Children's education and their financial transfers to ageing parents in rural China: mothers and fathers’ strategic advantages in enforcing reciprocity

Abstract

This investigation examined the impact of children's education on their financial support to older parents in rural China based on a theoretical framework that regards financial transfers from adult children as motivated by parents’ earlier investments on children's education, and mothers and fathers having different strategic advantages to enforce reciprocity. The sample derived from six waves of panel data from the Longitudinal Study of Older Adults in Anhui Province, China, from 2001 to 2015, based on which we constructed five stacked intervals (2001–2003, 2003–2006, 2006–2009, 2009–2012, 2012–2015). The random-effects models showed that the highest educated child provided more financial support than other children and that the amount was conditional on the actual educational attainment of the highest educated child. Our results also suggested that fathers and mothers have different strategic advantages in the process. Mothers’ emotional bonds with their highest educated children enforced financial returns. In contrast, fathers’ stronger identification with traditional filial norms was more consequential for receiving financial support from the highest educated children. We discuss these findings in the context of the patrilineal family system and social changes, including rapid population ageing and the decline of fertility rates.

Factors Associated with Death Anxiety Among Rural Chinese Older Adults: The Terror Management Perspective

“…This is to some extent consistent with previous research that wealth and material objects provide self-esteem and a sense of security, and thus are able to function as a death anxiety buffer in Western societies (Zaleskiewicz et al, 2013). Under the context of rural China, where older adults mainly rely on children for financial support because of their low socioeconomic status, Confucian norms of filial piety, and lack of social security (Pei & Cong, 2018), receiving financial support from children may be a relatively important way of enhancing self-esteem and a sense of security for older adults in later life. The finding supported the Terror Management Theory and highlights that receiving financial support from adult children plays an important role in shaping death anxiety among rural Chinese older adults.…”

“…However, findings from Western countries may not be readily generalizable to rural China, given its unique socioeconomic and cultural characteristics. In Chinese culture, old-age support is mainly provided by adult children and their spouses; older adults in rural China mainly depend on children for support, because of the traditional norm of filial piety, older adults' disadvantages in resources, and limited formal support provided by social welfare programs and public pensions (Pei & Cong, 2018;Yan, 2003). Moreover, there is still a lack of longitudinal studies concerning death anxiety, as cross-sectional studies are inclined to have common method variance (i.e., systematic method error due to the use of a singer rater or single source) bias and inability to establish causal relationships (Rindfleisch et al, 2008).…”

Number of Children and Monetary Transfers to Elderly Parents in Rural China

“…In the model of exchange motivation, intergenerational economic support is essentially a form of reciprocity. Therefore, whether adult children received from their parents' early investment in education and marriage (Lin & Pei, 2016;Pei & Cong, 2018;Zhu, 2016), or in dealing with household chores or caring for their grandchildren at this stage (Gruijters, 2018;Lei, 2013;Lin & Pei, 2016;Wu & Li, 2014), and when it comes to inheriting parents' land and wealth in the future (Chou, 2010;Lin & Yi, 2011;Horioka, 2018), they will use monetary transfers as an exchange of resources to compensate for the investment by older parents.…”

“…In rural China, due to the cultural norms of filial piety based on Confucianism, upstream intergenerational support is still widespread (Pei & Cong, 2018). Meanwhile, since physical functions inevitably deteriorate with age, most elderly people often face the dilemma of unstable wage income and limited pensions from the government; therefore, adult children are supposed to be the essential source of support for their older parents (Lin & Pei, 2016;Oliveira, 2016).…”

“…First, parental characteristics include demographic variables such as age (Zuo et al, 2011), participation in social insurance (Ning et al, 2019), income and property (Kalbarczyk-Steclik & Nicinska, 2012;Wu & Li, 2014), investment in children (Cunningham et al, 2013), guardianship of grandchildren (Lin & Pei, 2016), and residence with children (Chen et al, 2017). Second, children's characteristics include gender (Gruijters, 2018;Lei, 2013), education level (Pei & Cong, 2018), work status (Cong & Silverstein, 2011), income (Park, 2014), filial piety (Lin & Yi, 2011;Silverstein et al, 2006), and parent-child relationships (Zhu, 2016).…”