Subjective Well-being of Chinese Elderly - Population ... Well-being of Chinese Elderly: A...

Subjective Well-being of Chinese Elderly:

A Comparative Analysis among Urban China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan

Jia Miao, PhD Candidate Center for Applied Social and Economic Research, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

[email protected]

Xiaogang Wu, Professor Center for Applied Social and Economic Research, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

[email protected]

University of Michigan Population Studies Center Research Report 16-868 August 2016

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the “Ageing in the Asia Pacific” Research Symposium, University of New South Wales, Australia, 27-29 September, 2015. The research was supported by the General Research Fund (646411) from the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong. The HKPSSD data collection was conducted by the Center for Applied Social and Economic Research (CASER) at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), with funding support from the RGC Central Policy Unit’s Strategic Public Policy Research Scheme (HKUST6001-SPPR-08). Direct all correspondence to Jia Miao (email address: [email protected]) or Xiaogang Wu ([email protected]), Center for Applied Social and Economic Research (CASER), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR.

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Subjective Well-being of Chinese Elderly: A Comparative Analysis among Urban China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan 2

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the relative importance of living arrangement and social participation for

the elderly’s subjective well-being (happiness) in three Chinese societies (Hong Kong, urban

China and Taiwan) with different levels of development. Based on comparable survey data, we

find that co-residence with children is less closely associated with the elderly’s psychological

well-being in the more developed society. The elderly in Hong Kong who live independently

with a spouse are in a significantly better emotional state than those living with adult children

and grandchildren. Social participation has a greater positive effect on subjective well-being

among the aged in Hong Kong than among those in urban China and Taiwan. Furthermore,

elderly women may benefit more from independent living and social engagement than their male

counterparts. These findings suggest that encouraging social participation among the elderly may

be an effective way to enhance their well-being and achieve active aging.


1. IntroductionLongevity is one of humanity’s greatest triumphs, but population aging is in fact one of its

greatest challenges, and this is true both economically and socially and in all countries. This

challenge is particularly severe for Chinese societies (mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan),

which together host one fifth of the world’s elderly population (The World Bank, 2015).1

Improving the quality of life and subjective well-being of elderly Chinese population will

contribute to the international community by enriching our knowledge about sustainable and

cost-effective aging policy.

The subjective well-being of the elderly is vulnerable to declines in economic and social

support because aging is often associated with a shrinking social network, reduced income and

deteriorating health. To ensure the psychological health of old people, it is crucial to strength

their social support system. Among the various types of social support network, living

arrangement and social participation have received intensive attention (Brehm and Rahn 1997;

Hermalin and Yang 2004; Hsu et al., 2015; Kawachi and Berkman 2001; Li et al., 2009; Ren and

Treiman 2015; Wallace and Pichler 2009; Yip 2007). Living arrangement is considered as a form

of fundamental, individual-level social capital through which family members gain instrumental

and emotional support from each other. Social participation generates social capital at the

aggregate level through which individuals diversify their social connection and develop a sense

of value and attachment. Thus, social participation offers meaningful psychological support

beyond the family network (Berkman 2000; Yamaoka 2008).

In empirical studies, however, the impacts of co-residence and social participation are

less than clear. A considerable number of studies have revealed that living with immediate

family members brings emotional benefits (e.g. Chen and Short 2008; Ren and Treiman 2015).

Yet other studies have found that it may also damage an individual’s subjective well-being, as

tensions and conflicts may arise when family members live together (e.g. Rook 1984; Rook and

Pietromonaco 1987). The positive association between social participation and happiness has

been documented extensively in western countries (Gundelach and Kreiner 2004; Helliwell and

Putnam 2004), but the relationship is less frequently observed in Asian societies (Yamaoka 2008;

Yip 2007). Social and cultural norms that influence an individual’s expectation may explain the

mixed results (Chen and Short 2008; Yamaoka 2008). In a kinship-dominated traditional society,

1 One in every five people aged 65 and over lived in a Chinese society by 2014.


the elderly would expect to live with and be taken care of by their children (Logan and Bian

1998, 1999), failing which they would feel less than happy. On the contrary, a modernized

society puts a major emphasis on individualism, independence, social life and self-fulfillment.

