Queens College - CUNY, Queens, NY, USA.
Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
J Health Soc Behav. 2022 Sep;63(3):410-427. doi: 10.1177/00221465211069895. Epub 2022 Jan 11.
This study examined the cross-sectional associations between intergenerational caregiving and health risks among sandwiched Chinese grandparents who provide care to grandchildren, great-grandparents, or both. Drawing on biomarker data from the 2011 wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (N range = 2,189-3,035), we measured age-related biological health risks of hypertension, diabetes, inflammation, and allostatic load. We found that health risks did not necessarily increase with the intensity of intergenerational caregiving. Providing care to grandchildren and great-grandparents simultaneously was not as detrimental to health as reported in earlier studies from the United States. Sandwiched grandparents could benefit from providing care to grandchildren or great-grandparents only. These unexpected findings might be related to the cultural mandates of filial piety and family solidarity in China. Grandfathers and grandmothers experienced different associations between varying types of intergenerational caregiving and health risks.
本研究考察了代际照料与夹心层中国祖辈（照顾孙辈、曾孙辈或两者兼有）健康风险之间的横断面关联。本研究利用中国健康与养老追踪调查（CHARLS）2011 年数据（N 范围为 2189-3035）中的生物标志物数据，测量了高血压、糖尿病、炎症和压力相关生物标志物等与年龄相关的健康风险。我们发现，健康风险并不一定随代际照料强度的增加而增加。与美国早期研究报告的情况不同，同时照顾孙辈和曾孙辈对健康的危害并没有那么大。夹心层祖辈从仅照顾孙辈或曾孙辈中受益。这些出乎意料的发现可能与中国孝道和家庭团结的文化规范有关。祖父和祖母在不同类型的代际照料与健康风险之间存在不同的关联。
