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Caring for grandchildren and intergenerational support in rural China: a gendered extended family perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2011

ZHEN CONG  and
MERRIL SILVERSTEIN
ZHEN CONG*
Affiliation:
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Texas Tech University, Box 41230, Lubbock, Texas, 79416, USA.
MERRIL SILVERSTEIN
Affiliation:
Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, 3715 McClintock Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
*
Address for correspondence: Zhen Cong, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Texas Tech University, Box 41230, Lubbock, Texas, 79416, USA. E-mail: zhen.cong@ttu.edu
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Abstract

This investigation examines how support from adult children is affected by their parents' involvement in grandchild care. Instead of focusing on dyadic interactions, we adopt a gendered extended family perspective to examine how financial and emotional support from children was influenced when their siblings received help with child care from their elder parents. The data were from a two-wave (2001, 2003) longitudinal study of 4,791 parent–child dyads with 1,162 parents, aged 60 and older, living in rural areas of Anhui Province, China. Random effects regression showed that emotional support from both sons and daughters was strengthened when parents provided more child care for their other adult children; in addition, daughters were more emotionally responsive than sons under this situation. Concerning dyadic parent–child relationships, daughter and sons increased their financial support, and sons increased their emotional support when they themselves received help with child care from parents. We suggest taking a gendered extended family perspective when studying intergenerational relationships in rural China.

Keywords

caring for grandchildrenemotional supportfinancial supportintergenerational supportrural China
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , April 2012 , pp. 425 - 450
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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