Resilience and adaptation to changing family support among older people in urban China

Abstract

In an ageing society undergoing socio-economic and political transitions since the economic reform in the late 1970s, old-age care in urban China has aroused increasing public concern. Attention has been focused on the viability of relying on the family as a source of old-age support even though the Confucian concepts of filial piety and intergenerational responsibility have put emphasis on the family as the key care provider for older people. To understand how older people use their resilience to cope with the fading family support, a qualitative study of 39 interviews with the older people and the expert informants was carried out in two urbanised Chinese cities, Beijing and Guangzhou. The findings illuminate the important dimensions of resilience that the older people have mobilised to face the life challenges and adversities arising from the changing family support. This includes their capacity to reconcile to the reality by making psychological adaptation, developing a sense of competence by making contribution to their children’s family, making use of external resources to re-organise their life routines to fill the gap left by the family and employing their ability to exercise choice in their living arrangement and prepare for future challenges. To a certain extent, the negative impact on their well-being has been mitigated by their growing financial independence and the influence of new values. Such factors motivate them to search for a life that they feel comfortable with, which has further enhanced their capacity to cope with life challenges. This research points to the necessity of promoting services and networks at different levels to support them in the community, with particular attention to their home-care needs so that they can maintain a later life of dignity when they lose their self-care abilities.