Willingness and Expectations

Abstract This paper explores intergenerational differences in attitudes toward willingness to and expectations for parent care based on survey data collected during 1997-1999 with 777 one-child generation students and 110 current familial caregivers. Findings suggest that current caregivers have very low expectations for their children's provision of elder care in the future. Children from one-child families experienced high levels of obligation to provide help although they expressed lower levels of willingness to co-reside with parents than did children from multiple-child families. Socialization factors, such as close contacts with grandparents, were negatively associated with one-child generation respondents' levels of personal obligation for parent care in the future. Structural factors, such as family income and respondents' educational levels, were important factors predicting student respondents' attitudes toward filial responsibility. The author argues that the culture of xiao is not declining; rather, the structural changes due to the one-child policy, increasing educational opportunity, and greater geographic mobility are going to have a greater effect on future elder care in China.