Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-5g6vh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T23:54:12.871Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adult children's achievements and ageing parents’ depressive symptoms in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2020

Haowei Wang Open the ORCID record for Haowei Wang [Opens in a new window] ,
Sae Hwang Han ,
Kyungmin Kim Open the ORCID record for Kyungmin Kim [Opens in a new window]  and
Jeffrey A. Burr
Haowei Wang*
Affiliation:
Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
Sae Hwang Han
Affiliation:
Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
Kyungmin Kim
Affiliation:
Department of Gerontology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Jeffrey A. Burr
Affiliation:
Department of Gerontology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: hzw5365@psu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examined the association between adult children's achievements and ageing parents’ depressive symptoms in China. The research topic was examined within the contexts of one-child and multiple-children families in rural and urban China. Older adults (aged 60–113, N = 8,450; nested within 462 communities/villages) from the 2013 China Longitudinal Ageing Social Survey provided information about themselves and their adult children (N = 22,738). Adult children's achievements were assessed with educational attainment, financial status and occupational status; older parents’ depressive symptoms were assessed with nine items of the Chinese version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Multilevel linear regression models were estimated separately for older parents with one child only and multiple children. For older parents with multiple children, both having one or more children with any achievement and the total number of children's achievements were associated with fewer depressive symptoms. For parents with only one child, any achievement of the child and the total number of the child's achievements were associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Our results also indicated that the association between children's achievements and parents’ depressive symptoms varied by rural–urban residence and family type. Our findings contributed to the understanding of family dynamics underlying the emotional wellbeing of older adults in China.

