Research On The Impact Of Reverse Intergenerational Support On Elderly Health

With the development of economy and society,the extension of average life expectancy and the decline of fertility rate have brought about the aging problem.The accompanying social problems,such as the increasing burden of social and family pension,the sharp expansion of medical expenses and the decrease of working-age population,have brought great pressure to the development of society and economy.In this context,how to realize healthy aging has become the focus of theoretical and practical circles.The elderly health is not only beneficial to enhance the quality of life of the elderly,but also can reduce medical costs and alleviate the pressure of the old-age social and family endowment.Most importantly,formulate relevant policies to help the health elderly who has the rich experience and professional skills reintegrate into the society,can realize "the second" demographic dividend and promote the benign development of the economic society.To realize healthy aging is a long-term solution to the aging problem.How to improve the health level of the elderly has become a hot topic of academic discussion.Existing studies have explored the influencing factors of the health of the elderly in many aspects,but few studies have focused on the effect of intergenerational support factors on the health of the elderly.It is the common responsibility of the family and the society to provide for the aged.The prominent feature of "getting old before getting rich" in China’s aging process makes China face the prominent contradiction of pension resources limitation.Because of the weak social security foundation,the government can not completely replace the role of the family in the pension.At the same time,based on the strong atmosphere of family pension concept in China,family is still the main body of pension responsibility.Therefore,family intergenerational support factors also have an important impact on the health level of the elderly in China.However,with the development of social economy,the relationship within the family in China has also changed greatly.On the one hand,because of the one-child policy,"4 + 2 + 1" has become China’s current typical family structure.The younger generation bear the huge pressure to pension and decrease the intergenerational support for the elderly.On the other hand,with the development of economy,social competition is increasingly fierce.Because of the rising prices,the cost of living and raising children has risen sharply.Young people are faced with great pressure from work and life,and "gnashing the elderly" and "generational care" have become common phenomena.It can be seen that factors such as small family size,simplified structure and intensified competition of modern social life have been reshaping the role expectation of traditional intergenerational communication,and the elderly’s reverse intergenerational support for their children is playing an increasingly important role in family relations.In view of this,the core issue to be solved in this paper is the new change in the direction of family intergenerational support--whether reverse intergenerational support will have an impact on the health of the elderly? Based on this,on the basis of a systematic review of relevant literature,based on social role theory and social exchange theory,this paper constructs a theoretical model with the concept of reverse intergenerational support,the health of the elderly and the concept of pension responsibility as the core.The data of 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS)were selected,and SPSS and Stata software were used to sort out and analyze the data.To explore the influence of reverse intergenerational support on the health level of the elderly,so as to enrich the research on the influencing factors of health and deepen the cognition of the influence of family factors on the health of the elderly.Through data analysis and hypothesis testing,the following research conclusions are drawn :(1)In terms of mental health,reverse intergenerational labor support has a negative impact on the mental health of the elderly.The more intergenerational labor support the elderly provide,the higher the depression score and the worse the mental health status.Secondly,reverse intergenerational emotional support has a significant positive imact on the mental health of the elderly,which is consistent with the existing research conclusions.The higher the frequency of emotional support provided by the elderly,the lower the depression score of the elderly and the better their mental health.Reverse intergenerational economic support has no significant effect on the health of the elderly.(2)In terms of physical health,inverse intergenerational emotional support and inverse intergenerational economic support have a significant positive impact on the physical health of the elderly,that is,the more the intergenerational emotional support and economic support the elderly provide,the lower the ADL score,and the better the physical health status.Reverse intergenerational labor support had no significant effect on the physical health of the elderly.(3)The empirical results show that the concept of pension responsibility only has a negative moderating effect on the intergenerational support of reverse labor on the depression scores of the elderly,that is,it has a negative moderating effect on the mental health of the elderly.That is to say,compared with the elderly who do not have the concept of supporting their children,the sample of the elderly who think that the elderly should be supported by their children,the effect of reverse intergenerational labor support on the elderly depression is weak,and the mental health status of the elderly is better.The moderating effect of the concept of pension responsibility was not significant in other models.Based on the above analysis,this paper proposes the following policy impli cations :(1)Build a comprehensive social support system to improve the econom ic status of the elderly;(2)Develop a variety of child care services to reduce t he burden of care for the elderly;(3)Carry forward the new culture of filial pi ety and create a social atmosphere of loving and respecting the elderly;(4)Buil d multiple pension responsibility subjects and change the concept of pension res ponsibility.