The Implications of Different Living Arrangements for the Oldest Old in China

Feinian Chen

North Carolina State University

Texas A&M University

Susan E. Short

Department of Sociology

Brown University

Significance of the Household Context

• The household provides a crucial context where household members enjoy varied levels of social integration as well as emotional and instrumental support.

• Relations between household members can create tensions and may involve unpleasant interactions.

• Empirical studies on the relationship between living arrangements and health outcomes produced mixed results.

• Additional complexity is added by the strong social and cultural norms that prescribe distinctive roles for each family member.

Background

• We focus our research lens on contemporary China, a country with a strong tradition of extended family.

• In addition, patrilinearity and patrilocality characterize the family system in China.

• However, as a country experiencing dramatic socioeconomic restructuring, China’s cultural norms may be changing.

Background

• The 2000 Census suggests that the majority of the households (56%) are nuclear households and that average family household size declined to a historical low of 3.5.

• The traditional extended family household remains an important family form. – Sixty percent of the elderly population aged 65 and over share

residence with their children.

• Results from large-scale surveys done in the 1990s indicate that living with daughters may have become more acceptable and more common in urban China, although living with sons was still much more prevalent.

Research Motivation

• How do living arrangements affect old age well-being, in a context of rapidly changing social and cultural norms?

• We focus on a specific dimension of well-being: subjective well-being, or emotional health, as measured by indices of positive and negative well-being.

• We focus on a particular group of elderly in China: the oldest old, defined as those aged 80 and older.

Research Questions

• Is it better to live independently or to live with children?

• Is living with sons, the traditionally preferred type of living arrangements, beneficial to one’s emotional health?

• How does living with daughters affect one’s subjective well-being?

Data

• We use data from the Determinants of Healthy Longevity in China (DHLC) Survey.

• The DHLC was undertaken in 631 randomly selected counties and cities of the 22 provinces in China .

• It covers roughly half of the counties and cities of those provinces, and the sample areas represent 85 percent of the total population of China.

• In the 1998 baseline survey, 9,073 oldest-old persons (aged 80+) were interviewed. In 2000, 4,844 of those elders re-interviewed.

Figure 1. Living Arrangments of the Oldest Old in China, DLHC, 1998

51.8

10.3 9.95.1

41.5

16.0 13.510.1 8.4 10.5

58.5

6.7 7.51.5

12.710.2

14.4 11.4

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

live withson

live withdaughter

live withspouse

live withothers

live alone live innursinghome

Living Arrangements

Percent

Total

Urban

Rural

Figure 2: Changes in Living Arrangements from 1998 to 2000

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

90.0

100.0

live with son live withdaughter

live withspouse

live withothers

live alone live innursinghome

Living arrangements in 1998

Per

cent

live in nursing home in 2000live alone in 2000live with others in 2000live with spouse in 2000live with daughter in 2000live with son in 2000

95.4

63.1

20.820.5

61.5

9.5

70.8

14.9

82.9

78.2

11.7

Dependent variable: Subjective Well-being

• Index of Positive Well-being– “How do you rate your life at present?”– “Do you always look on the bright side of things?”– “Do you like to keep my belongings neat and clean?”– “Can you make your own decisions concerning your

personal affairs?– “Are you as happy now as when you were younger?”

• Index of Negative Well-being– “Do you often feel fearful or anxious?” – “Do you often feel lonely and isolated?” – “Do you feel the older you get the more useless you are?”

Methodology

• Cross-sectional design:– OLS regressions on positive and negative well-

being in 1998, with living arrangements as the key independent variables and control variables such as age, gender, marital status, self-reported health, education, financial independence, number of children, contact with other children

Methodology

• Longitudinal design:– Fixed effect models:

• Yit= α + Xit β + νi + it (1)

• Yit-1= α + Xit-1 β + νi + it-1 (2)

• Yit -Yit-1= (Xit - Xit-1) β + (it- it-1) (3)

OLS Regression Models on Positive Well-beingUrban Rural

live with daughter 0.434*** 0.295(0.135) (0.154)

live with spouse 0.148 0.274(0.191) (0.191)

live with others -0.054 -0.187(0.165) (0.115)

live alone -0.483** -0.267 *(0.176) (0.122)

live in nursing home 0.180 1.097***(reference: live with son) (0.167) (0.309)

OLS Regression Models on Negative Well-beingUrban Rural

live with daughter -0.105 -0.038(0.109) (0.117)

live with spouse 0.237 0.234(0.156) (0.146)

live with others 0.179 -0.088(0.132) (0.087)

live alone 0.149 0.246 *(0.142) (0.093)

live in nursing home -0.035 -0.412(reference: live with son) (0.136) (0.236)

Results from Fixed- Effect Models

• None of the living arrangements variables are significant in the model of positive well-being or negative well-being in either urban or rural areas.

• Do the results from the fixed effect models invalidate results from our cross-sectional model?

– Living arrangements were relatively stable over the two year interval.

– About forty percent of the baseline sample died.– Fixed effect models are dynamic in nature: the

coefficients reflect more of within-individual changes than between-individual changes.

Conclusions

• The patrilineal and patrilocal extended family tradition remains strong in China.

• Will the traditional preferred living arrangement still benefit elderly well being (assuming that it once did)? – If we define a traditional living arrangement as an extended

family household, the answer is a yes. – If we define a traditional living arrangement as coresidence

with a son, then our answer to the same question is a no. • The culturally preferred living arrangement, i.e., living with a son, is

indeed not the most beneficial type of residence for elderly’s emotional health.

• Instead, we find that living with a daughter is superior to living with a son in that it improves positive well-being for the oldest old in China, net of control variables.