Since participating in various social activities is an essential way to fulfill these cultural

expectation, social participation may be a deciding factor for subjective well-being (Thorton et al,

1984; Helliwell and Putnam 2004). The extant literature seems to suggest that, as a society

moves forward on a traditional-modern continuum, the elderly may benefit more psychologically

from social participation, and less from living with children.

In this study, we test this conjecture by comparing urban China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In contrast to previous studies of cross-country comparison, the three Chinese societies in this

study obviously share similar cultural characteristics. Such a comparison can provide more solid

evidence to examine how the determinants of the elderly’s subjective well-being evolve with

socioeconomic development because we can control for unobserved social and cultural

heterogeneity to a great extent. We test the hypothesis by addressing two inter-related research

questions: (1) do emotional benefits associated with co-residence with children decline as

societies become more developed? And (2) does social participation have a greater effect on

psychological well-being in a more developed society?

To the best of our knowledge, there has not been such a comparison among three Chinese

societies, mostly because high-quality, population-based survey data were not available

(especially in Hong Kong). In this research, we use data from the Hong Kong Panel Study of

Social Dynamics (HKPSSD), a comparable data recently collected in mainland China, China

Family Panel Studies (CFPS), and a representative data collected in Taiwan, the Taiwan Social

Change Survey (TSCS). These datasets enable us to draw a comprehensive picture of the living

conditions and quality of life of elderly Chinese. Furthermore, this comparative study provides a

unique opportunity to test hypotheses about social development and the determinants of

subjective well-being. The results in turn help us understand the mixed findings reported in

previous studies. From a public policy standpoint, the experiences of Hong Kong and Taiwan

provide useful information for policy makers of mainland China to foresee how the factors

influencing the elderly’s well-being would change if the country’s current economic

development continues. The findings offer a basis for making forward-looking, culturally-

appropriate policy choices.


2. Background: Rapid Population Aging and Changes in Family Norms

Chinese societies are ageing and they will do so increasingly rapidly in the near future. Hong

Kong, the first maturely industrialized Chinese society, had already grown into an aging society

back in the mid-1980s.2 Taiwan joined the ranks 10 years later. Mainland China, with a

population exceeding 1.2 billion, formally became “aged” in the year 2000 (World Bank 2015).

The main concern is that its socioeconomic development has not kept pace with the rapid speed

of population aging (as shown in Figure 1). By 2015, the elderly will make up 9.1 percent, 14.5

percent and 12 percent of the total population in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan,

respectively. The percentages are projected to double in the coming 15 to 20 years. By 2035, all

three societies will become “super-aged societies”, in which one in five citizens will be a person

aged 65-plus (Chen 2006; Taiwan National Development Council 2014; Hong Kong Census and

Statistics Department 2012). A super-aged society is economically unsustainable without solid

governmental plans made well in advance to cumulate sufficient resources, including financial

flows, technology innovation, and governance experience (Muramatsu and Akiyama 2011).

Data sources: Chen 2006; Taiwan National Development Council 2014; Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, 2012

2 According to the widely used definition, a community becomes an “aging society” when more than 7 percent of its population are aged 65 and over.

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

1995 2000 2005 2010 2014 2015 2020 2025 2030 2035

GD

P pe

r ca

pita

(US$

)

Popu

latio

n ag

es 6

5+ %

Figure 1. Aging population and GDP: Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan

Mainland (Right) Hong Kong (Right) Taiwan (Right)Mainland (Left) Hong Kong (Left) Taiwan (Left)

Projection Actual


Rapid aging in Chinese societies has been accompanied by a substantial change in family

values. For centuries, the ideal Chinese family is a patriarchal extended family. An adult child,

usually the eldest son is obligated to live with his parents and take care of them, even after

getting married and having children of his own (Whyte 2005; Silverstein and Cong, 2006). This

tradition stems from Confucian doctrines that emphasize children’s filial obligation to their

parents. Nowadays, however, declined preference toward co-residence may suggest that

traditional family norms have changed (Logan and Bian 1999).

