Taiwan Parent Support

8/2/2019 Taiwan Parent Support

1/18

Gender Differences in Adult Children's Support of Their Parents in TaiwanAuthor(s): I-Fen Lin, Noreen Goldman, Maxine Weinstein, Yu-Hsuan Lin, Tristan Gorrindo,Teresa SeemanSource: Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 65, No. 1 (Feb., 2003), pp. 184-200Published by: National Council on Family RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3600059

Accessed: 30/04/2009 23:40

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless

you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you

may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ncfr.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed

page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the

scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that

promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

National Council on Family Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to

Journal of Marriage and the Family.

http://www.jstor.org
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3600059?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ncfrhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ncfrhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/3600059?origin=JSTOR-pdf


2/18

I-FEN LIN Bowling Green State UniversityNOREENGOLDMAN Princeton University*

MAXINEWEINSTEIN Georgetown University**YU-HSUAN LIN Department of Health, Taiwan***

TRISTANGORRINDO Vanderbilt University"***TERESA SEEMAN University of California-Los Angeles*****

GenderDifferencesn AdultChildren'support f TheirParentsn Taiwan

This paper examinesthe patternsand determi-nantsof four types of supportprovidedby adultchildren o theirparents,withparticular ttentionto differencesn thehelpingbehaviors f sons anddaughters.The data come rom the 1989 waveofthe Surveyof HealthandLivingStatusof the El-derlyin Taiwan.Theanalysisis based on 12,166adult children rom 2,527families. We ind thatusuallyonly one child in a familyprovides helpwith activitiesof daily living (ADLs)or instru-mental activitiesof daily living (IADLs),butforDepartment of Sociology, 217 Williams Hall, BowlingGreen State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403([email protected]).*Office of PopulationResearch,243 WallaceHall, Prince-ton University,Princeton,NJ 08544.**Center for Populationand Health,312 Healy Hall, Box571197, Georgetown University,Washington,DC 20057.***SurveyResearchCenter or PopulationandHealth,Bu-reau of HealthPromotion,Departmentof Health,Taiwan.****VanderbiltSchool of Medicine,VanderbiltUniversity,Nashville, TN 37232.*****Department f Epidemiology,Box 951772, School ofPublic Health,Universityof California-Los Angeles.Key Words:gender differences,provision of support, Tai-wan.

financialor material upport he responsibilityslikely o be sharedamongsiblings.Sonsgenerallycarrythe major responsibilityor takingcare oftheirolderparents,anddaughtersulfill the son'sroles when sons are not available.Taiwan s oneof thenewlyindustrializedocietiesthat have experiencedrapid demographic, co-nomic,andsocialchangesover the secondhalf ofthe lastcentury.Between1952and2000, life ex-pectancyat birth increasedby about 20 years,whereas total fertility dropped by nearly fivebirths PopulationReferenceBureau,2001). As aresultof this demographicransition,hepercent-age of people who are 65 yearsor older has al-mostquadrupledrom2.5 to 9 and is expected orise to 14%of the populationby the year 2020(Li, 1994).Taiwanhas been transformedrom arural,agriculturalociety to a highly urbanized,industrial one (Hermalin, Liu, & Freedman,1994):Forexample,the percentage f the popu-lation living in cities has tripled, he percentageof the labor forceengaged n agriculture as de-creased rom56.1 to 13.7,andper capita ncomehas grownmorethan ninefoldover thisperiod.Despite these far-reachinghanges,most par-ents in Taiwancontinue to live with their adultchildren,particularlyheirmarried ons (Chang,1999; Ofstedal,Knodel,& Chayovan,1999;Sun

Journal of Marriageand Family 65 (February2003): 184-20084


3/18

Parental Support in Taiwan

& Liu, 1994; Weinstein,Sun, Chang,& Freed-man,1990).Thedirection f financial lows is stilldominated y transfers romadultchildreno theirparents Lee, Parish,& Willis, 1994;Sun & Liu,1994),in partbecauseplacingparentsn a nursinghome has been perceivedas a violationof tradi-tional filial obligations (Kao & Stuifbergen,1999), and in partbecause the governmentpro-vides minimalprotectionrompotential conomichardship.Thepreferenceorfamilyassistance ndthe lack of institutionalupport nderscorehe im-portance or older personsof help providedbymembers of social networks,particularly dultchildren.

Althougha numberof studies have examinedintergenerationalransfers n Taiwan e.g., Chat-topadhyay& Marsh,1999;Hermalin,Ofstedal,&Chang, 1996; Hermalin,Ofstedal,& Lee, 1992;Ofstedalet al., 1999;Sun & Liu, 1994),most aredescriptiveor reflectthe perspectiveof the agingparents, ather hanthe children.Previous tudieshave examined he prevalenceof supportamongolderadults, henumber ndtypeof kinavailablefor support,and factorsdeterminingwhetherag-ing parentsreceive support,but little is knownaboutthe underlyingmechanismsby which adultchildrenprovidesupport o theirparents an ex-ception s Lee et al., 1994).Theobjectiveof the present tudy s to extendpriorresearchby examiningthe empiricalevi-dencein Taiwan or a set of five explanations fwhy adultchildrenprovidesupporto theiragingparents.A relatedgoal is to compareand contrastthe helping behaviors of sons and daughters.Thereare two salientaspectsof Taiwaneseocietythat motivate his detailedexamination f genderdifferences n the provisionof supportby chil-dren. First, Taiwan is a patriarchal ociety inwhichsons bear heprimary esponsibility f con-tinuing he descent ine of the father'samily.Al-thougha daughterbelongsto her father's amilybeforemarriage, hejoins the descent ine of herhusband'sfamily upon marriage(Wolf, 1972).UnlikeAmerican amilies n which adultchildren,particularlymarriedones, rarelylive with theirolderparents,raditional aiwanese amiliesplacea strongemphasisonparent-sonoresidence s animportantormof fulfilling ilialobligationWein-stein et al., 1990).Olderparentswho have morethan one son often rotateamongtheir sons' resi-dences. In contrast,married aughters reexpect-ed to live with their parents-in-law.A secondcharacteristicf Taiwanese ocietythathasimpli-cationsfor differences n the supportprovidedby

sons and daughters elatesto genderdifferencesin humancapitalandeconomicresources.UnlikeAmericanfamilies that typically have no morethan a few children,prior o thepastfew decadesTaiwanese ouplesgenerallyhad arge amilies.Inview of budget constraints nvolved in raisingmanychildren,andbecauseof genderdifferencesin expectations egarding eturns rom sons anddaughters,Greenhalgh1985)hasargued hatTai-wanese parentsgenerally nvestedmore in theirsons' than n theirdaughters' ducation.The dif-ferencesin literacyand education evel resultingender differences in economic resources andskillslater n life thatarelikelyto affect theleveland type of support hat sons and daughtersareableto provide o theirolderparents.In this study,we examine he patterns nd de-terminants f four types of supportprovidedbyadultchildren:assistancewith essentialactivitiesof dailyliving (ADLs),householdchores,financ-es, and materialgoods. To provideinsight intowhichchildren ontributeo parental upport, urworkuses the adultchild as the fundamental nitof analysisbut also incorporates arental harac-teristics-such as their age, maritalstatus,andhealthstatus-that have beenshownto affectsup-port(Hermalin t al., 1992;Lee et al., 1994;Sil-verstein,Parrott,& Bengtson,1995;Spitze& Lo-gan, 1990;Stoller,1983).

THEORYAND PREVIOUSRESEARCHResearchers aveproposeda numberof explana-tions for how adult childrenfulfill theirobliga-tions to theirparents;however,muchof the ex-isting research has been conducted n Westernsocieties. Few systematic attemptshave beenmade to examine the division of laborin Asianfamilies. In thispaper,we use results romstatis-tical models of the provisionof supportby chil-dren n Taiwan o examine ive proposed heoret-ical explanations for the allocation ofresponsibilities.n thefollowingsection,we sum-marizeeach of the five explanations ndcompareearlier indings n AmericanandTaiwanese am-ilies.

