Understanding the ties that bind: Intergenerational value agreement in Taiwan.

This study examines intergenerational agreement on beliefs about familial norms and obligations regarding the elderly in Taiwan. Over the past century Taiwan has experienced massive social, economic and demographic changes, with the most significant changes occurring after World War II. These changes include a move from a family and agriculture-based economy to a wage-based economy, the expansion of the educational system, and the completion of the demographic transition marked by rapid fertility decline in a brief time span. Significant and rapid social change such as this is likely to alter the experiences of adjacent generations. Parents and children raised in different social and historical contexts may develop different values and beliefs. The data for this study come from a nationally representative, longitudinal study of the elderly in Taiwan. The second wave of data collection in 1993 includes interviews with the respondents' adult children. Using these data, analyses examine generational agreement at both the group level, comparing aggregates of parents and children, and the pair level, comparing parents and children within the same family. The focus of the analyses is on absolute correspondence, that is, whether elderly parents and adult children give exactly the same response. One strength of this study is the use of item response models to examine the validity of parent-child agreement, i.e. whether parents and children have evaluated the same social phenomenon when asked various questions about their values and beliefs. Three sets of beliefs are examined: beliefs about the best living arrangement for the elderly, beliefs about the appropriateness for older widows and widowers to remarry, and the relationship between family property and respect for the elderly. Aggregate level analyses show a moderately high level of generational agreement regarding beliefs about with whom the elderly should live. Agreement is substantially lower for the other two sets of beliefs. Pair level analyses generally show significant parent-child disagreement. For beliefs regarding the best living arrangement for the elderly, when disagreement occurs, it is often the child who holds more filial beliefs. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for cultural change and family solidarity in later life.PhDDemographyIndividual and family studiesSocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/131875/2/9938423.pd