This change in family norms is taking place in the three Chinese societies at different

paces. Hong Kong seems to be the least bound by traditional norms among the three societies.

Yip and Forrest (2014) find that 40 percent of the young people in Hong Kong think that living

with their parents has nothing to do with filial piety; 65 percent of them said that they would

move out of their parents’ home as soon as they can afford to live independently. On the contrary,

the younger generation in Taiwan is most likely to adhere to filial piety with 61 percent of them

believing that children should continue to live with their parents after getting married; 55 percent

of younger Taiwanese insisted that a married couple should live with the husband’s parents

(calculated from Taiwan Social Change Survey 2011-2012). Mainland Chinese may be more

conservative than Hong Kong people but less traditional than Taiwanese. Fifty-four percent of

mainland China’s senior residents reported that they would prefer to live with their adult children

(calculated from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2011). Why do the three

Chinese societies differ in the extent to which they are preserving traditional values? The answer

is believed to be related to the divergent economic and political paths that they have taken in the

past century (Davis-Friedmann 1991; Logan and Bian 1999; Wong 1975).

As a British colony for one and a half centuries, Hong Kong is the most modernized

Chinese society due to its colonial history and long-term exposure to industrialization and

internationalization. Western institution and culture brought new values and norms into Hong

Kong people’s daily life giving way to a unique mix of Eastern and Western cultures. Moreover,

Hong Kong took a fast track to industrialization in the 1950-60’s, much earlier than did mainland

China and Taiwan. The Communist regime’s rise to power led a great wave of capitalists and

refugees to migrate to Hong Kong. These people brought along with them capital, technical skills


and labor forces essential for industrial development. Industrialization disrupted the traditional

family norms by putting an emphasis on new values, such as individual achievement, economic

independence and social and geographical mobility. As a result, the nuclear family, consisting of

a married couple with or without unmarried children, became the most prevalent family structure

in Hong Kong even before the 1960’s (Wong 1975).3 Hong Kong continued to develop rapidly

economically thanks to its unique geographical position and practice of laissez-faire capitalism.

The city eventually emerged as a highly modernized industrial-commercial center in Asia in the

1990’s and has become the most modernized society among the three in this study.

Taiwan is similar to Hong Kong in terms of its colonial history and economic miracles

back in the 1970’s. However, Taiwan may have preserved more traditional Chinese family

values than Hong Kong for several reasons. First, in its half a century of Japanese colonization,

Taiwan never did undergo an industrial revolution or internationalization. The colony was

regarded as an agricultural appendage to be developed as a complement to Japan. It was still an

agriculture-dominant society in 1945 when the Nationalist Party took power (Amsden 1979).

Second, Taiwan’s economic growth after the 1960’s relied heavily on export-oriented

industrialization which was facilitated by small- and medium-sized family enterprises. Supported

by the government, family firms emerged on a large scale and eventually made Taiwan one of

the “Four Little Dragons” in the 1970’s. These firms were organized along lines of the

patriarchal extended family and adopted collectivist ethics. They were competitive in the market

because of their flexibility and specialization, because of underpaid labor resources and because

employees worked tirelessly for the long-term benefit of the family (Greenhalgh 1994). The

family firm served as an important place to practice and preserve traditional family values, which

were legitimized through economic success. Nowadays, family businesses account for more than

70 percent of Taiwanese enterprises (Chinese Family Business Global 2013), much higher than

the average in Asia (Claessens et al., 2000).

Industrialization and economic growth in mainland China influenced traditional family

values in a way similar to that in Taiwan, especially after its economic reform and opening up to

the world in the late 1970’s. The greatest difference may lie in the fact that political campaigns in

3 The Hong Kong 1960 Pilot Census showed that the nuclear family accounted for 73.5 percent of all the families in the city.


the 1950-70’s have undermined the influence of traditional family norms in mainland China.

