Xie Yu, Zhu Haiyan
Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research, 426 Thompson Street, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106.
J Marriage Fam. 2009 Feb 1;71(1):174. doi: 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2008.00588.x.
The patriarchal structure of the traditional Chinese family suggests that sons, more than daughters, provide financial support to elderly parents. The norm of receiving support in old age primarily from sons, however, may have been undermined by dramatic demographic, economic, and cultural changes occurring over the last several decades in China, especially in urban areas. We examine gender differences in adult children's financial support to parents using a recent dataset ("Study of Family Life in Urban China") collected in 1999 (N = 1,801). The results show that married daughters, especially those living with parents, provide more financial support to parents than married sons do. This significant gender difference can be primarily explained by daughters' resources, such as education and income.
中国传统家庭的父权结构表明，儿子比女儿更有可能为年迈的父母提供经济支持。然而，过去几十年来中国，尤其是城市地区发生的巨大人口、经济和文化变化，可能已经削弱了主要由儿子提供养老支持的传统模式。我们利用1999年收集的一个最新数据集（“中国城市家庭生活研究”，样本量N = 1801），研究了成年子女在经济上支持父母方面的性别差异。结果显示，已婚女儿，尤其是那些与父母同住的女儿，比已婚儿子为父母提供的经济支持更多。这种显著的性别差异主要可以由女儿的资源，如教育程度和收入来解释。
