Page 7 - IJPS-5-2

International Journal of Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Worry about eldercare in China: The

role of family relations, socio-economic

resources, and community services in

2000 and 2010

Rongjun Sun , Haitao Wang *
1
2
1 Department of Anthropology, Criminology and Sociology, Cleveland State University,
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
2 China Research Center on Aging, Beijing, China

Abstract: Using the survey on aged population in urban/rural China from 2000 and 2010,
we aim to achieve the following three objectives: First, to document the general trend in
older adults’ worry about eldercare, their family relations, socio-economic resources, and the
availability of community services; second, to assess if improving socio-economic resources
and availability of community services reduce older adults’ worry about eldercare; and third,
ARTICLE INFO to examine if family relations are still important during such social changes. Results show
Received: February 22, 2019 that older adults’ improving socioeconomic conditions and expanding community services
Accepted: April 16, 2019 are associated with less worry about eldercare. Meanwhile, family relations, measured by
Published: April 27, 2019 the number of children, living arrangements, and children’s filial piety, remain important.
Our findings demonstrate that while building social welfare programs, including providing
*CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
community services, certainly alleviates older adults’ worry about eldercare; they are no
Haitao Wang, substitute for family ties, which should be facilitated rather than overlooked by public policies.
China Research Center on
Aging, Beijing, China. Keywords: China; Eldercare; Family; Social services
haitao_wang@crca.cn

CITATION 1. Introduction
Sun R, Wang H (2019) Worry
about eldercare in China: 1.1. Research Questions
The role of family relations,
socio-economic resources, Provision of eldercare, which includes financial or material assistance, personal care, and
and community services in emotional support to older adults (Chen, 2002; Knodel, 2012), has become a contested issue
2000 and 2010. International in China, as the country has undergone dramatic demographic changes in the past decades.
Journal of Population Studies, On the one hand, with unprecedented fertility decline, there are fewer children per family,
5(2):1-13.
doi: 10.18063/ijps.v5i2.1046 meaning fewer family caregivers to elderly parents when needs arise. In addition, more
Chinese older adults live alone, separately from their adult children (Hu and Peng, 2015;
Copyright: © 2019
Sun R, Wang H. This is Zeng and Wang, 2003). These trends may prompt older adults’ worry about receiving care
an Open-Access article in old ages. On the other hand, the recent development of the welfare state in China seems
distributed under the terms to alleviate such a concern and to make independent living an increasingly viable option
of the Creative Commons (Du, 2013). More older adults have benefited from expanding social programs that provide
Attribution-Non Commercial
4.0 International License income or medical care coverage. Community services to older adults have been growing
(http://creativecommons.org/ and playing a more important role in eldercare in China (Zhang, Yeager, and Hou, 2016).
licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting Against such a backdrop, this paper uses the survey on aged population in urban/rural
all noncommercial use, China from 2000 and 2010 to explore the following three research questions: (1) What is
distribution, and reproduction
in any medium, provided the the general trend in older adults’ characteristics in their family relations, socio-economic
original work is properly cited. resources, availability of community services, and their worry about eldercare in the first

International Journal of Population Studies | 2019, Volume 5, Issue 2 1