Non-coresidential intergenerational relations from the perspective of adult children in China: typology and social welfare implications

Abstract The social changes in the new century and the shifting concept of filial piety have jointly shaped the unique intergenerational relationships in China. Intergenerational relationships are closely connected to arrangements for care of the older adults, particularly those who live alone. Based on data from the 2017 China General Social Survey (CGSS), the latent profile analysis method was used to explore the profiles of intergenerational family relationships and their influencing factors in the context of “non-co-residence” based on the five dimensions of intergenerational solidarity theory and related indicators. The study found that family intergenerational relationships can be categorised into five profiles: distant-emotional, proximity-detached, proximity-loose, distant-support, and traditional-reciprocal, which share commonalities with previous studies and have their own characteristics. The results of the multiple regression analysis showed that gender, education level, annual personal income for the previous year, self-rated happiness, and self-rated health had significant effects on the latent profiles of intergenerational relationships. Specifically, adult children who are male, living in a rural area, no legal spouse, a primary school education or less, an annual income above 50,001 RMB in the last year (2016), low or average self-rated happiness, and good self-rated health are more likely to deviate from the traditional filial support track (i.e. they are less likely to be the traditional-reciprocal) than their counterparts in these profiles. In the future, it will be important to increase attention to those families in which older parent live apart from their adult child through relevant legislation, social welfare systems, and social older-care services. This will help ensure that adult children provide intergenerational support and will enable the normal functioning of home- and community-based older adults’ care.