HierarchicalCompensationThe hierarchicalcompensation xplanationpro-poses that family members make themselvesavailable orhelpin serialorder: f oneindividualis notavailable o help,anotherwill stepin (Can-tor, 1975;Johnson,1983; Shanas, 1979). In the

185


4/18

Journal of Marriage and Family

UnitedStates, hepreferred rovider f supportsthe spouse. When a spouse is not available,daughtersreusuallypreferredver sons(Wolf&Soldo, 1988),andwhenno daughters available,sonsare ikelyto substitute ndprovideassistanceto theirparentsHorowitz,1985;Wolf,Freedman,& Soldo, 1997;but see Spitz & Logan, 1990).Americandaughterspendmorehourspermonthhelping heirparentshansonsdo (e.g.,Matthews& Rosner,1988;Stoller,1983;Wolfet al., 1997),and marrieddaughters remorelikely thanmar-ried sons to live with unmarried, lder mothers(Wolf& Soldo, 1988).Historically n Taiwan,sons have borne themajorresponsibilityor regularcare andsupportof parents.Even today,Taiwanese ons providemore nstrumentalssistance ndfinancial upportto parentsthan daughtersdo (Hermalinet al.,1992). Parentsare morelikely to live with theirmarriedsons than with their marrieddaughters(Chang,1999;Ofstedalet al., 1999;Sun & Liu,1994;Weinstein t al., 1990),and havemorefre-quentcontactwith sons (Hermalin,Ofstedal,&Chi, 1992).Whena parenthasmorethanone sonand hasnotyet divided amilyproperty,he eldestsontypically akesthemajor esponsibility f car-ing for his aging parents (Sung, 1981; Wolf,1968).Daughters re likely to fill the sons' roleswhen sons are not available (Hermalinet al.,1992;Lee et al., 1994).

GenderIdeologyGender deologyargues hat amily abor s divid-ed on the basisof gender-basedxpectationshatare internalized y individuals hrough ocializa-tion (Ross, 1987).Becausemen are socializedtothe role of providerand women to the role ofcaregiver,onsarefrequentlynvolved n financialsupport, whereas daughtersoften assist withhousehold horesorpersonal are.Thisconjectureis supported y findings n the UnitedStatesbutnot by earlier research in Taiwan. Americandaughterspendmoretimeon instrumentalctiv-ities of daily living (IADLs),such as transporta-tion, parentalcare, and meal preparation,hansons (Horowitz,1985;Matthews& Rosner,1988;Stoller, 1983), whereas sons are slightly morelikely to deal with financial asksthandaughters(Montgomery& Kamo, 1989). In Taiwan,re-searchers ind that sons are moreimportant ro-viders thandaughters, egardlessof the form ofsupportHermalin t al., 1992).However, ender-specificdivisionof filial tasksmayexist between

marriedsons and their spouses,rather han be-tweenmarriedons andmarried aughters.n Tai-wan, a daughter's esponsibilityo her own par-ents usuallyends at marriage, t which time herresponsibilitys transferredo herhusband'sam-ily (Greenhalgh, 985).CompetingCommitments

The competingcommitments xplanationpositsthatdemandattributableo multipleroles deter-mines the time availablefor family assistance(Ross, 1987).Onthisbasis,one wouldexpectem-ployed childrenand married hildren o provideless supporthantheircounterparts.n theUnitedStates,this positionis supported y comparisonsof the amount f support rovidedby workingandnonworkingdaughters(Lang & Brody, 1983;Matthews,Werkner,& Delaney, 1989). In addi-tion,employments a significant redictor f per-ceivedcaregiver urdenordaughters utnotsons(Montgomery& Kamo,1989),anddaughters remore likely than sons to perceiverole conflicts(Finley,1989).Married aughters pend ess timethan unmarrieddaughters n providingparentalcare(Lang& Brody),andmarried hildren-bothsonsanddaughters-provideess helpthannever-married hildren Stoller,1983).In Taiwan,counter o the competingcommit-ments explanation,working children are morelikely thannonworking hildren o provideassis-tancewith ADLs, financial upport,andmaterialsupport Hermalin t al., 1992). Moreover,mar-riedchildren remoreaptto provideparentalup-portthan unmarriedhildren.

ReciprocityReciprocity uggests hat heextent o whichadultchildrenhelptheirparentss basedon theparents'pastinvestmentn them(Gouldner, 960;Thibaut& Kelley, 1959):Childrenwhoreceiveda greaterinvestment, uch as schoolingor financial rans-fers fromtheirparents, remore ikelyto provideparentalupport.ntheUnitedStates, hisconjec-ture is supportedby the work of Cox and Rank(1992)who showthatchildrenwho receivefinan-cial transfersare more likely thanchildrenwhodo not receive this assistance o have visits andtelephone ontactwithparents ndto providepar-entshelp.InTaiwan,Hermalin,Ofstedal,andLee(1992) find thatchildrenwho receivedajuniororseniorhighschooleducationaremore ikelythanchildrenwith at mosta primary chooleducation

186


5/18


to providefinancialand material upport.Lee etal. (1994) showthatsons are morelikely to sup-porttheirparentswhen the parentshave alreadydividedtheirproperty.

ExternalresourcesThe externalresourcesexplanation roposes hattherelativeresourcesof familymembers, uch asincome and education,determine heirpowerinnegotiatingthe family division of labor (Ross,1987).Thisexplanationmpliesthatsiblingswithgreaterinancial esourcesmay negotiatewith esswell-off siblingsto exemptthemselves rom co-residingwith parentsor providing ime-intensiveservices.Thus childrenwithmore resourcesmayprovideadditionalinancial upportbutless assis-tancewithdailyactivities.There s little evidencein eitherthe United States(Finley, 1989) or inTaiwan(Lee et al., 1994) to support his expla-nation,butpoor operationalizationf thisconceptin previousstudiesmay be the cause. Previousstudieshave examinedchildren'sabsolutelevelsof educationbut overlooked he potential mpor-tance of relative levels in determiningnegotia-tionsamong familymembers.In sum, the hierarchicalcompensation xpla-nationpredicts hat n Taiwan ons aremore ikelythandaughters o providesupport o their olderparents,but thatdaughterswill substituteor sonswhentheyhaveno brothers.Genderdeologysug-gests thatsons aremorelikely thandaughtersoprovide financialor materialsupport,whereasdaughters remore ikelythansonsto provideas-sistance with ADLs or IADLs. The competingcommitmentsxplanation mplies that employedor marriedchildrenare less likely to help thannonworkingor unmarried hildren,regardlessofchildren'sgender.Reciprocity uggeststhat adultchildrenwith higher evels of schoolingwithin afamily and childrenwhose parentshave dividedtheirpropertyare morelikely than theircounter-parts o provide upporto theiragingparents.Theexternalresourcesexplanationpredictsthat sib-lings with a higherrelative evel of education relikely to providefinancialand materialsupport,whereas iblingswith a lowerrelative evel of ed-ucationare ikelytoprovideassistancewithADLsor IADLs.Althoughboth the reciprocityand ex-ternalresourcesexplanations oncernadultchil-dren'seducational ttainment,he formerpredictsthe amountof support,whereas he latterpredictsthe type of support.

METHODData and Sample

Ourdataaredrawn romtheSurveyof HealthandLiving Status of the Elderlyin Taiwan(TaiwanProvincial Institute of Family Planning, 1989).Face-to-face nterviews were conducted n 1989with a nationalprobability ampleof 4,049 per-sonsaged60 and over.One older adult rom eachhouseholdwas selected or interview aproxywasusedwhen the adultwastoo ill to be interviewed).The responserate for the surveywas 92%.Thedataarericher hanmost other nformation n old-er adults n threerespects.First,the full popula-tion is representedn the survey, ncluding nsti-tutionalizedpersons.Second,the surveycollectsdetailed informationon all household membersand on potentiallymportantocialties, includingan extensive set of questionson instrumental ndfinancialexchanges n which the aging parent sthe provideror recipient.Finally,the surveycol-lects a wide rangeof detailed nformation boutmarital, residential,and occupationalhistories,householdcomposition, ocial and economic ex-changes,emotionaland instrumentalupportanddemands,andphysicaland mentalhealth.Although he data ncludedetailed nformationabout the relationshipsbetween the parentandeach of the coresidentandnonresidentmembersof thefamily, hesurveydoes not ask informationaboutrelationships mongcoresidentand nonres-ident members.For instance,we may know thata parenthas two married ons andtwo daughters-in-law living outside the household,but lack in-formation hatwould allow us to identifywhichdaughter-in-laws married o which son. Similar-ly, we are not able to identify the parentof agrandchildwho is in the household.Becauseofthis limitation,we excludesupportprovided romchildren-in-law nd variablesrelated o the pres-ence of grandchildrenrom the analysis.The samplefor this analysisis selectedran-domly from the 1989 survey to comprisetwothirdsof therespondentsi.e., 2,713parents).Thisprocedures partof a split-sampledesign for alargerprojectthat examinesthe relationshipbe-tween the social environment nd healthamongolder Taiwanese.The ultimateobjectiveof thisstrategy s to use thetwo-thirds ubsample o es-timatemodels, as we do in this paper,and theremainingsubsample o appraise he models insubsequent nalyses.Thistypeof cross-validationprocedureprovides protectionagainst overfitting

