Family and Population Changes in Singapore by Wei-Jun Jean Yeung & Shu Hu

Author:Wei-Jun Jean Yeung & Shu Hu [Yeung, Wei-Jun Jean & Hu, Shu]
Language: eng
Format: epub

6

Intergenerational support to and from older Singaporeans

Bina Gubhaju, Angelique Chan, and Truls Østbye

Introduction

Intergenerational support plays a key role in the well-being of older adults, especially in Asia where public old-age security, formal eldercare, and nursing home facilities are limited. High levels of intergenerational support have been reported in many Asian countries, particularly in the forms of monetary support and co-residence (Biddlecom, Chayovan and Ofstedal 2002; Ofstedal, Knodel and Chayovan 1999). While earlier studies of intergenerational support focused mainly on monetary support, later studies have emphasized the importance of other forms of support such as co-residence, instrumental help, and emotional support and advice. Furthermore, in the past decade, the notion that older persons not only are recipients of support but also play an important role in providing help to other family members prompted studies that have examined such bidirectional flows of support as well as reciprocity of such exchanges (Biddlecom et al. 2002; Chan 1997; Frankenberg, Lillard and Willis 2002; Grundy 2005; Ko and Hank 2013; Schroder-Butterfill 2004; Verbrugge and Chan 2008).

Previous studies have identified age, gender, marital status, number of living children, and health status as key determinants of both receipt and provision of support. However, inconsistent findings remain for gender patterns. While some earlier studies have suggested that older women are vulnerable to inadequate care and support systems, more recent studies have found that women are mostly recipients of support from family members, whereas men are the providers of support (Ofstedal, Reidy and Knodel 2004). Yet other studies posit that gender effects diminish after controlling for marital status (Friedman, Knodel, Cuong and Anh 2003). We add to this empirical debate by assessing the relationship of gender and marital status with receipt from and provision to elderly Singaporeans of four types of intergenerational support: monetary, material, emotional, and time. We are particularly interested in the effect of being female and single. Typically, “single” women are hypothesized to be mainly recipients of support. We test this hypothesis using cross-sectional data from the 2011 Panel on Health and Aging of Singaporean Elderly (PHASE) survey. The survey is a comprehensive source of data on both the receipt and provision of several complementary types of intergenerational support.

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