Intergenerational Contact in Chinese Families: Structural and Cultural Explanations

Abstract

Although the determinants of intergenerational contact have been well documented in Western countries, we know virtually nothing about the situation in China, a country that has recently experienced unprecedented socioeconomic and demographic change. This study analyzed the frequency of (a) visits and (b) other contact (phone, text message, etc.) in a representative sample of 16,715 adult child–parent dyads, focusing in particular on the role of migration as well as children's gender, marital status, and education level. Adult children generally maintained intensive social relations with parents, although distance was a major barrier to face‐to‐face contact. Sons visited more often than daughters, but daughters were more likely to stay in touch by other means. Moreover, the strength of parent–daughter ties was strongly dependent on education level. These findings suggest that women's empowerment and the spread of mobile technology have created new opportunities for intergenerational solidarity.

Patrilocal, Matrilocal or Neolocal? Intergenerational Proximity of Married Couples in China

“…Contrary to recent reports of increasing gender equality in other aspects of intergenerational solidarity (Gruijters, 2017(Gruijters, , 2018A. Hu, 2017;Xie & Zhu, 2009), we find that residential decisions of Chinese couples continue to exhibit a strong bias towards the husband's parents.…”

“…A number of studies show that daughters often provide higher levels of practical, financial and social support to parents than sons, which runs counter to traditional expectations (Gruijters, 2017;Lei, 2013). The strengthening of parent-daughter ties has been linked to declining birth rates, which increased the number of families without sons.…”

Contact and conflict between adult children and their parents in immigrant families: is integration problematic for family relationships?

“…There has been a vast amount of research on adult intergenerational relationships (Bengtson et al 2006;Fingerman et al 2016;Haberkern, Schmid, and Szydlik 2015), but it is only recently that researchers have begun to explore these issues in immigrant families (Baykara-Krumme 2008;De Valk and Schans 2008;Foner and Dreby 2011;Gruijters 2017;Merz et al 2009;Rooyackers, De Valk, and Merz 2016;Schans and Komter 2010;Steinbach 2013). Studies have shown that among immigrants from Muslim countries in Europethe major source of immigration to Western Europethere is more support exchange between the generations and more frequent contact between adult children and their parents compared to families without a migration background.…”

Intergenerational coresidence and subjective well-being of older adults in China: The moderating effect of living arrangement preference and intergenerational contacts

“…This proposition is to some extent accurate because intergenerational coresidence and support level are highly correlated (Chen and Silverstein 2000), but overemphasizing the importance of intergenerational support within a household often makes it easy to ignore the frequent transfers and contacts between parents and noncoresidential children. In fact, as a few studies have pointed out, most older adults in China who do not coreside with children live close to, have frequent contact with, and receive regular support from their noncoresidential children Gruijters 2017;Lei et al 2015).…”

“…A significant finding is that around 90% of older adults who do not live with their adult children have one or more children living nearby (in the same county), indicating that noncoresidence is not a major barrier to intergenerational transfers between parents and children. Using the same data, Gruijters (2017) further examines intergenerational contact and finds that noncoresidential children have an annual average of 74 instances of face-to-face contact and 68 instances of other contact with their parents. In other words, most Chinese elderly have contact with their noncoresidential children at least once a week, frequent enough to maintain intensive interactions between the two generations.…”