{"title":"Grandchild Caregiving and Social Activities Participation Among Rural Grandparents in China: Does Rural-To-Urban Migration Matter?","authors":"Hongxi Ge, Qian Liu, Huawei Han","doi":"10.1177/01640275251355607","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Using nationally representative data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018 and the fixed effects model, we examine the association between grandchild caregiving and rural grandparents' participation in social activities in China. We further explore whether this association varies across non-migrant and migrant rural grandparents, as well as how this migration-related heterogeneity varies by gender. The results reveal that grandchild caregiving was positively associated with participation in at least one social activity among rural grandparents, primary driven by nonintensive caregiving. Migration-based heterogeneity indicates that this positive association was observed only among non-migrant rural grandparents. Meanwhile, among those who had already participated in at least one activity, grandchild caregiving was associated with a greater number of activity types and a higher frequency of participation among migrant rural grandparents. Further analysis by gender indicates that this migration-based heterogeneity pattern was observed only among grandfathers. Our findings offer important policy implications in the context of rapid population aging and urbanization in contemporary China as well as in other developing countries.</p>","PeriodicalId":47983,"journal":{"name":"Research on Aging","volume":" ","pages":"1640275251355607"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Research on Aging","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01640275251355607","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"GERONTOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Using nationally representative data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018 and the fixed effects model, we examine the association between grandchild caregiving and rural grandparents' participation in social activities in China. We further explore whether this association varies across non-migrant and migrant rural grandparents, as well as how this migration-related heterogeneity varies by gender. The results reveal that grandchild caregiving was positively associated with participation in at least one social activity among rural grandparents, primary driven by nonintensive caregiving. Migration-based heterogeneity indicates that this positive association was observed only among non-migrant rural grandparents. Meanwhile, among those who had already participated in at least one activity, grandchild caregiving was associated with a greater number of activity types and a higher frequency of participation among migrant rural grandparents. Further analysis by gender indicates that this migration-based heterogeneity pattern was observed only among grandfathers. Our findings offer important policy implications in the context of rapid population aging and urbanization in contemporary China as well as in other developing countries.
期刊介绍:
Research on Aging is an interdisciplinary journal designed to reflect the expanding role of research in the field of social gerontology. Research on Aging exists to provide for publication of research in the broad range of disciplines concerned with aging. Scholars from the disciplines of sociology, geriatrics, history, psychology, anthropology, public health, economics, political science, criminal justice, and social work are encouraged to contribute articles to the journal. Emphasis will be on materials of broad scope and cross-disciplinary interest. Assessment of the current state of knowledge is as important as provision of an outlet for new knowledge, so critical and review articles are welcomed. Systematic attention to particular topics will also be featured.