IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v31y2013i3p428-443.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Changing Landscapes of Support in the Lives of Chinese Urban Elders: Voices from Wuhan Neighbourhoods

Author

Listed:
  • Rose Gilroy

    (School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE1 7RU, England)

Abstract

The change from a Soviet-style planned economy to one influenced by the market has rippled through all areas of Chinese life. This paper explores how changes to state financial support together with changing family dynamics are impacting on urban Chinese elders. Drawing on exploratory fieldwork in Wuhan, the paper takes an everyday-life approach to reveal new inequalities for older people. Changes to health-care costs are causing anxiety among many elders and plunging others into poverty. However, it is the family that emerges as pivotal to older people's economic and social well-being. For those with decently employed children there are emerging opportunities for independence in later life; conversely, where children are low paid or out of work, it is parental income that is taking the strain. The paper concludes by setting these findings in a broader global context.

Suggested Citation

  • Rose Gilroy, 2013. "Changing Landscapes of Support in the Lives of Chinese Urban Elders: Voices from Wuhan Neighbourhoods," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 31(3), pages 428-443, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:31:y:2013:i:3:p:428-443
    DOI: 10.1068/c1193
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c1193
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/c1193?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Merril Silverstein & Zhen Cong & Shuzhuo Li, 2006. "Intergenerational Transfers and Living Arrangements of Older People in Rural China: Consequences for Psychological Well-Being," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 61(5), pages 256-266.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Haiting Jiang & Bo Burström & Jiaying Chen & Kristina Burström, 2021. "Rural–Urban Inequalities in Poor Self-Rated Health, Self-Reported Functional Disabilities, and Depression among Chinese Older Adults: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-15, June.
    2. Maruyama, Shiko, 2015. "The effect of coresidence on parental health in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-22.
    3. Irene Mosca & Alan Barrett, 2016. "The impact of adult child emigration on the mental health of older parents," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(3), pages 687-719, July.
    4. Kyungwon Choi & Gyeong-Suk Jeon & Kwang-Sim Jang, 2020. "Gender Differences in the Impact of Intergenerational Support on Depressive Symptoms among Older Adults in Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-13, June.
    5. Yixuan Liu & Liumeng Li & Guomei Miao & Xinyan Yang & Yinghui Wu & Yanling Xu & Yonghong Gao & Yongzhi Zhan & Yiwei Zhong & Shujuan Yang, 2021. "Relationship between Children’s Intergenerational Emotional Support and Subjective Well-Being among Middle-Aged and Elderly People in China: The Mediation Role of the Sense of Social Fairness," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-12, December.
    6. Nakagomi, Atsushi & Tsuji, Taishi & Saito, Masashige & Ide, Kazushige & Kondo, Katsunori & Shiba, Koichiro, 2023. "Social isolation and subsequent health and well-being in older adults: A longitudinal outcome-wide analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 327(C).
    7. Teerawichitchainan, Bussarawan & Low, Timothy Qing Ying, 2021. "The situation and well-being of custodial grandparents in Myanmar: Impacts of adult children's cross-border and internal migration," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    8. Mitra, Sophie & Gao, Qin & Chen, Wei & Zhang, Yalu, 2020. "Health, work, and income among middle-aged and older adults: A panel analysis for China," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    9. Pei, Yaolin & Cong, Zhen & Wu, Bei, 2020. "Education, adult children's education, and depressive symptoms among older adults in rural China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    10. Wang, Shuhong & Li, Shengxiao (Alex) & Hu, Wanyang, 2022. "Grandparenting and subjective well-being in China: The moderating effects of residential location, gender, age, and income," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    11. Sipei Xu & Jia Zhang, 2022. "Do Social Pensions Affect the Physical and Mental Health of Rural Children in China? An Intergenerational Care Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-25, March.
    12. Fanny A. Kluge & Tobias C. Vogt, 2020. "Intergenerational transfers within the family and the role for old age survival," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2020-021, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    13. Fan, Ying & Fang, Shuai & Yang, Zan, 2018. "Living arrangements of the elderly: A new perspective from choice constraints in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 101-116.
    14. Zhen Cong & Merril Silverstein, 2019. "A Vignette Study of Older Adults’ Preferences for Intergenerational Transfers in the Context of Competition Between Grandparents and Grandchildren in Rural China," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 74(3), pages 496-505.
    15. Choi, Seung-won Emily & Zhang, Zhenmei, 2021. "Caring as curing: Grandparenting and depressive symptoms in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).
    16. Xu, Hongwei, 2019. "Physical and mental health of Chinese grandparents caring for grandchildren and great-grandparents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 106-116.
    17. Jiaan Zhang & Liyun Wu, 2015. "Cigarette Smoking and Alcohol Consumption among Chinese Older Adults: Do Living Arrangements Matter?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-26, February.
    18. Lijuan Chen & Yiang Li & Qiuyue Yang, 2022. "The Effect of Grandparenting on the Depression and Life Satisfaction among Middle-Aged and Older Chinese Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-12, August.
    19. Meliyanni Johar & Shiko Maruyama, 2014. "Does Coresidence Improve An Elderly Parent'S Health?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 965-983, September.
    20. Kumar, Sneha, 2021. "Offspring's labor migration and its implications for elderly parents' emotional wellbeing in Indonesia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:31:y:2013:i:3:p:428-443. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.