照料史、隔代照料对我国中老年人健康的影响——基于Harmonized CHARLS的研究

现代社会家庭规模以小型化和核心化为主,但不论农村还是城市,孩子的生养教化等功能仍由家庭承担,很多祖辈依然承担着照料孙辈的任务,隔代照料在现代社会仍发挥重要作用。隔代照料对照料者的健康会产生一定的影响,这种影响因“居住安排”而异,同时照料状态的转变,即照料角色的获取或退出、持续或中断等不同“照料史”的变化对照料者的健康也有影响。本文采用南加州大学经济与社会研究中心提供的Harmonized CHARLS 2013-2015年追踪数据,选取45-80岁的中老年人为研究对象,以虚弱指数表征健康结果,运用滞后变量回归模型,从“居住安排”和“照料史”两个维度研究隔代照料行为对照料者健康的影响。研究发现:与子女同住且提供隔代照料对老年人的健康有改善作用;照料史的动态变化影响照料者健康,新进入照料角色对照料者的健康有改善作用;在照料孙辈的同时,祖辈出于利他主义动机为成年子女提供经济支持能显著改善其健康状况;男性在提供隔代照料过程中更容易经历健康的亏损,尤其是单身的男性照料者;以上结论仅适用于70岁以下的照料者,对于70岁及以上的老年群体,长期提供隔代照料会加重健康负担。

The Health Consequences of Grandparenting and History among Chinese:Evidence from Harmonized CHARLS Data

Modern society is mainly based on the miniaturization and core of family size.However,regardless of whether it is rural or urban,the functions of childcare and education of children are still borne by the family.Many ancestors still take on the task of caring for their grandchildren.Intergenerational care still plays an important role in modern society.The health of the caregiver will have a certain impact,which varies with the“residence arrangement”,and the change of the state of care,that is,the acquisition or withdrawal of the care role,the continuous or interruption of the changes in the“care history”.There is a difference in the health effects of the comparators.In this study,grandparent caregiving role has been classified based on two dimensions,which are the older parents’living arrangement and caregiving history.So we try to examine the effect of grandparenting role on older parents’health consequences,measured by Frailty Index(FI)built by many variables,using two waves of the Harmonized CHARLS(China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study)(2013-2015,N=8,796)developed by the Gateway to Global Aging Data,under the framework of a OLS regression models using lagged dependent variables,controlling for sociodemographic characteristics,health status and other roles grandparents played.We find that in the process of caregiving,living with children and providing intergenerational care can improve the health of the elderly;the dynamic changes in the history of care affect the health of the caregiver,and the new care recipients can improve their health;while caring for their grandchildren,the grandparents for altruistic motives,providing financial support to adult children can significantly improve their health;men are more likely to experience healthy losses in the process of providing intergenerational care,especially for single male caregivers;the above conclusions only apply to 70 years old.The following caregivers,for the elderly population aged 70 years and older,will provide a health burden for long-term care.