After 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) considered patriarchy family norms backward

and feudalistic and tried to eliminate them from new socialist China. The CCP adopted a variety

of measures to reduce parental authority, and to promote egalitarianism between parents and

children and between wife and husband. For instance, it implemented a new marriage law

banning parents from intervening with children’s marriage. It also offered young people jobs in

state sectors or the military to increase their independence. Campaigns on reforming family

norms reached the peak in the Cultural Revolution, in which young people were encouraged to

draw a clear line between themselves and parents from an undesirable political background, and

to criticize their parents who made mistakes. These measures profoundly decreased the impact of

traditional family norms (Davis-Friedmann 1991) and may have contributed to the greater

decline in traditional norms in mainland China than in Taiwan today.

3. Research Hypotheses: Living arrangement, Social Participation and Subjective Well-Being

In studies of the elderly’s subjective well-being, living arrangement and social participation have

received extensive attention. Living arrangement is associated with social capital at the

individual level, through which the elderly receive long-term emotional and instrumental support

from household members. Social participation generates essential social capital at the aggregate

level. It offers meaningful social roles and broad social support which are particularly crucial for

old people who have withdrawn from labor markets. The impacts of co-residence and social

engagement on emotional health vary across countries. This may be attributed to normative

attitudes toward family responsibility related to socioeconomic development (Chen and Short

2008, Logan et al., 1999). In a traditional family-dominated society, nearly all the needs of an

individual are fulfilled within the family. The process of modernization, however, involves de-

functionalization of the family. In a modern society, human needs (education, social support and

interaction) are primarily satisfied through the larger community (Cowgill and Holmes 1972;

Gundelach and Kreiner 2004). Social development theory suggests that the elderly may rely less

on resources and aids offered by family members as a society modernizes. Instead, social

engagement may play a bigger role in their life.


3.1 Living arrangement Living arrangement has mixed effects on the elderly’s subjective well-being. What has been

firmly established is that presence of a spouse is a desirable condition. Marriage may increase

economic resources and offer a wide range of support necessary for active aging (Waite and

Gallagher 2000). Outside of marriage, the empirical results are largely inconclusive, even in

regard to the impact of living alone. Conceptually, the elderly living alone are more likely to

experience social isolation which could damage their psychological well-being (Wang et al. 2014;

Sun et al. 2011). The situation becomes even worse when the old person is widowed (Li et al.

2005). This pattern is relatively clear in societies where co-residence with adult children is the

norm. For instance, multiple studies on mainland China and Taiwan reveal that the elderly living

alone possess a lower level of subjective well-being than those living with others (Chen and

Short 2008; Wang et al. 2001). Nevertheless, several studies in western countries suggest that the

elderly living alone are not disadvantaged in mental and physical health compared to those living

with other family members (Iliffe et al. 1992; Davis et al. 1997).

The most intriguing mixed results concern the relative benefits of co-residence with adult

children versus living with a spouse independently. Although living with adult children increases

the likelihood of receiving instrumental and emotional support from these children, frictions in

family life and lack of privacy may diminish the elderly’s subjective well-being (Ren and

Treiman 2015). Research in western countries shows that co-residence with children does not

promote, or could even be detrimental to, elderly parents’ mental health, except in the time of

crisis (De Jong Gierveld and Van Tilburg 1999; Silverstein and Bengtson 1994). Traditionally in

a Chinese society, co-residence with children is thought to promote the elderly’s psychological

well-being. However, this may not be the case nowadays in mainland China. Chen and Short

(2008) and Wang et al. (2014) reveal that presence of adult children does not bring extra benefits

to the oldest old (aged 80 and over). Ren and Treiman (2015) extended the sample to all elderly

aged 60 and above and found that old people living with children even reported a lower level of

happiness and less life satisfaction than those living independently with their spouse. Our

knowledge about what the situation is in Hong Kong and Taiwan is limited. The existing studies

may imply that at least for the elderly in mainland China, social and economic development has

reduced the importance of co-residence with children for maintaining their emotional well-being.


