Relationship Between Productive Activities, Family Relations, and Aging Well for Elders in China

This paper explores determinants of aging well in 1,502 randomly selected Chinese elders in China. In Chinese traditional culture, elders assume a socially integrated and productive social role within the family. This role parallels the active engagement domain of the Rowe and Kahn model of successful aging. However, in their model, health and physical functioning are prominent with less emphasis on psychosocial aspects such as culture. This study tests the strength of the relationship between two variables representative of Chinese aging traditions, productive activity and family relations, and the outcomes of self-rated health and depression. Two hierarchical regression models were tested. Step one entered age, gender, married, financial adequacy, live alone, and reading ability. Step two added the active engagement variables of productive activity and family relations. Each model was significant at both steps with an inverse association for depression (R2 = 19.2%) and a positive association for self-rated health (R2 = 9.9%).