With population ageing aggravated, the population of old people who are disabled and the corresponding proportion have increased rapidly. Due to a lack of formal care resources and an influence by the traditionally filial piety culture, most of old people with disability are still living at home and receiving informal care. Actually, adult children are the primary caregivers and financial supporters for their old parents. However, along with the changes in family structure and intergenerational relationship, are there any changes in the Dual Model, which means children provide both the finical support and informal care for their parents? Whether do the children reduce their direct care as a result of their increased financial support, and so whether does the probability of being cared by other family members or social service providers increase? In addition, does capability of paying for informal care enhance as a result of a rise of financial support from younger generations? This study employed two waves CLHLS dataset collected in 2008 and 2011 to analyze the impacts of financial support from children and corresponding changes in frail old people life in terms of receiving informal care and related costs. First, with data collected in 2011, we applied Cross Sectional Logit Regression Model to analyze the impacts of financial supports from adult children on informal care which are provided by children, spouse or social caregivers. Next, with the two waves data of 2008 and 2011, Panel Logit Fixed Effect Model was used to explore a causal relationship between changes in financial support and probability of receiving informal care. In terms of costs, this article adopts Tobit Model to explore the causal relations between financial support and the costs paid for informal care as well. The results of Cross Sectional Logit Model demonstrate the probability of receiving care from children and social caregivers dramatically increased if financial support provided by children improves, while controlling other variables. The results of Penal Fixed Effect Model show a growth of 5.36% of receiving care from children if old people receive financial support, while the probability of receiving care from the spouse will increase 4.29% each time financial support from the children increases by 10 000 RMB. The Cross Sectional Tobit Model also reveals that costs of informal care increase 125 RMB, each time 10 000 RMB financial support is added. In addition, the Panel Tobit Model shows the increase of care cost of 58 RMB if the old people begin to receive financial support from adult children. This study fills a research gap in the undetected causal relations between financial support from adult children and informal care for disabled old people. The positive association between the variables as mentioned above indicate that the increase of financial support do not reduce informal care from children, and there is no evidence for ′crowding out′ effects, instead, it strengthens dual responsibilities for supporting parents in the filial piety culture. This research offers some implications for the home-and-community based long-term care policies on services and protective institutions. The intergenerational transfer within family, besides government and market, is an important source for informal care for the disabled elderly, which should be paid attention to. In order to meet the demand for informal care for disabled old people, and to optimize the intergenerational resource allocation, when developing long-term care policies, based on ADLs, household income and living arrangement, policy-makers should also consider the lack of intergenerational support as a significant risk factor.
刘晓婷 侯雨薇. 子女经济支持与失能老年人的非正式照料研究——基于CLHLS的分析[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2016, 2(4): 126-136.
Liu Xiaoting Hou Yuwei. A Study on the Financial Support from Children and Informal Care for Disabled Old People: An Analysis Based on CLHLS. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2016, 2(4): 126-136.