What is also unclear is whether or not living with grandchildren enhances or reduces the

elderly’s psychological well-being. Studies in the US frequently report negative consequences.

Grandparenting in the US is often triggered by involuntary events or crises in the parental

generation, such as financial constraints, incarceration and substance abuse. It is more likely to

be undertaken out of need than desire and leads to diminished emotional well-being (Baker and

Siliverstein 2012). On the contrary, studies in mainland China have shown grandparenting to be

beneficial to the elderly. The elderly living with grandchildren, with or without the parental

generation, enjoy enhanced emotional well-being. The presence of grandchildren even

compensates for the negative impact of living simultaneously with their adult children (Ren and

Treiman 2015; Silverstein et al. 2006). These benefits may be attributed to the traditional values

of the Chinese family. In the traditional Chinese society, household members put an emphasis on

collective family goals over individual goals, and make their own contribution within a cultural

system of filial piety. Grandparenting may optimize labor division within the family by easing

the burden of the younger generation. By living with and taking care of grandchildren, the

elderly gain self-worth and respect from others (Silverstein et al. 2006). In addition,

grandchildren indicate prosperity and extension of a family. Thus living with grandchildren is

associated with great joy for old people (Chen et al., 2011; Chu et al., 2011).

Based on the above analysis, we derive our first research hypothesis as follows:

H1. As a society becomes more socioeconomically developed, co-residence with younger generations plays a less important role in promoting the elderly’s subjective well-being.

H1a. The elderly living independently with a spouse enjoy greater subjective well-being than those co-resident with their adult children, and this is more likely to be the case for the elderly in Hong Kong than for those in mainland China and Taiwan.

H1b. The presence of grandchildren is less likely to benefit the elderly’s subjective well-being in Hong Kong than in mainland China and Taiwan.

3.2 Social participation From the perspective of socioeconomic development, when people and societies become richer

and more modernized, people’ needs shift from the lower order ones (biological and safety-

related needs) to the higher order ones (self-esteem and self-fulfillment). They will feel happy

only when their higher order needs are satisfied (Sirgy 1986, Hagerty 1999; Lane 2000, Easterlin


2001). Social participation is an important way to satisfy one’s higher order needs. By joining

social organizations and participating in social activities, individuals gain a sense of value,

belonging, and attachment (Berkman et al, 2000). It is predicted that independence and social

participation are more closely related to a person’s subjective well-being in more developed

societies.

Social participation may affect subjective well-being through two processes. The first one

is a social process. Participating in social organizations may diversify and broaden one’s social

networks, through which people share information, provide and receive support, and work

together to achieve collective goals that could not be accomplished by one individual (Nahapiet

and Ghoshal 1998; Portes 2000). Besides social connections, social participation may provide

friendship and more affective ties, which are increasingly important in an atomized modern

world (Wallace and Pichler 2014). The other process is a psychological one. Taking part in

various social groups may create or reinforce meaningful social roles, such as occupational and

community roles, which in turn provides a sense of value and attachment, and promotes self-

esteem and self-worth (Berkman et al, 2000). These positive psychological resources can

improve subjective well-being by enhancing the ease with which people adapt to stressful life

events, promoting positive affect and preventing depression (Cohen, 2004). Social participation

is particularly important for the elderly who have left the labor market as it may serve as a

substitute activity and compensate for their lost social roles.

In western countries, the positive relationship between social participation and the

elderly’s subjective well-being has been well established (Kawachi et al., 1999). For example,

researchers have found that being a part of social organizations increases happiness among the

elderly in the U.S. and European countries (Veenstra 2000; Wallace and Pichler 2009). In Russia

declining social engagement and cohesion was correlated with increased mortality after the fall

of the Soviet Union (Kennedy et al. 1998). Yet the beneficial effect of social participation is

seldom observed in Chinese societies. Yamaoka (2008) find no association between social

participation and subjective well-being in the general population in East Asian societies,

including Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan. However, his analysis pooled all regions

together and reported only the mean effect of social participation. It is highly possible that

negative effects in some societies canceled out the positive influences in others. Yip and her

colleague found (2007) no statistical association between social participation and subjective


well-being in rural China. They used a sample from three counties in Shandong Province, so it is

not clear whether their findings would hold for mainland China in general.

