Abstract
Guided by socioemotional selectivity theory and theories of intergenerational transfers, this study of older adults in rural China used time-to-death as a key timing indicator to investigate how adult children’s financial transfers and emotional closeness with older parents changed as parents’ became closer to deaths and whether such changes were conditional on parents’ and children’s characteristics. The sample derived from rural Anhui Province and included 885 deceased older adults, who reported their interactions with 3, 393 children, which altogether formed 8, 474 observations across six waves of measurement between 2001 and 2015. Growth curve analysis with random intercepts showed that, as death approached, fathers reported closer emotional relationships with their children. For mothers, only emotional closeness with daughters declined. Both older fathers and older mothers reported increasing financial transfers from their children as death got closer. Mothers with lower job prestige experienced a slower increase in children’s financial support, which was not observed for fathers. Findings were discussed in terms of the usefulness of time-to-death as an objective measure of a family’s heuristic understanding of older adults’ life-time remaining.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Aging Families in Chinese Society |
Publisher | Taylor and Francis |
Pages | 53-75 |
Number of pages | 23 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781000428513 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780367858896 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2021 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Social Sciences
- General Psychology