187


6/18

Journal of Marriage and FamilyTABLE 1. NUMBER AND GENDER COMPOSITION OF

CHILDREN IN FAMILIES IN 1989PercentageDistributionFamilies

No child1 child0 sons1 son2 children0 sons1 son2 sons3 children0 sons

1 son2 sons3 sons4 children0 sons1 son2 sons>3 sons5 children0 sons1 son2 sons-3 sons6 children0 sons1 son2 sons>3 sons7 children0 sons1 son2 sons>3 sons8 or more children

0 sons1 son2 sons>3 sons

Percentage of Sons5.686.27

45.2954.719.07

14.6359.3526.0211.57

7.6435.0347.459.87

14.674.7722.3638.9433.92

16.261.8112.0233.3352.83

15.702.1110.3325.3562.21

10.981.016.3818.4674.16

9.800.753.0114.2981.95

Total numberof families 2713Mean numberof childrenper family 4.80Note: Column totals in each panel may deviate slightlyfrom 100%because of roundingerrors.

models to the data (for the split sampledesign,see Berk, 1991;Mosteller& Tukey,1977).

children in a family. As shown in Table 1, theaverage number of living children per family is4.8, reflecting the high fertility in Taiwan prior tothe 1960s. About two thirds of the parents havebetween two and six children. Not surprisingly,asfamily size gets larger,the likelihood of having atleast one son present in the family increases.Parents' characteristics. Table 2 shows the distri-butions of characteristics for 2,527 older parents.The total number of older parents is less than2,713 because those with no children (n = 154)or only young children (n = 32) are excludedfrom the analysis. (Children aged 15 and youngerare excluded from all parts of the analysis, be-cause, in view of the 9 years of compulsory ed-ucation provided by the Taiwanese government,most will be attending school and are unlikely tobe providing support to their parents.) About twothirds of the respondents are in their 60s in 1989,with women being slightly older than men. Mostrespondents, especially women, are illiterate or re-ceived only a primary school education.The population in Taiwan consists of four eth-nic groups: Aborigines, Fukienese, Hakka, andMainlanders. Aborigines are the earliest migrantsto Taiwan, followed by Fukienese (originatingfrom the Fukien Province in China), Hakka (orig-inating from the Kwangtung Province in China),and then Mainlanders (mainly the Nationalist par-ty army and its supporterswho left Mainland Chi-na during the 1949 Civil War). Fukienese consti-tute the major ethnic group in our sample.Mainlanders are disproportionately men becausemost Mainlanders migrating to Taiwan were sol-diers. Hakka share a more similar culture with Fu-kinese than the Mainlanders.More than 60% of the parents in the sampleare married. For this generation, marriage rarelyends in divorce. Most of the respondents reportexcellent, very good, or good health, althoughwomen are more likely than men to say theirhealth is fair or poor. On average, the parents inthe sample report less than one functional limita-tion. Men are more likely than women to be eco-nomically independent: That is, they are morelikely to own their residence, retain some prop-erty, work, and have an income. Over one thirdof all parents live in urban areas.

MeasuresFamily structure.Family structure s characterizedas the number and gender composition of living

Adult children's characteristics. Children's char-acteristics are presented in Table 3. The informa-tion is based on the parent's report. Given thatmost parents have more than one child, the total

188


7/18


TABLE . PARENTS'HARACTERISTICSN 1989aPercentageb/Mean

Characteristics Total Men WomenAge (years)60-69 64.23 68.10 59.4770-79 28.93 26.01 32.51-80 6.85 5.89 8.02Education

No formal education(illiterateor can read) 50.77 32.26 73.48Primaryschool 29.92 38.65 19.21Juniorhigh school 7.95 11.64 3.44Senior high school 5.66 8.12 2.64College or higher 5.18 8.76 0.79Missing 0.51 0.57 0.44EthnicityFukienese 63.51 57.04 71.45

Mainlander 18.16 26.08 8.46Hakka 15.12 14.15 16.30Otherethnicity (Aboriginal,foreign) 1.82 1.65 2.03Missing 1.39 1.08 1.76Marital statuscHas a coresidentspouse 64.46 78.09 47.75Has a non-coresidentspouse 2.30 2.66 1.85Separatedor divorced 2.49 3.66 1.06Widowed 30.31 15.01 49.07Never married 0.44 0.57 0.26

Health statusReportsexcellent or very good health 37.51 44.68 28.72Reports good health 37.00 36.57 37.53Reportsfair or poor health 21.53 14.87 29.69Missing 3.96 3.88 4.05Difficulties with activitiesMean numberof functional limitations(bathing, climbing stairs,walking, crouching, reaching up over head, grasping) 0.47 0.36 0.60Residence ownership'Owns currentresidence 53.15 62.79 41.32Does not own currentresidence 46.85 37.21 58.68

PropertydivisionHas divided all or partial property 25.92 21.48 31.37Has not divided property 43.89 52.30 33.57Has no property 29.60 25.72 34.36Missing 0.59 0.50 0.70WorkingstatuscWorking 26.83 40.01 10.66Not working 73.17 59.99 89.34Monthly income (NT$)d

-5,000 29.48 20.69 40.265,000-9,999 20.42 20.76 20.0010,000-19,999 26.75 30.03 22.73>19,999 18.72 24.86 11.19Missing 4.63 3.66 5.81Area of residenceRural 34.59 34.12 35.15City 28.53 28.66 28.37Urban 36.88 37.21 36.48

Number of cases (%) 2,527 (100) 1,392 (55) 1,135 (45)aln total, 186 parents(or families) are excluded from the analysis.Among these families, 154 have no children,14 haveonly one child and the child is underage 16 years in 1989, and 18 have more than one child and all childrenare underage 16. bColumn otals in each panel may deviate slightly from 100%because of roundingerrors.cBecause he totalnumberof missing cases is less than 10, missing values have been replacedby the modal value of the given variableaccordingtothe respondent'sgender.dNT$ ndicates New Taiwanesedollars.In 1989, one U.S. dollar was equal to 26.17 NT$.

189


8/18

Journal of Marriage and FamilyTABLE . CHILDREN'SHARACTERISTICSN 1989

PercentageaCharacteristics Total Men WomenType of supportprovidedto parent

Any help 51.26 66.62 35.79Help with ADLsh 0.80 1.06 0.53Help with IADLsc 4.09 5.45 2.71Financialhelp (financialsupport) 43.27 62.98 23.41Food, clothing, and othergoods (materialsupport) 20.47 18.90 22.04Age (years)51 10.45 10.14 10.76

Missing 1.34 0.75 1.93Eldest childIs eldest child 19.64 19.67 19.60Is not eldest child 80.36 80.33 80.40Number of brothers

0 7.75 8.81 6.681 or 2 50.33 50.38 50.27>3 41.92 40.80 43.05Number of sisters

0 9.12 8.55 9.701 or 2 47.11 48.81 45.39>3 43.77 42.64 44.91Level of education

No formal education(illiterateor can read) 7.72 3.08 12.39Primaryschool 37.81 34.12 41.53Juniorhigh school 15.19 17.46 12.90Senior high school 22.56 24.70 20.41College or higher 16.19 20.10 12.26Missing 0.53 0.54 0.51Relative educationHighest 27.99 36.74 19.17Middle 18.23 19.82 16.63Lowest 36.68 25.88 47.55Same or only child 15.77 16.15 15.38At least one child's educationin the family is unknown 1.34 1.41 1.27

EmploymentstatusFull-timeemployed 67.02 89.43 44.45Part-timeemployed 3.53 2.46 4.60Not working 28.77 7.47 50.22Missing 0.68 0.64 0.73Marital statusMarried 81.37 77.74 85.02Formerlymarried separated,divorced or widowed) 1.88 1.64 2.13Never married 16.29 20.34 12.21Missing 0.46 0.28 0.64

Living arrangementCoresides with the parent 24.79 38.36 11.12Lives in the same city or town 28.02 24.95 31.12Lives in a differentcity or town 43.43 33.50 53.44Lives overseas 3.15 2.78 3.51Missing 0.61 0.41 0.81Numberof cases (%) 12,166 (100%) 6,105 (50%) 6,061 (50%)aExceptfor the first panel, column totals in each panel may deviate slightly from 100% because of roundingerrors.bADLs(activitiesof daily living) includebathing, dressing,andmaintaining oilet functions. cIADLs(instrumental ctivitiesof daily living) include shopping,meal preparation, ransportation, nd managingfinances.