Based on the above studies of human development, modernization and social engagement,

we derive our second research hypothesis:

H2. Social participation has greater impacts on the elderly’s subjective well-being in Hong Kong than in urban China and Taiwan.

4. Data, Measures, and Method

4.1 Data Our sample consists of Chinese aged 60 and above and is drawn from the 2010 wave of the

China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in mainland China (Xie and Hu 2014), the 2011 wave of the

Hong Kong Panel Study of Social Dynamics (HKPSSD) and the 2010 wave of the Taiwan Social

Change Survey (TSCS). The CFPS is a nationally representative longitudinal survey. Using a

multistage sampling method, it collects extensive information on the demographic,

socioeconomic and health status of individuals and families (see details in Xie and Hu 2014).

The HKPSSD is the first household panel survey in Hong Kong. Like the CFPS, it generates a

representative sample of Hong Kong households, and collects a wide range of information on

household and individual characteristics (Wu 2016). The TSCS is a long-term, cross-sectional

survey project that has been following five-year cycles since 1985. It aims to track social

changes in Taiwan by providing data on various topics covering family lives, economic activities,

and social behaviors (Chang and Fu 2004). The data used in this study come from the Health and

Risk Society questionnaire modules of the sixth (2010) wave of the TSCS. To facilitate

comparison between the three societies, we restricted our sample to urban residents in mainland

China and Taiwan. After removing any observations with missing information for any variables,

the sample size for analysis is 3,118 for urban China, 1,515 for Hong Kong and 799 for Taiwan.

4.2 Measurement and method The dependent variable, subjective well-being, is measured by happiness in this study. This

measurement is both valid and comparable. On the one hand, it is well documented that

happiness, though not perfectly, does reflect respondents’ feelings of well-being and capture a

substantial amount of variance. On the other hand, researchers have shown that the factors that


normally determine how happy people feel, such as making a living, family life and health, are

similar across societies. Hence, answers to happiness question are comparable, although the

question does leave everyone free to define his/her own well-being (Esterlin 2001; Gundelach

and Kreiner 2004). We measured happiness with a dichotomous variable which equals 1 if the

respondent reported “very happy” and “happy” on a five-point scale (the CFPS and version A of

the TSCS) or “extremely happy”, “very happy” and “happy” on a seven-point scale (the

HKPSSD and version B of the TSCS).

We classify the living arrangement into five categories:4 living alone, living

independently with a spouse,5 living with children (two-generation family), and living with

children and grandchildren (three-generation family).6 Social participation is measured by a

dummy variable which equals 1 if the respondent participated in any type of organization, such

as fraternity groups, service clubs, political clubs, labor unions, religious groups, sports groups,

literary, art, discussion, or study groups, and hobby clubs. To capture effects of socioeconomic

status, we included measurements of income, education (whether the respondent had completed

senior high school) and whether the respondent was still active in labor market. Because the

TSCS in Taiwan offers only categorical income, we calculated individual income by taking a

mean of each category.7 In addition, we control for a set of individual characteristics that were

found to affect subjective? well-being, living arrangement, and social participation

simultaneously, including age, gender, marital status and self-reported health.

We use binary logistic regression to estimate the effects of living arrangement and social

participation on well-being among elderly Chinese. We run separate regression models for each

society to investigate whether their impacts varied across societies at different levels of

modernization.

4 We treat “living with others” as missing value. It causes 106 cases deleted. 5 Less than 0.5% of the elderly lived with their spouse and their own parents/spouse’s parents in our sample. We classified these cases as “living independently with a spouse”. 6 Studies showed that a new form of household has emerged in Chinese societies, the “generation-skipping” household consisting of grandparent(s) and one or more non-adult grandchildren but no members of the middle generation. In our sample, the “generation-skipping” households make up 3.2%, 1.4% and 2.3% of all households in urban China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, respectively. We combine this type of household with “living with children and grandchildren” due to the small proportion. 7 To facilitate comparison, we also constructed four levels of individual income defined by the 25th, 50th, and 75th quartiles. The results are not significantly different from that of continuous income, thus we use continuous measurement for ease of interpretation.


