The Geographical Distance And Contact Between Adult Childen And Their Parents:an Analysis From The Perspective Of Social Class

This paper aims to analyze geographic distance and contact between adult children and their parents in urban families with CGSS2006.Different from previous research on intergenerational relationships,this paper focuses on geographic distance rather than co-residence.What's more,it also differentiates telephone contact and face-to-face contact.Based on Linear Probability Model,it turns out that immigration for socioeconomic status accounts well for the positive correlation between adult children's social class and geographic distance;the negative correlation between parents' social class and geographic distance is a reflection of immigration from rural area to urban area;social mobility has no influence on geographic distance.The negative correlation between adult children's social class and face-to-face contact frequency may derives from class culture,while the positive influence of parents'social class on the two types of contact and zero correlation between adult children's social class and telephone contact frequency may be best explained by the intension of intergenerational emotion.Social mobility has an influence on telephone contact frequency.Class culture and intension of intergenerational emotion perhaps are two reasons for the difference of the two types of contact in terms of social class.Control variables,such as age,number of siblings,relationships with parents and sense of family responsibility,also exert influence on geographic distance and contact frequency.