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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Intergenerational support and depression among Chinese older adults
— do gender and widowhood make a difference? | | Author(s) | Man Guo, Iris Chi, Merril Silverstein |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 37, no 4, April 2017 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, April 2017 |
| Pages | pp 695-724 |
| Source | cambridge.org/aso |
| Keywords | Older men ; Older women ; Depression ; Social characteristics [elderly] ; Widowers [elderly] ; Widows [elderly] ; Family care ; Children [offspring] as carers ; China. |
| Annotation | Using four-wave panel data of 1,327 older adults in rural China, this study examined potential gender and marital status differences in the relationships between three forms of intergenerational support (monetary, instrumental and emotional support) and the level of depression of the older adults. Results from a pooled time-series fixed-effects model showed that receiving and providing monetary support had a comparable beneficial effect on mothers and fathers, but mothers benefited more psychologically than fathers from closer relationships with their children. Exchanges in instrumental support was not related to either mothers' or fathers' level of depression. Widowhood further affected the gendered relationships between support and depression in that recently widowed fathers had a significantly higher level of depression when they received more monetary support from their children. In contrast, providing monetary support to children was associated with a significantly higher level of depression among recently widowed mothers. The authors explain these findings in the context of familial and gender norms in the Chinese culture and temporal needs for family support that link with bereavement coping stages among older adults. They argue that the gender and marital status patterns observed in this study are attributive to more fundamental differences in men's and women's social positions in Chinese society. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-170516007 A |
| Classmark | BC: BD: ENR: F: F:SPA: F:SP: P6:SJ: P6:SS: 7DC |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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