5. Empirical Results5.1 Descriptive evidence

Table 1 provides a comparative profile of the elderly in the three Chinese societies. The aged in

Taiwan enjoy the highest level of happiness among the three groups with 83 percent of them

reporting they were happy. The percentage is 74 in urban China. Hong Kong is the most

modernized but nearly 40 percent of its elderly reported feeling unhappy. This is attributable to

the crowded housing, absence of universal pension and few social support for the elderly. The

result is in line with previous studies which reveal that economic prosperity does not necessarily

increase happiness because people would simply shift their concerns from basic survival needs

toward higher level needs such as political and interpersonal relationship problems as living

standard improves (Inglehart et al. 2008; Yang 2008).

In general, the elderly in Hong Kong live more independently than their counterparts in

urban China and Taiwan. Sixteen percent of the senior people in Hong Kong live alone. The

proportion is twice as high as that in urban China, and four times as high as that in Taiwan.

Extended families only account for 12 percent of all households in Hong Kong. This indicates

that young people tend to move out of their parents’ house when they have children. Forty-two

percent of the elderly in Hong Kong live with their adult children. The percentage is the highest

among the three societies. This may due to the fact that Hong Kong has the most expensive

housing in the world (Cox and Pavletich 2015). Many young people cannot afford to rent, let

alone buy, an apartment, and have no choice but to live with their parents even after they get

married. In addition, as is the case in other developed societies, late marriage and later

childbearing have become a common practice in Hong Kong. By 2014 the median age at first

marriage was 29.1 for women and 31.2 for men in Hong Kong. The median age of women at

first childbirth was 31.3 (Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, 2015). Thus, young

people have been postponing their plans to set up their own home.

The traditional multigenerational family is most prevalent in Taiwan, in which three

quarters of the elderly live in two- or three-generation families. This may be related to the

prosperity of family businesses. In the patriarchal tradition of Taiwan, sons take up the

proprietorship of the family business after the father retires. Therefore, it is unnecessary for

young people to find a job and housing elsewhere. The popularity of family businesses in Taiwan

also led to a high labor market participation and high income among the elderly. Approximately

one quarter of the elderly in Taiwan are still active in the labor market at the time of survey. Also,

their income is much higher than their counterparts in urban China and Hong Kong.


Table 1. Descriptive statistics of the elderly (60 +) in Urban China, Hong Kong and Taiwan Hong Kong Urban China Taiwan

Variable Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Happiness (1=happy) 0.609 0.736 0.829 Living arrangement Living alone 0.164 0.072 0.036 Living with spouse 0.300 0.364 0.201 Living with children 0.415 0.263 0.357 Living with children and grandchildren 0.122 0.302 0.399 Participation in social organizations (1=yes)

0.120 0.136 0.461

Demographic characteristics Male 0.492 0.499 0.487 Age 70.035 7.884 68.834 7.189 69.700 8.139 Oldest old (aged 80+) 0.141 0.924 0.167 Married (1=Yes, 0=widowed or others) 0.739 0.784 0.728

Socioeconomic status characteristics Senior high school and above (Yes=1) 0.356 0.354 0.438 Monthly income (in USD) 568.206 1162.336 89.703 183.284 962.023 1464.847 Active in labor market (1=Yes) 0.145 0.123 0.249

Health status Self-reported good health (1=yes) 0.457 0.318 0.504 N 1,515 3,118 799

The percentage of the elderly living in multigenerational households is nearly identical in

urban China and Hong Kong. The difference is that, the more than half of those in urban China

live in three-generation families, while the more than three quarters of those in Hong Kong live

in two-generation families. This may suggest that, compared with their counterparts in Hong

Kong, young people in urban China are more likely to move out of their parents’ house when the

get married or find a job. At the same time, they are also more likely to live with their parents

again for seeking assistance with childbearing when they have children (Chu et al. 2011).

