Old Age Care Preferences Among Chinese Middle-Aged Single-Child Parents and the Related Policy Implications

Factors associated with willingness to enter care homes for the elderly and pre-elderly in west of China

“…Prior research found that while in Western countries, decisions to participate in care homes were often based on health conditions, in China decisions considered family resources and cultural norms and that many elderly people did not in fact require assistance with daily activities. [ 8 , 44 ] We hypothesized that those under the age of 60 have been significantly affected by strict National family planning policies, and as most people have very few children, there is less family support. Additionally, due to China's rapid industrialization and urbanization, this age group is uniquely impacted by these demographic changes and their children are more likely to be urban workers.…”

“…China has a rapidly aging society, and children are often expected to care for their elderly parents, given Confucian values of filial piety. [ 7 , 8 ] Chinese society has undergone rapid changes in the past decades: the industrialization and urbanization brought about by China's rapid development, [ 9 ] and the family planning policy which limited each family to 2 children [ 10 ] have had significant impacts on the demography of China and present challenges to the former norms of children living with and caring for their aging parents. [ 11 ] Previous studies have shown that adult children who are willing to live with their parents are decreasing in number and proportion.…”

Optimal Subsidy Support for Market-Oriented Transformation of Elderly Care: Focus on the Gap between Supply and Demand in Aging Regions of China

“…where A(A > 0) is the scaling parameter that denotes the market size, p is the market price that ranges from p 0 to p 2 , as shown in the Appendix A, δ(δ > 1) is the elasticity of demand, and µ(µ > 1) is the consumers' preference, which is often affected by economic conditions, social status, publicity, and traditional filial piety culture [44,45].…”

“…Moreover, the consumers' preference and public concern both affect the decision-making of stakeholders, and they play a role by influencing the demand and social benefits, respectively. Some studies have indicated that men with higher education and income are more likely to choose institutional care [53][54][55], and with the rapid aging of the population, the traditional culture of elderly care is changing from family-provided to society-provided, especially for single-child families [44]. It shows that the consumers have a certain preference for privately provided elderly care services.…”

Subsidy policy selection of elderly care service projects under uncertain actual demand: a real options analysis based on China’s experience

“…When it is transformed into actual demand in the context of marketization, it will be disturbed by many economic, social, cultural and other factors and become uncertain. For example, the price of private supply is an important factor that hinders low-income elderly groups from purchasing care services [ 13 ]; the deep-rooted influence of traditional filial piety makes many elderly people who need formal care reject institutional providers and choose informal care provided by family [ 14 ]; deviations in the quality of care services with the impact of marketization lead to a lack of trust to private providers among the elderly [ 15 ]; the unpredictability of the elderly’s future morbidity and disease types increases the diversity of care service preference [ 16 ].…”