190


9/18


numberof children n this table(N = 12,166)ismuchlarger han the numberof parents n Table2 (N = 2,527). A smallnumberof adoptedchil-drenandstepchildrenn = 41) are ncluded n theanalysis.Mostof the childrenwerein their30s or40s in 1989.More than90%of the childrenhaveat least one sibling.Children's ducational ttainments measuredin two ways: the absolute evel of educationre-ceived and the relativerankingn a family.Chil-dren's educational attainmentis substantiallyhigherthan theirparents'-only 3% of the sonsand 12%of the daughterseceivedno formaled-ucation,and 45% of the sons and 33% of thedaughters ttended eniorhigh school or college.Although he level of educationncreases ubstan-tially betweengenerations,daughters emain esseducated hansons, and sons are twice as likelyas daughterso be the most educatedchild in thefamily.Morethan90%of the sons areemployedfull-timeor part-time, utonly half of the daugh-ters are employed.Approximatelyhreequartersof the childrenaremarried. inally, heproportionof sons who live with theirparents s more thanthreetimes the number or daughters, eflectingthe norm orcoresidencewith sons in Taiwan.Al-thoughdaughters reless likely thansons to livewith theirparents,nonresident aughters remorelikely than nonresident ons to live in the samecity or town as their olderparents.Fourtypesof support.We examine ourtypesofsupport hat childrenprovideto their older par-ents:(a) helpwithbathing,dressing,or maintain-ing toilet functions(i.e., ADLs); (b) assistancewith householdchores, such as shopping,mealpreparation,ransportation,r managing inances(i.e., IADLs); (c) provisionof financialsupport;and (d) provisionof materialsupport,such asfood, clothing,or othergoods.In the survey,par-ents were askedif they receivedhelp at the timeof the interview romeach coresident nd nonres-identmemberof the household or each of thesetypes of support.The percentagedistributionsnthe firstpanelof Table3 showthat abouthalf ofthe childrenprovideat leastone typeof support.

AnalyticalStrategyWeuse multivariatemodelsto examine heeffectsof children's haracteristics,amilystructure, ndthe needs and resourcesof parentson the provi-sion of each of four types of support.We focusonthe first wo sets of variables ecause heyform

the basis of the five theoreticalpropositionsde-scribedearlier.We examine the consistencybe-tween the resultingestimatesand the predictionsof each explanation, ather hancarryout formalhypothesis ests,for two reasons.First,giventhatthese explanations re not mutuallyexclusive,itis likelythatourresultswill be at leastpartly on-sistent with more than one explanation.Second,children's decisions aboutprovidingsupporttotheirparentshave been shownto dependon theirprevioushistoryof supportprovisionas well ason currentand previousassistanceprovidedbytheirsiblings Checkovich& Ster 2002).Welackinformation hat would permitus to adequatelymodel the interdependencen the formalanalysis.We use the child as the unit of analysis,in-cluding coresident and nonresidentchildren. Astatistical oncernarising rom he inclusionof allchildren s thatobservations romthe samefamilytend to be correlated,herebyviolatingthe clas-sical assumptionof independenceamongobser-vations.Statisticalmethods hat gnorethe nestedstructure f the datagenerallyunderestimatehevarianceof the estimated oefficients.To addressthis problem, we use Huber-White stimators(Johnston& DiNardo, 1997) in the statisticalpackageSTATA StataCorp, 999)to providero-bust standardrrors f thecoefficients n thepres-ence of clustering.Another tatistical roblem oncerns hepoten-tial endogeneityof some of thecorrelates f sup-portprovision, uchas breadwinnertatusand iv-ing arrangements. or example, although ivingarrangementsre likely to be highly correlatedwith supportprovision, omeof the sameunmea-suredvariablesthat determinewhetherchildrencoresidewiththeirparents e.g., thequalityof therelationshipbetween children and parents)arealsolikelyto determinewhetherheyprovide up-port.To avoid the biases introduced y incorpo-rationof endogenousvariables,we excludethesevariables rom the statisticalmodels.BecauseTaiwanese ociety is highlystratifiedby gender andwas evenmoreso atthe timewhenthe children n the sampleweregrowingup), weexpect that the associations between children'scharacteristicsndthe likelihood hat heyprovidesupportdiffer by theirgender.Thus we includeinteractionermsbetweeneachof theexplanatoryvariablesandthe child'sgender.However,ratherthan presentthe coefficients for the interactionterms,we calculateseparate oefficients or sonsand daughtersn orderto simplifythe presenta-tion.

191


10/18

Journal of Marriage and FamilyTABLE 4. DISTRIBUTION OF SHARED RESPONSIBILITY FOR PROVIDING SUPPORT TO OLDER PARENTS IN 1989

Financial MaterialAny Help ADLsa IADLsh Support Support

Only one adult child in family (171 families)% who received help from a child 39.18 4.09 11.70 32.16 18.71More thanone adult child in family (2,356 families)% who receive help from a child 79.84 2.59 13.84 74.70 37.14% only one child helps 19.94 72.13 71.47 23.92 32.46% more than one child but fewer thanhalf of the childrenhelp 23.02 19.67 17.48 27.44 23.89% more than half of the childrenhelp 25.94 6.56 7.98 27.10 22.97% of all childrenhelp 31.10 1.64 3.07 21.53 20.69% total 100.00 100.00 100.00 99.99c 100.01cAll families 77.09 2.69 13.69 71.82 35.89

aADLs(activities of daily living) includebathing,dressing,and maintaining oilet functions. bADLs (instrumental ctiv-ities of daily living) include shopping, meal preparation, ransportation, nd managing finances. cColumntotals deviateslightly from 100% because of roundingerrors.

RESULTSAdult Children'sParticipationn Support

Table4 describeshow responsibilityor support-ing parentss sharedamongchildren n a family.Thetwo mostfrequentormsof helpthatparentsreceivefrom theirchildrenaremonetaryand ma-terial support. Among families with only onechild,about39%of theparents eceive some formof helpfromthatchild,butamong arger amilies,nearlydouble thatpercentage eceive help. Thesharingof filial responsibility ariesby the typeof support:For ADLs andIADLs,one childtyp-ically provides he help, but for financialor ma-terial support, he responsibility s likely to besharedamongsiblings.FactorsPredicting he LikelihoodThatan Adult

ChildProvidesSupportTable 5 presents he results from a series of lo-gistic regressionmodels of the determinants fchildren'sprovisionof parental upport.Separatemodels are estimatedfor each type of support.Each model includes all children above age 15(excludingchildren-in-law) f the 2,527 parents.The numbersn the cells are odds ratios OR); orcategoricalvariables, hey have been calculatedrelativeto an odds ratio of unityfor the omittedcategory. Several variables have been droppedfrom two of the regression quations ADLsandIADLs)because none of the childrenwith thesecharacteristicsrovided he relevant orm of sup-port.Three ypesof statisticalests areshownalong-

side the coefficients: a) two-tailed tests associ-ated with individualregressioncoefficients;(b)two-tailed tests associatedwith thedifference e-tween a given coefficient or sons andthe corre-sponding oefficient ordaughters;nd(c) X2 estsassociatedwith an entire set of categoricalvari-ables (for those consistingof at least two cate-goriesin addition o the omittedone).AdultChildren'sCharacteristics nd

