隔代照料与老年人年龄认同:子女代际支持的中介效应

年龄认同是个体对衰老进程的主观体验,是健康老龄化的重要内容。以往关于照料孙子女与老年人年龄认同的相关性的研究较为少见,并且没有关注子女代际社会支持的作用,关于中国老年人隔代照料与年龄认同的相关研究也极为缺乏。本文根据2014年中国老年社会调查追踪数据,利用多元线性回归模型分析隔代照料与中国老年人年龄认同的相关性,同时利用Bootstrap中介效应检验法考察子女代际社会支持(代际经济支持、代际工具支持和代际情感支持)的中介作用。研究发现隔代照料与老年人年龄认同显著相关,即照料孙子女使老年人有更积极的年龄认同;隔代照料与城市老年人年龄认同显著相关,与农村老年人年龄认同在统计上不相关,与老年女性年龄认同显著相关,与老年男性年龄认同在统计上不相关,照料孙子女对老年人的影响具有城乡差异性和性别差异性。进一步的中介效应分析发现代际经济支持、代际工具支持在隔代照料与老年人年龄认同之间发生了完全中介作用。本文研究结果表明隔代照料对老年人及中国家庭所发挥的作用和价值不容忽视,社会和家庭一定要关注老年照料者的健康问题和生活需求,要重视老年人在家庭中的价值和作用。同时,对于照料孙子女的老年人,其成年子女应给予更多的代际支持,提升照料孙子女对老年人健康和幸福的促进作用。

The Impact of Caring for Grandchildren on Grandparents' Age Identity:The Mediation Effects of Intergenerational Support

Age identity is about the subjective experience of ageing,and is an important factor affecting the healthy ageing of older people. Although some studies have identified the association between age identity of the elderly and whether they have to perform grandparental care,there is little focus on the effect of their adult children’s social support. Based on data from 2014 China Longitudinal Ageing Social Survey,this pa?per analyses the effects of grandparental care on age identity of the Chinese older people using multiple lin?ear regression models. Meanwhile,it analyses the effects of intergenerational social support(economic sup?port,instrumental support and emotional support of their adult children)by the Bootstrap method. The find?ings suggest that grandparents who care for grandchildren have a more positive age identity than those who do not. Compared with grandparents living in rural areas,the positive effects of caring for grandchildren are more likely to occur among urban grandparents. The age identity of female grandparents is more likely to be positively affected by grandchildren care than their male counterparts. For slightly younger ones(less than70 years old),caring for grandchildren has a positive effect on their age identities. We also find that the in?tergenerational economic support and instrument support have full mediation effects on the relationship be?tween grandparental care and age identity. This paper shows the positive effect of caring for grandchildren on the age identity of grandparents. The families of older people should pay more attention to the age identi?ty of older caregivers,which could affect their health. At the same time,their adult children should give more support to them.