Page 110 - IJPS-3-1

Intergenerational support among widowed older adults in China

Table 4. Source of ADL assistance received by widows and widowers a
Main provider (%) Bathing Dressing Toileting Transferring Continence Feeding
Widows
Son 6.2 14.4 14.8 19.5 10.1 20.3
Daughter-in-law 41.9 41.6 43.4 38.9 35.8 40.6
Daughter 29.7 15.8 13.8 9.3 17.0 11.5
Son-in-law 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.5 0.1 1.1
Son and daughter 2.0 4.5 3.6 6.4 2.4 5.0
Grandchildren 5.7 4.5 3.3 3.5 2.0 3.2
Other relatives 3.6 1.5 2.8 2.5 1.9 2.8
Social service 6.2 8.4 9.4 10.3 4.9 8.5
Domestic worker 4.1 9.2 7.8 8.8 9.9 7.7
None 0.7 0.1 0.8 0.2 15.9 1.1
Total number (N) 2,745 1,332 1,468 1,181 735 859

Widowers
Son 62.5 58.6 55.8 54.9 45.3 48.2
Daughter-in-law 4.2 12.2 4.5 8.3 5.1 17.4
Daughter 5.8 2.6 6.0 2.7 3.8 3.1
Son-in-law 0.9 0.6 0.2 0.1 2.0 0.1
Son and daughter 5.3 4.7 6.4 4.9 3.1 2.1
Grandchildren 10.1 8.9 10.1 11.3 1.0 16.8
Other relatives 0.4 0.5 1.1 0.5 1.0 1.5
Social service 4.6 4.8 9.1 8.9 9.8 5.9
Domestic worker 4.1 6.4 6.1 7.8 7.8 2.8
None 2.0 0.8 0.6 0.5 21.1 0.3
Total number (N) 825 377 376 303 196 215
a
Notes: The analytic sample includes widowed older adults who had difficulties in one or more ADLs. The percentages are weighted. Due to very
little missing data on sources of ADL assistance and the small number of people in some cells, we did not do multiple imputations and included
respondents who answered the related questions.
widows who needed help with ADLs, about 36%–43% mentioned their daughters-
in-law as the main caregivers for various ADLs. It is clear that for widows in China,
despite tremendous social and economic changes, daughters-in-law still played a
crucial role in taking care of the day-to-day needs of their mothers-in-law. Sons,
daughters, grandchildren, domestic workers, and social services accounted for most of
the remaining providers. Very few widows relied on sons-in-law or other relatives for
ADL assistance.
By contrast, sons played a big role in helping widowers with ADLs. Approximately
45%–63% of widowers mentioned that their sons helped them when they needed help
with ADLs. Daughters-in-law also played a salient role in helping the widowers in
terms of feeding (17%), dressing (12%), and transferring (8%). A significant proportion
of widowers also were helped by their grandchildren (e.g., 17% for feeding, 11% for
transferring). Likely because few widowers lived with their daughters, only a small
proportion of widowers relied on their daughters for ADL assistance.
4 Discussion

Although China has experienced rapid demographic, social, and economic changes
in the past few decades, we find that the overwhelming majority of widowed older
adults still rely heavily on their adult children for financial assistance, sick care, and
emotional support, and that living with adult children, sons in particular, remains
the modal arrangement of widowed older Chinese. Our hypotheses were largely

104 International Journal of Population Studies 2017, Volume 3, Issue 1