FamilyStructureThe estimates n Table5 providemixed supportfor eachof thefive proposed xplanations f sup-port provision.Contraryo predictions elated ohierarchical ompensation,he oldest child is notmorelikely to providehelpthanyoungersiblings(shown n thepanelBirthOrder).This resultmaybe partly he consequence f frequent otations fresidenceamongTaiwanesechildrenso that theoldest childrendo not alwayslive withtheirpar-entsand,whentheydo,othersiblingsmaybe pre-sent in the household Weinstein,Sun,Chang,&Freedman,1994). In furthernegationof this ex-planation, he results ndicate hat,exceptfor as-sistancewith ADLs(OR= 0.66 for sons and2.06fordaughters), irthorder s equally mportantorsons anddaughters.However, he resultsregard-ing thegendercomposition f siblingsdo supportthis explanation.In particular,he existence ofbrothers oesnot seem to affectthe likelihood hata son provides support,but a daughters muchmore ikelyto providecertain ypesof helpin theabsenceof a brother shown n thepanelNumberof Brothers).Specifically,he odds thata daughter

192


11/18

TABLE 5. ESTIMATED ODDS RATIOS FROM LOGISTIC MODELS OF THE LIKELIHOOD THAT A CHILD PROVIDES SUPPORT TO AN OLAny Help ADLsc IADLsd Fina

ExplanatoryVariables Sons Daughters Sons Daughters Sons Daughters SonsChild characteristics

Age>20b-20Birth orderSecond- or later-bornEldestNumberof brothersX2(df = 2)

0.53* 0.46*

1.01 0.961.61 22.73t

7.35

0.663.51 2.06t5.05

1.34 1.15 0.48*

0.95 1.164.95 21.95t 0.971.4701 to 2Number of sisters X2(df = 2)>301 to 2Relative educationX2(df = 3)Lowest

1.260.931.622.73*1.48*t0.63

1.21 1.090.96 1.0021.54t 0.58Highest 1.45* 1.03tMiddle 1.10 0.94Same or only child 1.14 0.99InteractionsX2 df = 3) 9.82t 9.68tNo brother* Highest education 0.97 1.02No brother* Middle education 2.02 8.15*No brother* ameeducationor only child 0.53 0.60Employmentstatus x2 (df =2) 159.55t 25.04tNot workingFull-timeemployed 5.67* 1.42*tPart-timeemployed 4.93* 1.75*tMarital statusx2 (df = 2) 6.23t 14.11MarriedFormerlymarriedNever married

ParentcharacteristicsGenderFemale

0.82 1.010.80* 1.53*t

3.67 10.720.58 0.536.00t 4.090.13* 1.61t0.48 0.513.99 0.850.972.072.080.640.37

e0.791.70

1.511.011.990.160.67e

0.5412.112.26 3.41*3.96 7.50*5.98 21.74t3.01 6.65*2.97* 14.86*t

2.45 9.84*t 1.181.43 1.73* 0.910.80 10.17t 1.760.790.874.951.070.730.740.950.920.681.334.43

2.45*1.290.301.261.0025.18t

0.88 1.52*0.94 1.230.91 1.160.83 10.25t0.75 0.991.00 2.450.60 0.578.42t 149.04t1.16 1.112.19 2.92*5.28 57.8 1

5.98*4.54*6.44t1.10 3.87*t 0.910.62* 6.26*t 0.80*

Male 1.00 0.91 2.29* 0.78 1.32 1.03 1.00ale 1.00 0.91 2.29* 0.78 1.32 1.03 1.00


12/18

TABLE 5. CONTINUEDAny Help ADLsc IADLsd Finan

ExplanatoryVariables Sons Daughters Sons Daughters Sons Daughters SonsAge X2 df = 2)60-69

70-79>80EducationX2 df = 2)No formal educationPrimaryor juniorhigh schoolSenior high school or collegeEthnicity X2 (df = 2)Fukienese or HakkaMainlanderOtherMaritalstatusNo spouse or spouse not presentSpouse presentHealthstatus X2(df = 2)Excellent or very goodGoodFair or poorDifficultieswith activitiesNumber of ADLsResidence ownershipDoes not own current residenceOwns currentresidence

Propertydivision X2(df = 2)Has not dividedpropertyHas divided propertyNo property o divideWorkingstatusNot workingWorkingMonthlyincome X2 df = 3)>NT$19,999g


13/18

ParentalSupport in Taiwan 195' *, =a. without a brother provides parents help witht =. =11 1XI I ADLs and financialsupportare about 10 times

: so > 1i ,= 3, tively, the correspondingodds for a daughterwithC * En 6=' * = three or more brothers (i.e., the reference catego-| - - , 3 .|^ U ry). This result is consistentwith the findingof- ? ~ 1 -s. Lee et al. (1994) that sons are usuallythe pre-21 , ,,,?ferred providersand that sisterssubstitutewhen

- . == .s | x no brothers available.Not surprisingly,he ex-i j e ?E~I ? istenceof sistersdoesnotaffectthelikelihood hatG =c o r- * .? = 5 a son provides support (shown in the panel Num-v,? ^ggo X | .e ber of Sisters). However, a daughterwithout a sis-*I 3^^ N* &,1 : ter is much more likely to assist parentswith| L,,- r > V IADLs than a daughter with three or more sisters6v 6?s(= ^"a (OR = 2.45),presumably ecauseof a sharingof

a 3 >?I responsibilities mongdaughters.C' We observe only weak support for the com-(U _1+ 4^ '? u .= E petingcommitmentxplanation.TheresultsshowC ^==;^c Ua ?-, thatworking hildrenare not less likelythannon-

C: ,z ,5 | .= g o ~ - working children to provide parental support. ~ -~ | g < =3(shown in thepanelEmploymenttatus).Contrary,m. c,I . to the expectation hat unmarried hildrenwould|c5 o o =Y| = be especially likely to provide assistance, we find

a ~ " ~ that never-married sons are less likely than their|w - ,~ ~ X married ounterpartso providehelpwithIADLs,+ ? ,, * I-:? X ;, financial upport,and materialassistance OR =VQ i)= ? 'ii 000U 50.62,0.80, and0.59, respectively).However, on-< a i4 C~ o ? -= ? sistent with this explanation, never-married^ rON o=S aMc' daughters are more apt to provide parents helpC , * - ! I ? ; X O with ADLs, IADLs, and financial support than=g S -*, . 'l i' ">_ marrieddaughtersOR = 14.86, 6.26, and2.08,~ = ,o 2 respectively), and formerly marrieddaughtersare?, =o o . more likely than marrieddaughters o provide

* =3 ahelp with ADLsandIADLs(OR= 6.65 and3.87,| .= c S ^ I,z o? respectively).c c ? = = >: - Because of large gender differentials in edu-:c.c I ''i" .= T cationalattainmentndtheimportancef brothersc?N 3tR| , Qg X?'for whetherdaughtersprovide parental upport,.2 66S SE = we evaluate he external esources xplanation y^ ?d ?^*i^^ -X eZincluding a three-way interaction among chil--g 5I ? V dren's education, gender, and the presence of a'M ,, brother (shown in the panel Interactions). To fa-- 6 D-~ cilitate nterpretationf this higherorder nterac-' " r ?07 tion term,we computeoddsratiosfor eachcom-1 ?(^,, l :o cta binationof the relevantvariables,as shown in11 2-E ? C = Table6. Contraryo the supposition,he interac-Hl


14/18

Journal of Marriage and FamilyTABLE 6. ESTIMATED ODDS RATIOS FOR THE INTERACTION TERMS INCLUDED IN THE LOGISTIC MODELS IN TABLE 5

Financial MaterialAny Help ADLsa IADLsh Support Support

DaughtersNo brother,highest education 2.87 10.85 6.49 5.26 1.43No brother,middle education 20.91* c 9.25 42.39* 7.25No brother, owest education 2.73 10.72 9.84 4.86 1.52No brother, ame educationor only child 1.62 11.52 5.37 1.79* 1.13>1 brother,highest education 2.55 2.31 2.40 2.90 2.28-1 brother,middle education 2.33 1.55 2.57 2.17 2.30>1 brother, owest education 2.48 1.53 2.73 2.44 2.30>1 brother, ame education or only child 2.46 3.04 2.48 3.10 2.42SonsNo brother,highest education 1.77 1.32 2.41 1.78 1.65No brother,middle education 2.80 c 1.22 3.56 1.58No brother, owest education 1.26 3.67 2.45 1.18 1.53No brother, ame educationor only child 0.76 6.03 2.41 0.78 1.76-1 brother,highest education 2.80 1.53 2.60 2.90 2.42-1 brother,middle education 2.12 3.27 1.77 2.35 2.18-1 brother, owest education 1.93 1.58 2.43 1.91 2.16>1 brother, ame education or only child 2.20 3.29 1.80 2.22 2.46Note: Calculationsare based on the models shown in Table 5.aADLs(activities of daily living) include bathing,dressing,and maintaining oilet functions.bADLs (instrumental ctiv-ities of daily living) include shopping, meal preparation, ransportation, nd managing finances. cThe interaction s notestimatedbecause none of the adult children in the category (no brother,middle education)provide ADL help to theirparents.*Indicates hat the interaction erm is significantrelative to no brother,lowest education for the same genderatp < .05.

