Intergenerational support, satisfaction with parent–child relationship and elderly parents’ life satisfaction in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

Objectives:This study examines in what exchange patterns that three types of intergenerational support are associated with elderly parents' life satisfaction, and whether elderly parents' evaluation on parent-child relationship plays a mediation role on those associations.

Method: Data were drawn from Hong Kong Panel Survey for Poverty Alleviation. Respondents aged 65 and over were included ( N=504). Three types of support, namely, daily-living, financial, and emotional support were examined in four patterns-the over-benefited , under-benefited , reciprocal and no flow of exchange. A multivariable linear regression was applied to investigate the association between pattern of intergenerational exchange and life satisfaction, and mediation analysis was employed to examine the mediating role of satisfaction with parent-child relationship on their associations.

Results: Elderly parents were less satisfied with their lives when they had no flow of exchange in daily-living support, and more satisfied when they were under-benefited in financial support, and over-benefited or reciprocal in emotional support. Elderly parents’ satisfaction with parent–child relationship mediated the association between exchange of emotional support and life satisfaction; but not the association between daily-living or financial support and life satisfaction.

Conclusion: Different types of intergenerational support are associated with elderly parents’ life satisfaction in different patterns.

KEYWORDS:

• Elderly
• intergenerational support
• exchange pattern
• life satisfaction
• Hong Kong

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Ms. Yulin Cheng for proofreading the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

There are no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research and publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Chief Executive's Community Projects [grant number 2013/CP03] and Strategic Public Policy Research [grant number HKU7003-SPPR-12].