Keywords

family structureone-child policysocio-economic statusrural–urbandepression
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , April 2022 , pp. 896 - 917
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Birditt, KS, Fingerman, KL and Zarit, SH (2010) Adult children's problems and successes: implications for intergenerational ambivalence. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 65B, 145–153.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chappell, NL and Kusch, K (2007) The gendered nature of filial piety: a study among Chinese Canadians. Journal of Cross-cultural Gerontology 1, 29–45.10.1007/s10823-006-9011-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, J and Jordan, LP (2018) Intergenerational support in one- and multi-child families in China: does child gender still matter? Research on Ageing 40, 180–204.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cheung, C-K and Kwan, AY-H (2009) The erosion of filial piety by modernisation in Chinese cities. Ageing & Society 29, 179–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chung, S and Park, S-J (2008) Successful ageing among low-income older people in South Korea. Ageing & Society 28, 1061–1074.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chyi, H and Mao, S (2012) The determinants of happiness of China's elderly population. Journal of Happiness Studies 13, 167–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cichy, KE, Lefkowitz, ES, Davis, EM and Fingerman, KL (2013) ‘You are such a disappointment!’ Negative emotions and parents’ perceptions of adult children's lack of success. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 68B, 893–901.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cong, Z and Silverstein, M (2012) A vignette study on gendered filial expectations of elders in rural China. Journal of Marriage and Family 74, 510–525.10.1111/j.1741-3737.2012.00970.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cong, Z and Silverstein, M (2014) Parents’ preferred care-givers in rural China: gender, migration and intergenerational exchanges. Ageing & Society 34, 727–752.10.1017/S0144686X12001237CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Currie, J (2009) Healthy, wealthy, and wise: socioeconomic status, poor health in childhood, and human capital development. Journal of Economic Literature 47, 87–122.10.1257/jel.47.1.87CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Neve, J-W and Fink, G (2018) Children's education and parental old age survival: quasi-experimental evidence on the intergenerational effects of human capital investment. Journal of Health Economics 58, 76–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deutsch, FM (2006) Filial piety, patrilineality, and China's one-child policy. Journal of Family Issues 27, 366–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Du, P (2013) Intergenerational solidarity and old-age support for the social inclusion of elders in Mainland China: the changing roles of family and government. Ageing & Society 33, 44–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feng, Z, Zhan, HJ, Feng, X, Liu, C, Sun, M and Mor, V (2011) An industry in the making: the emergence of institutional elder care in urban China. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 59, 738–744.10.1111/j.1532-5415.2011.03330.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feng, W, Cai, Y and Gu, B (2013) Population, policy, and politics: how will history judge China's one-child policy? Population and Development Review 38, 115–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fingerman, KL, Cheng, Y-P, Birditt, K and Zarit, S (2012) Only as happy as the least happy child: multiple grown children's problems and successes and middle-aged parents’ well-being. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 67B, 184–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Golley, J and Kong, ST (2013) Inequality in intergenerational mobility of education in China. China and World Economy 21, 15–37.10.1111/j.1749-124X.2013.12013.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenfield, EA and Marks, NF (2006) Linked lives: adult children's problems and their parents’ psychological and relational well-being. Journal of Marriage and Family 68, 442–454.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grossman, M (2006) Education and nonmarket outcomes. In Hanushek, EA, Machin, S and Woessmann, L (eds), Handbook of the Economics of Education. Amsterdam: North-Holland, pp. 577–633.Google Scholar
Guo, M, Chi, I and Silverstein, M (2013) Sources of older parents’ ambivalent feelings toward their adult children: the case of rural China. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 68B, 420–430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ho, DY-F (1976) On the concept of face. American Journal of Sociology 81, 867–884.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jiang, N (2019) Adult children's education and later-life health of parents in China: the intergenerational effects of human capital investment. Social Indicators Research 145, 257–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, DR and Young, R (2011) Toward best practices in analyzing datasets with missing data: comparisons and recommendations. Journal of Marriage and Family 73, 926–945.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Y-H and Cohen, D (2010) Information, perspective, and judgments about the self in face and dignity cultures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36, 537–550.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, Y-H, Cohen, D and Au, W-T (2010) The jury and abjury of my peers: the self in face and dignity cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 98, 904–916.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, C (2018) Adult children's education and physiological dysregulation among older parents. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 73B, 1143–1154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, C, Glei, DA, Goldman, N and Weinstein, M (2017) Children's education and parents trajectories of depressive symptoms. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 58, 86–101.10.1177/0022146517690200CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levitzki, N (2009) Parenting of adult children in an Israeli sample: parents are always parents. Journal of Family Psychology 23, 226–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pei, X and Tang, Y (2012) Rural old age support in transitional China: efforts between family and state. In Chen, S and Powell, JL (eds), Ageing in China: Implications to Social Policy of a Changing Economic State. New York, NY: Springer, pp. 61–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryff, CD, Lee, YH, Essex, MJ and Schmutte, PS (1994) My children and me: midlife evaluations of grown children and of self. Psychology and Ageing 9, 195–205.10.1037/0882-7974.9.2.195CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schafer, JL (1997) Analysis of Incomplete Multivariate Data. London: Chapman & Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, L and Chang, T-Y (2012) Do resources of network members help in help seeking? Social capital and health information search. Social Networks 34, 658–669.10.1016/j.socnet.2012.08.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suitor, JJ, Gilligan, M, Pillemer, K, Fingerman, KL, Kim, K, Silverstein, M and Bengtson, VL (2018) Applying within-family differences approaches to enhance understanding of the complexity of intergenerational relations. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 73B, 40–53.10.1093/geronb/gbx037CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torssander, J (2013) From child to parent? The significance of children's education for their parents’ longevity. Demography 50, 637–659.10.1007/s13524-012-0155-3CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ward, RA (2008) Multiple parent–adult child relations and well-being in middle and later life. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 63B, S239–S247.10.1093/geronb/63.4.S239CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, Z and Penning, MJ (2019) Children and the mental health of older adults in China: what matters? Population Research and Policy Review 38, 27–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yahirun, JJ, Sheehan, CM and Hayward, MD (2017) Adult children's education and changes to parents’ physical health in Mexico. Social Science and Medicine 181, 93–101.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yahirun, JJ, Sheehan, CM and Mossakowski, KN (2020) Depression in later life: the role of adult children's college education for older parents’ mental health in the United States. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 75B, 389–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, L, Martikainen, P and Silventoinen, K (2016) Effects of individual, spousal, and offspring socioeconomic status on mortality among elderly people in China. Journal of Epidemiology 26, 602–609.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhan, HJ (2004) Willingness and expectations: intergenerational differences in attitudes toward filial responsibility in China. Marriage and Family Review 36, 175–200.10.1300/J002v36n01_08CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhao, X, Zhou, Y, Tan, H and Lin, H (2018) Spillover effects of children's political status on elderly parents’ health in China. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 72, 973–981.10.1136/jech-2018-210770CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhu, X, Whalley, J and Zhao, X (2014) Intergenerational transfer, human capital and long-term growth in China under the one child policy. Economic Modelling 40, 275–283.10.1016/j.econmod.2014.04.015CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmer, Z, Natividad, JN, Ofstedal, MB and Lin, H-S (2002) Physical and mental health of the elderly. In Hermalin, AI (ed.), Well-being of the Elderly in Asia: A Four-country Comparative Study. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, pp. 361–412.Google Scholar
Zimmer, Z, Martin, LG, Ofstedal, MB and Chuang, Y-L (2007) Education of adult children and mortality of their elderly parents in Taiwan. Demography 44, 289–305.10.1353/dem.2007.0020CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed