The Effect Of Intergenerational Care On Elderly’s Physical And Mental Health

The economic and social development that accompanies the deepening ageing of the population and the longer life expectancy of the population can be affected in many ways.Increasingly,older people are becoming(grand)grandparents and taking on the responsibility of intergenerational care.The phenomenon of intergenerational care has also become increasingly common in rural areas with the mass exodus of young adults from the labour force.This phenomenon has led to an in-depth debate,with the most attention being paid to the role of intergenerational care in the health of older people.Research has shown that intergenerational caregiving has contrasting effects on the physical and mental health of older people,and it is therefore necessary to explore the mechanisms of this effect.In this paper,we use cross-sectional data from the China Elderly Social Tracking Survey(CLASS)2018 to assess the health effects of rural older people’s participation in intergenerational care in terms of two dimensions: self-rated physical health and self-rated mental health.The robustness of the paper’s findings was verified using an adjustment for explanatory variables,and the number of children living with the household was selected as an instrumental variable to address endogeneity issues.The health effects of intergenerational caregiving on different groups of rural older people are further explored by gender,age group and whether children live with them.Finally,the indirect effects of intergenerational caregiving on the health of rural older people were examined.The findings of this study are as follows:(1)the current physical and mental health of rural older people in China is low and there is room for further improvement;(2)intergenerational care has a significant positive impact on the physical and mental health of rural older people,i.e.providing intergenerational care for rural older people significantly improves their own self-rated health,reduces depression scores and improves the physical and mental health of rural older people;(3)the impact of intergenerational care on health was heterogeneous for different groups of rural older people.There were greater health gains for rural female older people compared to rural male older people;greater impacts on rural older people before the age of 70 compared to older people greater than or equal to 70;and greater gains for older people living with their children compared to rural older people living across generations.(4)Social participation and offspring emotional support are important mechanisms for the impact of intergenerational care on the physical and mental health of rural older people.Based on the findings,this paper proposes the following initiatives to promote the health of rural older people:(1)encourage rural older people to participate in intergenerational care by increasing the level of social security for rural residents and providing financial subsidies from the government;(2)adult children should provide as much intergenerational support as they can to alleviate the physical and psychological health problems caused by the stress of caring for their grandchildren;(3)focus on building rural infrastructure,providing age-friendly public goods and places,and enhancing the frequency of social participation of older people in rural areas.