weak supportfor the reciprocityexplanation.Childrenwithhighereducation renotmore ikelyto providesupport hanthose with lower educa-tion, except that sons receivingthe highestedu-cation in a familyaremorelikely to providepar-ents financial supportthan their siblings withlowest education OR = 1.52,shown n thepanelRelativeEducation).Sons are morelikely to pro-vide ADL support ndmaterial upporto parentswho have alreadydivided theirproperty hantoparentswho have not done so, butpropertydivi-sion does not have a significant ffect on daugh-ters' provisionof support(shown in the panelPropertyDivision).Data for evaluating he one remainingpropo-sition-gender ideology-come fromthetoppan-el of Table3. The frequencies f type of supportby the genderof the child areonly partlyconsis-tent withtheanticipated endereddivisionof sup-port provision.Overall,sons are almost twice aslikely to providehelp as daughters.However,al-thoughsons aremuch more ikely thandaughtersto provide financialsupportand slightly morelikelyto providehelpwithIADLs,theyareaboutas likely as daughterso provideassistancewithADLs andmaterial upport.

Parents' ResourcesandNeedsIn Table5, the estimates also providesome in-sightsinto how parental haracteristicsnd needsaffect children'sprovision of support.Demo-graphiccharacteristics f parentsare importantdeterminants f supportprovisionby sons anddaughters.Sons are morelikely to provideADLsupporto theirfathers hanto theirmothers OR= 2.29), but the parent'sgenderis unrelated othe likelihood that daughtersprovide parentalcare. Sons are more apt to provide help withADLs and material upporto olderas comparedwith younger parents shown in the panelAge)and to give financialsupport o parentswithoutanyformaleducationas comparedwithmore ed-ucatedparents(shown in the panel Education).The estimatesfor ethnicity ndicatethat sons ofMainlandersre ess likelythansons of FukieneseorHakka o providemonetary r materialupport,anddaughters f Mainlanders re less likely thantheircounterpartso providehelpwith IADLsandmaterial upportshown n thepanelEthnicity).ncontrast,daughters f Aboriginesor foreign-bornparentsare more likely to provide help withIADLs and financialsupportas comparedwith

196


15/18


daughterswhose parentsare of otherethnic ori-gins.Parentalneed is anotherdeterminingfactorregarding upportprovisionby children.Daugh-ters are less likely to assist with ADL or IADLactivities and to give financialsupport o parentswho live with a spouse in contrastto parentswithout a spouse present (shown in the panelMaritalStatus).Daughtersare less likely to pro-vide help withIADLsbutmorelikely to providematerial support to parents in better health(shown in the panel Health Status). Not sur-prisingly, children are more apt to assist withADL activities when parentshave greater unc-tional difficulty(shown in the panelDifficultiesWithActivities). Childrenare also more likelyto providefinancialsupport o parentswho arenot working(shown in the panel WorkingSta-tus) andparentswith low incomes (shownin thepanel Monthly Income) compared with theircounterparts.Finally, children are more likelyto providefinancialand materialsupport o par-ents living in rural as comparedwith urbanar-eas, but children are less likely to provide helpwith ADLs and IADLs for ruralparents.

Inclusionof HelpProvidedby theSpouseof a MarriedChildAlthough t would be informative o examine heextent to which the spousesof childrenprovideassistance to theirparents-in-law,we areunableto identify spouses in these data. However,wecan obtainsome notion of the potentialsensitiv-ity of our estimates to the inclusionof informa-tion from spouses by examiningfamilies withonly one marriedson and one daughter-in-lawandfamilies with only one marrieddaughter ndone son-in-law. (These families may have un-married iblings n the samehousehold.) t seemsplausiblethat,for the vast majorityof such fam-ilies, the married hildand the child-in-law orma marriedcouple. Of these families with onemarriedchild and one child-in-law (data notshown),92%of the older parentsreportreceiv-ing any help from a married on or a daughter-in-law comparedwith 80% of the respondentsreporting eceiptof any supportromonly a mar-ried son. The biggest differencepertains o sup-port for IADLs: About 70% of the parentsre-ceive support with IADLs from the son ordaughter-in-law s opposedto only 13% of theparentsreceivingthis support rom the marriedson alone. The effects on the estimates of in-

cludinghelp from a son-in-lawaremuch smaller(datanot shown).The resultssuggestthatthe di-vision of familial tasks may be gender-specific,with married ons mainlyresponsible or finan-cial supportand theirspousesfor assistancewithIADLs.

DISCUSSIONThispaperexamines he patterns f fourtypesofsupportprovidedby adultchildren n Taiwanandidentifies the factors that are most importantndeterminingchildren'sprovision of supporttotheir older parents.Althoughmost explanationsaboutintergenerationalransfershave been eval-uated n theUnitedStates,Taiwan s aninterestingsetting or thisresearch ecause t differs rom heUnitedStates n several mportantways.First, heaveragenumber f childrenper familyamongold-er parents s muchlarger n Taiwan.Second,co-residence s an importantorm of fulfillingfilialresponsibility n Taiwan but not in the UnitedStates where adultchildrenrarely ive with theirolderparents.Finally,whereasdaughters rema-jor caregivers n the UnitedStates,sons assumethe major responsibility or takingcare of theirparentsn Taiwan.We examine five explanations bout how thecharacteristicsf adult childrenand theirparentsmay affect the provisionof parental upport. nview of the fact that these explanationsare notmutuallyexclusive andthat we aremodelingthesupportbehaviorof a specificadult withoutfullinformation n patterns f support crosssiblingsandovertime,it is perhapsnotsurprisinghatwefail to obtainstrongsupportorany particularx-planation.Rather,we findpartialsupport or thenotion of hierarchicalcompensation-sons gen-erally carry the major responsibility or takingcare of their older parents,and daughtersulfillthe son'sroleswhen sons are not available-andrelatively ittle support or the remainingpropo-sitions.This result s notaltogether nexpectednviewof the patriarchalatureof Taiwanese ociety,inwhich sons bear the primaryresponsibility orcontinuation f the family line. As notedearlier,married ons in Taiwanareexpectedto live withand supporttheir parentsin old age, whereasdaughters'ormalobligationso theirownparentsgenerallyterminateat marriage.These expecta-tions are manifestedn the estimatesderived romthe multivariatemodels of support provision:Married ons are more ikelythanunmarriedons

197


16/18

Journal of Marriage and Familyto provide upporto theirparents,but the reverseis truefor daughters.Thus the culture n Taiwa-nese society generatesa very differentpattern fsupportprovision rom thatfound in Western o-cieties where the rulesof reciprocity ndnegoti-ationgenerallydominate ocial interaction.Our studyhas several limitations.One short-comingis that becauseof a lack of informationandthe potentialcomplexityof the analysis,thestatisticalmodels do not accountfor currentorprevioussupport haredamong siblingsor multi-ple formsof supportgiven at one time. An addi-tional imitations that nformationegardinghil-dren'sprovisionof support s obtained romtheparent.Parentsmay recalltheirinteractionswithsome childrenbetter than those with other chil-dren.Anotherdrawbacks our nability o identifycouplesand hence spousesof the adult children.Our results based on a sampleof families withonly one marriedson and one daughter-in-lawstrongly suggest that married ons are typicallyresponsibleor different ypesof supporthanaretheirwives. Thus f we were able to identifycou-ples we mightfindstronger upportor a divisionof assistancebased on genderideology.A fourthlimitation s our inabilityto identify grandchil-dren,a constraint hatpreventsus fromviewinggrandchildrens a competingresponsibilityhatmay reducethe flow of support romadultchil-dren o parents.An additional onstraints the ab-senceof detailed nformation boutchildren's m-ployment, such as the flexibility of the workschedule,whichwouldalso permitus to explorethe competing ommitmentxplanationmore ful-ly. Finally,we haveonly one indirectmeasureofchildren'snegotiationpower; hat s, theirrelativeeducational ttainment. dditionalmeasures, uchas children's ncome and social networks,mightprovidea stronger est of the externalresourcesexplanation.Nevertheless, his study providestwo impor-tantinsightsfor aging research n Taiwan.First,researchersneed to be cautious aboutadoptingtheoriesdeveloped n Western ocietiesin under-standingAsian ones. Second,researchbased on asingle parent-child yadcannotrepresent com-prehensivepictureof intergenerationalupport.nparticular,hisapproachs inappropriateorstudy-ing Asianfamilies,whichuntilvery recentlyhavebeen considerablyarger han Westernones, andfor analyzing ypes of support hat typicallyin-volve multiplechildren.The findingsof this study affect both futureresearchand the formulation f social policy in

