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The Effects of Adult Children’s Caregiving onthe Health Status of Their Elderly Parents: Protection or Selection?

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Book cover Healthy Longevity in China

Part of the book series: The Springer Series on Demographic Methods and Population Analysis ((PSDE,volume 20))

Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to re-examine the protective and selective effects of children’s caregiving to their elderly parents. Although the protective effect is widely recognized, the selection of care provision necessitates a comprehensive investigation into elderly caregiving.We design a joint model to specify the two effects. The model is applied to dyadic data from two large-scale surveys conducted in China in 2002. We found that protection is seriously misestimated when selection is ignored. After having successfully identified the selective effect, care provision to the elderly is found to be far more beneficial than claimed in previous studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Konrad-Zuse-Str. 1, 18057 Rostock, Germany

    Zhen Zhang

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  1. Zhen Zhang
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Zeng Yi

  2. Peking University, Beijing, China

    Zeng Yi

  3. Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Dudley L. Poston Jr

  4. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    Denese Ashbaugh Vlosky

  5. Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Danan Gu

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Zhang, Z. (2008). The Effects of Adult Children’s Caregiving onthe Health Status of Their Elderly Parents: Protection or Selection?. In: Yi, Z., Poston, D.L., Vlosky, D.A., Gu, D. (eds) Healthy Longevity in China. The Springer Series on Demographic Methods and Population Analysis, vol 20. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6752-5_15

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