Effects Of Intergenerational Care On Physical And Mental Health Of Middle-aged And Elderly People

According to the data from No.7 national population census which released in May 2021,264 million of them were aged 60 or above,accounting for 18.7 percent of the total population.Meanwhile,the national birthrate is falling seriously.The study on the impact of caring grandchildren on the physical and mental health of middle-aged and elderly people is of positive significance for solving two social problems.Finding out the factors that can not only make the elders willing to provide caring grandchildren,so as to improve their children's fertility intention,but also enhance the physical and mental health of middle-aged and elderly people.Today,the number of middle-aged and elderly people who participate in caring grandchildren is also increasing.Caring grandchildren has brought positive effects on improving fertility rate,promoting the implementation of the two-child policy,and increasing family income.However,the impact of caring grandchildren on the physical and mental health of middle-aged and elderly people has not received enough attention.Previous studies of caring grandchildren almost focused on grandchildren.Studies on the physical health of middle-aged and older caring givers are not much.This study uses 2018 data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS),the latest available data.Research subject is the middle-aged and elderly people whose ages are from 45 to 85 who have grandchildren under the 16 years old.According to the theory of biological-psychosocial medicine model,the "self-assessment of health status" in the follow-up survey was selected as the physiological index of the respondents,and the depression scale in the follow-up survey was selected as the mental health index of the respondents.Finally,I integrated two indexes into one,as the dependent variable.According to the social role theory,the “gender”,“whether to participate in work”,“whether to participate in social activities” and so on are selected as the research objects to conduct the moderating effect or mediating effect analysis.According to the theory of intergenerational exchange,we chosed “whether to live with children”,“the frequency of contact with children”,and “children's economic support” as the instrumental support,emotional support and economic support to study the mediating effect of caring grandchildren on the physical and mental health of middle-aged and elderly people.This study uses the least squares(OLS)to establish multivariate regression linear model analysis of the benchmark.Using the interaction of the regression,causal stepwise regression method and the Bootstrap sampling inspection to analysis regulation effect and the mediation effect respectively which the former researchers hardly involved in,for searching the influencing factors of the physical and mental health of the middle-aged and elderly people,who are caring children.Six hypotheses presented were tested: Hypothesis 1: Caring grandchildren has a positive effect on the physical and mental health of the middle-aged and elderly people.Hypothesis 2:Caring grandchildren has a more positive effect on the physical and mental health of younger middle-aged and elderly people.Hypothesis 3: Caring grandchildren has a more positive effect on the physical and mental health of middle-aged and older women.Hypothesis 4: Caring grandchildren has a more positive effect on the physical and mental health of non-working middle-aged and elderly people.Hypothesis 5: Caring grandchildren increases the probability of participation in social activities,and make a positive effects on the physical and mental health of middle-aged and elderly people.Hypothesis 6: Caring grandchildren increases the probability that middle-aged and elderly people receive intergenerational support(including instrumental,emotional and financial support)from their children,and thus has a positive effect on physical and mental health of caregivers.The conclusion is: 1.In general,caring grandchildren is beneficial to the physical and mental health of middle-aged and elderly people.However,too high intensity caring is detrimental to the caregivers.2.For the people who age is from 45 to 55,the positive impact of their choice of caring grandchildren for grandchildren on their physical and mental health is most significant.In other age groups,the caregivers had a positive effect but not significant.3.The positive effects of caring grandchildren on the female's physical and mental health is significant.Men had little effect.4.Caring grandchildren has a more positive effect on the people who do not work,since the role improvement theory.The middle-aged and elderly people who participate in the work have been little influenced,which is caused by the role conflict theory.5.Caring grandchildren will increase the probability of middle-aged and elderly people participating in social activities,which will make a positive effect on their physical and mental health.6.Under the mediating analysis of intergenerational support,only intergenerational emotional support has the mediating effect,indicating that caring grandchildren can effectively promote the emotional communication between the caregivers and their children,thus exerting a positive effect on their physical and mental health.The results of this study have important enlightening significance for promoting the physical and mental health of middle-aged and elderly people,and put forward corresponding suggestions from family,community and society levels.At the family level,firstly,we should pay more attention and give full play to the value and role of middle-aged and elderly people in the family.Secondly,children should give more intergenerational support to middle-aged and elderly people who actively take care of their grandchildren.Thirdly,more fathers should be involved in child care.Community level: Firstly,to promote the social activities of the middle-aged and elderly;Secondly,to show more caring to the elderly group;Thirdly,we should improve community public health services,increase the number of general practitioners in community hospitals,optimize the allocation of community health service resources,and provide more inter-generational and one-stop medical consultation and treatment services,so as to alleviate the phenomenon that grandparents postpone their own health needs because they care for their grandchildren.At the social level: Firstly,offering policies to care for middle-aged and elderly generations;Secondly,continue to promote the improvement of the nursery mechanism;Thirdly,we should improve the flexible employment market.