Social Ties, Family Structure and Care, and the Well-Being of the Oldest Old in China

The growing number of the elderly in China is bringing dramatic changes into family life, the nature and structure of the support system for the aging population. Especially with the growing decrepitude in physical health and experiences of the inevitable losses of the significant others among the oldest old, it is crucial to understand how different compositions of family members or other social ties provide support or care for the oldest old to sustain a certain quality of life. The goal of this study is to explore how family structure and care and other social ties affect the extent to which the oldest old assess the quality of life after controlling for their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, using data from the first wave of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). Ordered logistic regressions are conducted and multiple imputation are applied to compute missing data. Findings in this study show that the demographic factors, including age, residential area, and physical health status, affect the life of the oldest old. Previous socioeconomic status of the oldest old have a cumulative effect on life quality over the life course. Most importantly, how family is structured impacts the well-being of the oldest old in China. Children play an important role in the life of the oldest old. They not only provide financial assistance and caregiving but also affection and love for the elderly, which greatly improves their subjective feeling about life. Extended family structures of multiple younger generations further have a positive effect on the well-being of the elderly. The reification of the traditional norm of enjoying the happiness of living together with multiple younger generations in their late life appears to be crucial to the emotional well-being of the elderly. Those who are living in nursing homes are more likely to feel better than those living with family members at home, indicating that nursing homes not only function in providing care for the daily routine of the elderly but also serve as a social setting for the elderly to socialize and make friends with their contemporaries. This reinforces their feelings of social attachment, hence, improves their subjective feeling of the life quality. Social services, provided by the government for the oldest old who do not have a family support, can facilitate financial support, formal caregiving, and the social life of the oldest old. They need to be taken into consideration to improve the life quality of the oldest old in China