Gender Differences In The Impact Of Intergenerational Care On Rural Children’s Health

No.1 central document has repeatedly proposed to strengthen the care for rural children,establish and improve the welfare security system for rural children in distress and the social protection system for minors.Since entering the new century,China’s population aging process has deepened,social competition has intensified,and the situation of child care has become increasingly severe,which has brought a continuous impact on China’s economic and social development.Children are the initial stage of life.The healthy growth of children is not only related to personal development and family happiness,but also related to social stability and national socio-economic strength.Using the data of China Family Panel Studies(CFPS)in 2016 and 2018,and using the WHO child growth standard in 2006 and the WHO growth data of children aged 5-19 in 2007,this paper selects height for age Z score(HAZ)and weight for age Z score(WAZ)and age-specific body mass index Z score(BAZ)as the dependent variable,whether intergenerational care is used as the independent variable,multiple regression analysis is used to investigate the impact of intergenerational care on the physical health of rural children,and further robustness is tested by propensity score matching(PSM)and adjusting the independent variable.The Chow test,SUEST test and average marginal effect coefficient(AME)were used to explore the gender differences in the impact of intergenerational care on children’s health.Finally,the changes of gender differences were discussed according to whether it was a multi child family and family income level.The conclusion of this study is that intergenerational care has a significant negative impact on the long-term health of rural children aged 0-5,has no significant impact on the short-term nutritional status of rural children aged 0-5,and has a significant positive impact on the health of rural children aged 6-15.At the same time,the results show that there is no significant gender difference in the long-term health status of rural children aged 0-5,but there is a significant difference in the health status of rural children aged 6-15,especially for rural girls.Based on the results of theoretical research and empirical analysis,this paper gives the following policy suggestions: first,we should continue to deepen the research on intergenerational care,dialectically treat the impact of intergenerational care on children’s health,and change the traditional concept and make the concept of scientific parenting deeply rooted in the hearts of the people;Second,we should pay attention to the healthy development of rural children and build a rural children’s health support system;Third,pay more attention to gender equality in health,increase family income and increase public investment to make up for the uneven distribution of family resources.