Analysis Of The Effect Of Intergenerational Care On Cognitive Function Of Middle-aged And Elderly People

In the context of the increasing number of dual-employed families in China and the imbalance between the supply and demand of formal service institutions for infant and child care,the middle-aged and elderly groups providing alternative care for children of adult children are gradually growing,and alternative care has also evolved into one of the important forms of family care in China,but the cognitive function of this group of middle-aged and elderly people is easy to be ignored.Based on the plasticity of cognitive function,its degradation is not irreversible.The stimulation of external factors can play a certain protective role in the development and change of cognitive function of middle-aged and elderly people.Providing care for grandchildren provides opportunities for grandparents to maintain social participation and cognitive activity in old age.Therefore,planned and purposeful interventions can be carried out to slow down the degradation of their cognitive function.At present,there are few studies on the impact of the participation of the elderly on their cognitive ability in China.For this reason,this paper,based on the existing three stages of the China Health and Elderly Care Tracking Survey,selects the elderly aged 45-85 as the research object to explore the relationship between intergenerational care and cognitive function.First,we estimate the impact of intergenerational care on cognitive function and the impact of intergenerational care intensity on cognitive function through a two-way fixed effect model,and analyze the heterogeneity of the impact of intergenerational care on middle-aged and elderly people of different gender,residence,marital status,age and education level under the premise of ensuring robustness.Based on the above research,the net effect of intergenerational care on cognitive function was evaluated by means of propensity score matching method,excluding individual self-selection bias.The results showed that two-way fixed effect regression confirmed that intergenerational care had a significant positive effect on cognitive function of middle-aged and elderly people,but its improvement effect was significantly different in gender,marital status,education level,residence and other factors.The result of propensity score matching showed that gender,age,residence,marital status and other factors all affected the choice of alternative care,and two-way fixed effect regression underestimated the positive impact of alternative care on cognitive function of middle-aged and elderly people.Based on the above empirical research conclusion,this paper believes that the intergenerational care behavior of middle-aged and elderly people not only reduces the care burden for their children,but also helps to alleviate the pressure of caring for children in two-employee families,and also helps to maintain and improve their cognitive function.On this basis,the government and society should publicize the importance of participating in the intergenerational care of the elderly,encourage the elderly to provide intergenerational care and assume the responsibility of caring for the children,give full play to the value of the elderly in their later years,strengthen the intellectual incentives for the elderly who have not received education to care for their grandchildren in their later years,and further strengthen the old-age security for the elderly in rural areas.