Taiwan. Future research on intergenerationaltransfersneeds to examinehow siblingswithin afamily organizethemselvesregarding he provi-sion of supporto olderparents,payingattentionto thesubstitutabilityndcomplementarityf sup-portfrom sons anddaughters.Findings romthisstudyunderscoreheimportancef including hil-dren'sspouses,especiallydaughters-in-law,n theanalysis and of distinguishingamong differenttypesof support.Therapiddemographichanges hathave tak-en placein Taiwan ver thepastfew decades,par-ticularlydeclines n fertilityandhighratesof out-migrationby youngergenerations, re increasingthe likelihood hattoday'sparentswill live aloneor have only one childpresentduring heirolderyears. In responseto populationaging and de-clines in coresidence, t is criticalfor the Taiwa-nese governmento providea stronger afetynetfor older adults.The recentexperienceof the so-cial security systemin Japan,however,suggeststhat a stronger afetynet may placeconsiderablefinancialpressureon the government Ogawa&Retherford,1997). Thus it behooves researchersandpolicy makersalike to evaluate he extent towhich theprivatemarketand thegovernmentansubstitute amily networks n providing he req-uisite support or the olderpopulationn comingyears.

NOTEAn earlier version of the paper was presented at thePopulation Association of America 2000 Annual Meet-ings, Los Angeles, CA. We gratefully acknowledge thesupport of the Behavioral and Social Research Programof the National Institute on Aging under grants R01-AG16661 and R01-AG16790; the Graduate School ofArts and Sciences, Georgetown University; and theChiang Ching-Kuo Foundation. Computing supportcame from the Office of Population Research at Prince-ton University, which receives core support from theNational Institute of Child Health and Human Devel-opment (P30-HD32030). We thankJennifer C. Cornmanand German Rodriguez for their helpful advice andcomments.

REFERENCESBerk, R. A. (1991). Toward a methodology for meremortals. In P. V. Marsden (Ed.), Sociological meth-odology (Vol. 21, pp. 315-324). Washington, DC:American Sociological Association.Cantor, M. (1975). Life space and the social supportsystem of the inner city elderly of New York. TheGerontologist, 15, 23-27.Chang, M.-C. (1999). A longitudinal study on livingarrangements of the elderly in Taiwan. In C. Chen,A. I. Hermalin, S.-C. Hu, & J. P Smith (Eds.),

198


17/18


Emerging social economic welfare programs for ag-ing in Taiwan in a world context (pp. 43-64). Taipei,Taiwan: nstitute f Economics,AcademiaSinica.Chattopadhyay,., &Marsh,R. (1999).Changesn liv-ing arrangementnd familialsupportor the elderlyin Taiwan: 1963-1991. Journal of Comparative Fam-ily Studies, 30, 523-537.Checkovich,T, & Stem, S. (2002). Sharedcaregivingresponsibilities f adultsiblingswithelderlyparents.Journal of Human Resources, 37, 441-478.Cox, D., & Rank,M. R. (1992). Inter-vivos ransfersand ntergenerationalxchange.ReviewofEconomicsand Statistics, 74, 305-314.Finley,N. J. (1989).Theoriesof family aboras appliedto genderdifferences n caregiving or elderly par-ents. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 51, 79-86.Gouldner,A. W. (1960). The normof reciprocity:Apreliminary statement. American Sociological Re-view, 25, 161-178.Greenhalgh, . (1985). Sexual stratification: he otherside of "growthwith equity"in East Asia. Popula-tion and Development Review, 11, 265-313.Hermalin,A. I.,Liu,P.K.C.,&Freedman, . S. (1994).The social and economic transformationf Taiwan.InA. Thornton& H.-S.Lin(Eds.),Socialchangeandthe family in Taiwan (pp. 49-87). Chicago: Univer-sity of ChicagoPress.Hermalin,A. I., Ofstedal,M. B., & Chang,M.-C.(1996).Typesof supportsor theagedand theirpro-viders n Taiwan. n T K. Hareven Ed.),Agingandgenerational relations over the life course: A histor-ical and cross-cultural perspective (pp. 400-437).New York:Walterde Gruyter.Hermalin,A. I., Ofstedal,M. B., & Chi,L. (1992).Kinavailability of the elderly in Taiwan: Who is availableand where are they? (Comparative Study of the El-derlyin Asia ResearchReportNo. 92-18). Ann Ar-bor,MI:Universityof Michigan.Hermalin,A. I., Ofstedal,M. B., & Lee, M.-L.(1992).Characteristics of children and intergenerationaltransfers Comparativetudyof the Elderly n AsiaResearchReportNo. 92-21). Ann Arbor,MI: Uni-versityof Michigan.Horowitz,A. (1985).Sons anddaughters s caregiversto olderparents:Differencesn roleperformancendconsequences. The Gerontologist, 25, 612-617.Johnson,C. L. (1983).Dyadic familyrelationsand so-cial support. The Gerontologist, 23, 377-383.Johnston, ., & DiNardo,J. (1997).Econometricmeth-ods. (4thed.). New York:McGraw-Hill.Kao,H.-F, & Stuifbergen,A. K. (1999).Family expe-riencesrelated o the decision to institutionalizenelderlymembern Taiwan:Anexploratory tudy.So-cial Science and Medicine, 49, 1115-1123.Lang,A. M., & Brody,E. M. (1983).Characteristicsfmiddle-aged aughters ndhelpto theirelderlymoth-ers. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 45, 193-202.Lee, Y.-J.,Parish,W.L., & Willis,R. J. (1994). Sons,daughters,and intergenerationalupport n Taiwan.American Journal of Sociology, 99, 1010-1041.Li, R. M. (1994). Aging trends-Taiwan. JournalofCross-Cultural Gerontology, 9, 389-402.Matthews,S. H., & Rosner,T T. (1988). Shared ilial

responsibility:The familyas the primarycaregiver.Journal of Marriage and the Family, 50, 185-195.Matthews, . H., Werkner,.E.,&Delaney,P.J.(1989).Relativecontributions f help by employedand no-nemployed isters o theirelderlyparents. ournalofGerontology, 44, S36-S44.Montgomery,R. J. V., & Kamo,Y. (1989).Parent areby sonsanddaughters.n J. A. Mancini Ed.),Agingparents and adult children (pp. 213-230). Lexington,MA:LexingtonBooks.Mosteller,F, & Tukey,J. W.(1977).Dataanalysisandregression: A second course in statistics. Reading.MA:Addison-Wesley.Ofstedal,M. B., Knodel,J., & Chayovan,N. (1999).Intergenerationalupportandgender:A comparisonof four Asian countries. Southeast Asian Journal ofSocial Science, 27, 21-42.Ogawa,N., & Retherford,R. D. (1997). Shiftingcostsof caringfor the elderlybackto families in Japan:Will it work? Population and Development Review,23, 59-94.PopulationReferenceBureau.2001).WorldPopulationData Sheet of the Population Reference Bureau.Washington,DC: Author.Ross,C. E. (1987).The division of laborat home. So-cial Forces, 65, 816-833.Shanas,E. (1979).Thefamilyas a socialsupport ystemin old age. The Gerontologist, 19, 169-174.Silverstein,M.,Parrott, M.,&Bengtson,V.L. (1995).Factors hatpredisposemiddle-agedons anddaugh-ters to providesocial supporto olderparents. our-nal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 465-475.

