Family Structure Changes In Rural Area Of China And Its Influence On Family Support For The Elderly

As the basic structure of human society,family has long assumed the basic function of old-age care and plays an important role in rural old-age care of China.With the development of social economy and the aggravation of population aging and population mobility,the family structure in rural areas has undergone tremendous changes in terms of scale,type and generation.The dramatic changes of rural family structure in China are bound to have an impact on family support.After combing domestic and foreign related studies on family and old-age care,this study based on data from China’s past four census and sample figures of sample survey on population change in recent years,analyzes the current situation,causes and trends of family structure changes and mainly discusses the influence of family structure changes on family support for the elderly in rural area from three aspects of economic support,life care and spiritual comfort.In the end,this paper summarizes research conclusion and puts forward relevant policy suggestions.This study is divided into five chapters.The first two chapters are preparations for the study,chapter three and chapter four is the core chapter of this study.Chapter five is the conclusion of this paper.Chapter one is the introduction.Firstly,it elaborates the background and research significance of this paper,then sorts out the related research on family structure and family support,puts forward the research ideas and framework,and specifies the sources of data and research methods.Chapter two is the definition and theoretical basis.The necessary definitions of the related concepts of family structure and family support are made.The family life cycle theory,human capital investment theory,Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory,and wealth flow theory that support this paper are proposed to prepare for the later research.Chapter three is about the current situation,causes and trends of rural familystructure changes.Based on the data from China’s past four census and sample figures of sample survey on population change in recent years,this paper analyzes the new characteristics of rural families changes in the size,structure,and inter-generational relationships,and then systematically analyzes the reasons for the changes of family structure from the perspective of social economy,population mobility,ideological concepts,and policy changes.Combined with relevant research forecasts,the trends of family population change in rural areas in China are presented.Chapter four is the influence of family structure changes on family support for the elderly in rural area.This chapter focuses on analyzing the positive and negative effects of rural family structure changes on family support in terms of economic support,life care and spiritual comfort.The analysis shows that the influence on the rural family support from the changes of family structure is amphibious.That is to say,there is a negative impact to the family support,but there is certain positive impact at the same time.Chapter five is research conclusions and policy suggestions.The last chapter draws a conclusion as follows: the influence of family structure changes on family support is unilateral rather than decisive,and is structural rather than functional,social endowment is supplement to the role of family support rather than replacement.There are some suggestions based on the conclusions,we should integrate Chinese and western endowment ideas and develop the family support culture;popularize the allowance of advanced ages and supplement the family support resources;develop home service industry and meet the needs for life care of the elderly;encourage young adults to take their parents and move to the town.