Contributory behaviors and life satisfaction among Chinese older adults: Exploring variations by gender and living arrangements

Grandparenting and Well-being of the Elderly in China

“…Using SHARE data for eleven European countries from 2004 to 2015 to investigate the within-individual effect of grandparenting, Danielsbacka et al (2019) report a positive relationship between grandparenting and the life satisfaction of grandparents. Liu et al (2019) conduct a city case study to explore the relationship between the grandparents' contributory behaviors and their life satisfaction based on a survey data set of 809 older adults in Jianghan, a small town in Hubei province. They find that taking care of grandchildren frequently is positively related to grandparent's life satisfaction.…”

“…The literature explicitly recognizes the beneficial effects of grandparental caregiving on the well-beings of the elderly. Grandparenting is shown to be positively related to both subjective and objective well-being (Di Gessa et al, 2016a;Di Gessa et al, 2016b;Xu et al, 2017), cognitive functioning (Aprino & Bordone, 2014;Ahn & Choi, 2019), reduced risk of depression (Grundy et al, 2012;Tang et al, 2016), lower mortality (Hilbrand et al, 2017a;Hilbrand et al, 2017b;Danielsbacka et al, 2019) and higher level of life satisfaction (Liu et al, 2019;Xu 2019;Danielsbacka et al, 2019). An emerging strand of studies, however, warns against neglecting the relationship between grandparenting and the financial condition of grandparents (Winefield & Air, 2010;Lee et al, 2016), especially in countries like China, where the elderly depend heavily on their children for financial support (Zimmer & Kwong, 2003;Gils & Mu, 2007;Cong & Silverstein, 2008;Cong & Silverstein, 2011).…”

“…To disentangle the nexus of grandparenting, quality of life and life satisfaction, we conduct a panel data analysis on the basis of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Existing studies investigating grandparenting in China are limited in generalizability because they are based on regional samples (e.g., Cong & Silverstein, 2008;Cong & Silverstein, 2011;Liu et al, 2019). Our empirical strategy is based on the nationally representative longitudinal…”

Socioeconomic disparities in leisure activities over the life course of the oldest‐old in China

“…A further study found that men and women with higher socioeconomic status had similar performance in leisure activities, while there were differences between those in lower social classes. 6 One reason for our findings may be that in China typical household, women tend to take more hours on caring for children and conducting household chores than men, 24,25 so women may have less leisure time, while older Chinese men have more leisure time and disposable income compared with older women. 3 Additionally, a previous study 26 highlighted that women with lower socioeconomic status lack privilege relative to men.…”

The demand for elderly care services and anticipated living arrangements among the oldest-old in China based on the Andersen model

“…It has been suggested that intergenerational support counteracts the negative association between living arrangements and old-age psychological health [31]. Chinese older adults were still very active in providing support to family members and highlighted the bene cial effects of contributory behaviors (i.e., providing their children with economic support, housework, emotional support, and grandchild care ) on life satisfaction [32]. Thus, when designing new elderly care programs, the importance of family ties and support to older adults should be considered by policy makers.…”