Filial Piety, Pension Policy and Changing Perceptions of Elderly Care Responsibility: Evidence from China

Abstract:Along with rapid population ageing and extensive policy changes, Chinese attitudes towards elderly care responsibility are shifting. Using nationally representative survey data, this study finds that the proportion of people holding the traditional view that children should be the main elderly care providers decreased from 57 per cent in 2010 to 50 per cent in 2015. Further analyses show that above and beyond individual factors such as gender, age and marital status, social policies and institutions have influenced people's attitudes. Pension coverage, an urban hukou (household registration), and employment in sectors that provide long-standing social programmes and higher pension benefits are factors that may increase people's likelihood to subscribe to an alternative view that the responsibility of elderly care should be shared equally among the government, the child(ren) and the elderly, or mainly undertaken by the government or by the elderly themselves.