Older parents enjoy better filial piety and care from daughters than sons in China.
Abstract
This study analyzes the unique datasets of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity
Survey using logistic regression and controlling for various covariates. Our analyses
clearly demonstrate that disabled older parents are more satisfied with care provided
by daughters than sons and that older parents enjoy greater filial piety from and
better relationships with daughters than sons. The daughter-advantages of enjoying
greater filial piety from and better relationships with children are stronger among
the oldest-old aged 80+ than the young-old aged 65-79, and surprisingly more profound
in rural areas than urban areas, while son-preference is much more prevalent among
rural residents. We also discuss why China's rigorous fertility policy until October-2015
and much less-developed pension system in rural areas substantially contribute to
sustaining traditional son-preference and a high sex ratio at birth (SRB) when fertility
is low. We recommend China take integrative public health policy actions of informing
the public that having daughter(s) is beneficial for old age care, developing the
rural pension system and implementing the universal two-child policy as soon as possible.
We believe that these policy actions would help to reduce son-preference, bring down
the high SRB, and enable more future elderly parents to enjoy better care from their
children and healthier lives.
Type
Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/14744Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.22381/AJMR3120169Publication Info
Yi, Zeng; George, Linda; Sereny, Melanie; Gu, Danan; & Vaupel, James W (2016). Older parents enjoy better filial piety and care from daughters than sons in China.
Am J Med Res (N Y), 3(1). pp. 244-272. 10.22381/AJMR3120169. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/14744.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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James Walton Vaupel
Research Professor Emeritus in the Sanford School of Public Policy
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