Spitze, G., & Logan,J. (1990). Sons, daughters, ndintergenerationalocialsupport. ournalof Marriageand the Family, 52, 420-430.StataCorp. (1999). Stata statistical software: Release6.0. CollegeStation,TX: StataCorporation.Stoller,E. P. (1983). Parental aregivingby adultchil-dren. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 45, 851-858.Sun,T-H., & Liu, Y.-H.(1994). Changes n intergen-erational elationsnthe Chinese amily:Taiwan's x-perience.In L.-J. Cho & M. Yada(Eds.),Traditionand change in the Asian family (pp. 319-361). Hon-olulu,Hawaii:TheEast-WestCenter.Sung,L.-S. (1981).Property ndfamilydivision.In M.Ahern & H. Gates (Eds.), The anthropology of Tai-wanesesociety (pp. 361-378). Stanford,CA: Stan-fordUniversityPress.TaiwanProvincial nstitute f FamilyPlanningand In-stitute of Gerontology, University of Michigan.(1989). 1989 survey of health and living status of theelderly in Taiwan: Questionnaire and survey design(Comparativetudyof the Elderly n Asia ResearchReportNo. 1). AnnArbor,MI:Universityof Michi-gan.Thibaut, . W.,& Kelley,H. H. (1959).Thesocialpsy-chology of groups. New York: Wiley.Weinstein,M., Sun,T.-H.,Chang,M.-C.,& Freedman,R. (1990).Household omposition, xtendedkinship,andreproductionn Taiwan:1965-1985. PopulationStudies, 44, 217-239.Weinstein,M., Sun, T-H., Chang,M.-C.,& Freedman,R. (1994).Co-residence ndother ies linking ouplesand theirparents. n A. Thornton& H.-S. Lin(Eds.),

199


18/18

Journal of Marriage and Family

Social change and the family in Taiwan (pp. 305-334). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Wolf, D. A., Freedman, V., & Soldo, B. J. (1997). Thedivision of family labor: Care for elderly parents.Journal of Gerontology: Social Science, 52B, 102-109.Wolf, D. A., & Soldo, B. J. (1988). Household com-

position choices of older unmarried women. Demog-raphy, 25, 387-403.Wolf, M. (1968). The house of Lim: A study of a Chi-nese farm family. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.Wolf, M. (1972). Women and the family in rural Tai-wan. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

UNITEDSTATES Statement of Ownership, Management, and CirculationK POSTALSERVICE- (Required by 39 USC 3685)2. Publcaton Number 3. F ng Ddte

Journal of Mariageand Family 0 0 2 2 | 2 4 4 54 issue Frequency S. Number of Is sues Publshed Annualy 6. Annua Subscrpt on PrceQuartery 4 4c .9l4C9 941p 4 9 9t ,9 6 49 qq.co7 Complete Maing Address o. Knownf ce of Publ cat on (Not prnter) (Street cty ounty, state and Zip+4) Contact PersonAllianceCommunicationsGroup. 10 East10thSt, Lawrence,KS66044-8897 Kimbo acksonTelephone

785-843-1235 ext. 2518. Complete Maing Address of Headquarters o r G en er al B us in es s O ff e o f P ub l ts he r (Not prnter)

Alliance Communications Group, 810 East 10th St., Lawrence, KS 66044-8897

9. F ul n am es and C om pi te Ma l ng Addresses of Publsher Editor and Manag.ng Editor (Do not eave blank)Publsher (Name and c om pl et e m ai n g a dd re ss )

National Council on Family Relations, 3989 Central Ave. NE, Ste. 550, Minneapolis, MN 55421

Editor (Name and complete mailing address)Alexis J. Walker, Human Development & Family Studies, 18 Milam Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-5102

fAi9h',oo TCA"'heekh '1 6$0F- lc. 1) 9999244;, 1.9o9Full Name Complete Mailing Address

3989 Central Ave NE. S te 550. Mnneapo ls , MN 55421NationalCouncilon FamilyRelations

1 Known ondholde, Mortgage s d ther Se y Hders Onngr1oding1 P rc en to Mo re of T oa A mo un or - o nd s. t og ag eS oOther ecurnties, none,check box None

Full Name Complete Mailing Address

12. Tax Status (For completon by nonpront organizat ons authorzed to ma I at specalates)(Checp one)The purpose functon, and nonprot s tatus o f th i s organiza ton and the exempt s tatus for federal income.tax purposes.] Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months

] HasChanged Dunng Preceding 12 Months Publis her must submit explanadon of change with this statement)PSFonn3526, Sepnber 1-tS (See -trttbs onRet) Conpudfied Facsimi

..71.. ..ul.catonof tatementot9 wnersip^ Et Publ cat on required. Wl l - --nte in - I_s otp17 Sgna-ure ano ie fEtor Prb inor u .in -ess Manager or -wner

cenlityhat l informaltonurni, 3 his orms rue nd omp{,te Iunderstandhat nyonewho urnishesalse r miseadmg nformlationn his ormorwhoomds ateral r informathonequesftedn he orm ay be ubDecto rimmalanctlionsincluding cti ilenantes)Instructions to Publishers1 . C om pl et e a nd f e o ne copy of this form with your postmaster annualy on or before October 1 Keep a copy of the completed form for

your records2 In Cases wherethe s tockho lder or securty ho lder i s a t -us tee incude in tems 10and 11 the name of the person orcorporaton for

whom th ttrustee is actng. Also incude the names and addresses of individuals who are stockholders who own or hold 1 percent orm or eo f t he total amount of bonds , mortgages, or o ther securtes o f t he publshing corporaton. In item 1 1, if none check the box Useblank sheets if more space is required.

3 Be s ur e t o furnish al crculaton informaton caled for in item 15. Free crcu la ton must be shown in items 15d, e and f4. Item 15h., Copies not Distnrbuted, must incude (1) newsstand copies orginal y stated on Form 3541, and returned to the publsher (2)

es tmated re turns from ne- agents, and (3) copies for of fce use l e ftovers, spoied , and a l o ther copies not distrbuted.5 If the publcaton had Perodicals author?zaton a a g en en al o r requester publcaton , thi s S tatement of Ownership, Management and

Circu la ton must be publshed: ft m us t b e prnted in any issue in O ct ob er o r if the publcaton is not pubfshed dunng October the f s tissue pnnted af ter October

6 . I n t em 1 6, i nd ic at e t he d at e of t he i ss ue in which th is Sta tement of Ownership wi be publshed7 Item 17must be signed.

F ai ur e t o fe or publsh a statement of ownership may lead to suspension of second-cass authoi-a-onPS Form 3526, September 1998(Reverse) Computezed Facsim e

200

13 Publ cat on Tit e 14 Issue Date for Circu la ton Data BeowJournal of Marrage and F am y August-02

15 Actual No. Copies of SingleAverage No. Copies Each IssueExtent and Nature of Circulation IssueDuring Preceding 12 Months Published Near est to Filing Datea T ot al N um be r o f C op ie s ( Ne t press run) 6325 6300

Paid/Requested Outside- County Mai Subscrpt ons(1 ) s tated on Form 3541 i nc u d e a dv er tf s e r s p ro of a nd 4841 4863exchangeopies)

(2) Paid In-County Subscrpt ons (Incude advertsersb Paidndor proofand e xc ha ng e c op ie s)Requestedcrou~-o.ircu- (3)on Safes Through Dealers and Camers, Street Vendors, 78 818CounterSales, and Other Non-USPS Paid Distribution( 4) O th er C la ss es M ai e d Through the USPS 0 0

c Total Paid and/or Requested Circulaton (Sum of 15b(I) (2)(3) and (4)) 5628 5681

d Free F (1) Outs ide -County as Stated on F or m 3 54 1 5 6Distnibuton () tby Mai

(Samplescompim2) In-County as Stated on Form 3541 O0entary, and otherfree) (3 ) Other Classes Maied Through the USPS 69 84

e F re e D is tr b u t on O ut si de t he M ai (Carrers or other means) 1 1f T ot al F re e Distrbuton (Sum of 15d and 15e) 75 91

g Tota l Distnbuton (Sum of 15c and 15t) 5702 5772h Copies not Dtrbuted 623 528I T ot al ( Su m o f 1 59 g. a nd h ) 6325 6300Percent Pa id and/or Requested Clrculaton

(1 Sc dividd by 15 tms00)987 98 4!15c allyida~by 15g.times 100! -.L

Documents

Taiwan Parent Support