IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea26/404596.html

Health Consequences of Late-Life Widowhood: The Protective Role of Intergenerational Co-Residence in China

Author

Listed:
  • Liu, Jianfeng
  • Ma, Xiaochen
  • Ma, Yubei
  • Wan, Yue

Abstract

This study examines how intergenerational co-residence mitigates mental health consequences of widowhood in China. Using longitudinal data (2011-2020) from CHARLS and a staggered difference-in-differences design, we find widowhood increases depressive symptoms by 1.815 points (CES-D scale). However, sustained co-residence with adult children is associated with offsetting approximately 79.6% of this adverse effect. Alternative support mechanisms— financial transfers, visits, and remote communication — provide no comparable protection. Mechanism analysis reveals that co-residence protects by stabilizing social networks rather than by monitoring health behaviors. We quantify protection value at 2,790 RMB per person-year, translating to 7.4 billion RMB annual social benefits under a 70% co-residence scenario. The non-substitutability of embedded family support implies that policies should prioritize maintaining pre-existing co-residence arrangements rather than relying on crisis-activated or remote support interventions.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Jianfeng & Ma, Xiaochen & Ma, Yubei & Wan, Yue, 2026. "Health Consequences of Late-Life Widowhood: The Protective Role of Intergenerational Co-Residence in China," 2026 Annual Meeting, July 26 - 28, 2026, Kansas City, Missouri 404596, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea26:404596
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.404596
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/404596/files/177584_193228_115232_Health_Consequences_of_Late-Life_Widowhood_The_Protective_Role_of_Intergenerational_Co-Residence_in_China.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.404596?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ags:aaea26:404596. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

    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.