a sample survey and follow-up surveys,"Well-being of the elderly in Anhui Province",conducted in 2001,2003,2006,2009,2012 and 2015 respectively,this study conducts study on family endowment and well-being for the rural elderly.Firstly,the study analyzes the distribution of family structure in Anhui Province from 2001 to 2015 and compares the change of specific gravity for each type of family structure.Meanwhile the study analyzes the possible changes of family structure in detail and discusses its reasons.Secondly,based on gender view,this study analyzes the influence of family structure change on economic exchange,daily living care and emotional support for older fathers and older mothers with individual growth model.The results shows that there is no significant difference in gender in the aspect of economic exchange and daily living care,but gender difference in emotional support.Family structure changing to two-generation lineal family has significant positive correlation with emotional support for older mothers.However,Family structure changing to three-generation lineal family has significant positive correlation with emotional support for older fathers.Finally,using individual growth model from hierarchical linear models,this study examines the effects of family structure change on self-rated health and life satisfaction for the elderly.To some extent,the effects of family structure change on self-rated health for the elderly reflect health conditions of the elderly and have a selective effect for health.The negative effects of on life satisf'action for the elderly gradually stand out with age and this differences of the effects tend to be slight.In conclusion,based on the relative theories of family structure change and empirical study,this study discusses the effect of family structure change on family endowment and well-being for the rural elderly and has realistic meanings for enhancing family support and provide reference to improve the family support policy.