Ardington Cally, Case Anne, Islam Mahnaz, Lam David, Leibbrandt Murray, Menendez Alicia, Olgiati Analia
Res Aging. 2010 Jan 1;32(1):97-121. doi: 10.1177/0164027509348143.
This study uses panel data from Cape Town to document the role played by aging parents in caring for grandchildren who lose parents due to illnesses such as AIDS. We quantify the probabilities that older adults and their adult children provide financial support to orphaned grandchildren. We find significant transfers of public and private funds to older adults caring for orphans. Perhaps because of these transfers we find no differences in expenditure patterns between households with orphans and other older adult households. We also find no impact of either the death of a child or taking in orphaned grandchildren on adult well-being as measured by ability to work, depression, or self reported health. Our findings suggest that the combined public and private safety net in South Africa mitigates many of the consequences older adults could suffer when an adult child dies and leaves behind grandchildren needing care.
本研究使用来自开普敦的面板数据，记录年迈父母在照顾因艾滋病等疾病失去父母的孙辈方面所发挥的作用。我们量化了老年人及其成年子女为孤儿孙辈提供经济支持的概率。我们发现，有大量公共和私人资金转移到照顾孤儿的老年人手中。或许正是由于这些资金转移，我们发现有孤儿的家庭与其他老年家庭在支出模式上没有差异。我们还发现，无论是子女死亡还是收留孤儿孙辈，对成年人的幸福感（以工作能力、抑郁程度或自我报告的健康状况衡量）均无影响。我们的研究结果表明，南非公共和私人相结合的安全网减轻了许多老年人在成年子女去世并留下需要照顾的孙辈时可能遭受的后果。