The level of social participation is significantly higher in Taiwan than in urban China and

Hong Kong. Forty-five percent of the elderly in Taiwan are a member of at least one social

organization. This may be due to the fact that Taiwan has put great efforts into enhancing social

participation and community development since the 1990’s. The proportion of the elderly who

have joined social organizations is slightly higher in urban China than in Hong Kong.

Nonetheless, this does not necessarily indicate that the elderly in urban China have a more active

social life. Many of the social organizations in mainland China are in fact quasi-official in nature


rather than grass-roots, because of restrictive legislation on the registration of social

organizations. The majority of social organizations in urban China are linked to the state, and

they organize activities under the close supervision of various tiers of the government (Saich

2000). The elderly who have joined social organizations in Hong Kong and urban China may be

different in many aspects, such as frequency of participation, level of involvement and benefit

derived from the participation.

5.2 Living arrangement and subjective well-being

To better understand the association between living arrangement and subjective well-being, we

conducted binary logistic regression analysis. Table 2 shows that the association varies across the

three societies. In Hong Kong, the elderly attach more importance to independence than their

counterparts in the other two societies. They are happiest when they live independently with a

spouse. The odds of being happy reduces by 24 percent ( 270.01 −− e ) when they live with their

grown children. The negative effect is also observed in urban China, consistent with previous

studies. In Taiwan, however, there is no significant difference in the level of happiness between

the elderly living with their children and those living independently with a spouse. This may be

because Taiwan has preserved traditional family values to a greater extent than the other two

societies. Even though the Taiwanese’s preference for co-residence has been gradually declining

in recent decades because of increasing urbanization and migration (Chattopadhyay and Marsh

1999), many elderly people still prefer to live with their children. Our research hypothesis 1a is

thus supported.

We find that grand-parenting does not improve the elderly’s emotional state in Hong

Kong. All three generations under the same roof lowers the odds of feeling happy by 33 percent

( 396.01 −− e ) among the elderly in Hong Kong. In contrast, in urban China, although living with

adult children reduced the happiness of the elderly, the negative effects disappeared when there

is a grandchild in the household. Multiple generations living together is considered the greatest

source of joy for old people in the traditional Chinese society, and it is also an important way

through which they can continue to contribute to the collective family goals and gain self-worth.

The results suggest that in the less modernized urban China and Taiwan, the elderly are more

likely to derive emotional benefit from living with their grandchildren than in Hong Kong. Our

research hypothesis 1b is supported.


In addition, income was positively associated with subjective well-being only in urban

China. This finding appears to be in line with the theory that the effect of income on happiness

decreases as an economy develops (Easterlin 2001). Once an individual rises above a

“subsistence level”, the main source of increased well-being is no longer income but rather

companions such as friends and families (Lane 2000), and psychological enhancement such as

self-esteem and self-fulfillment (Sirgy 1986; Hagerty 1999).

5.3 Social participation and subjective well-being The impact of social engagement on the elderly’s subjective well-being also varied greatly across

the three societies. Table 3 shows its positive effect existed only in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Moreover, the size of the effect is greater in Hong Kong than that in Taiwan. Joining social

Table 2. Coefficients of binary logistic regression for happiness among elderly on living arrangement and socioeconomic status in Urban China, Hong Kong and Taiwan

Hong Kong Urban China Taiwan Living arrangement (Ref.=Living with spouse) Living alone -0.660** -0.345+ -0.394 (0.215) (0.202) (0.606) Living with children -0.270+ -0.257* -0.175 (0.139) (0.114) (0.287) Living with children and grandchildren -0.396* 0.017 0.086 (0.198) (0.109) (0.293) Male -0.252* -0.235** 0.154 (0.118) (0.088) (0.220) Age 0.007 0.032*** -0.011 (0.008) (0.007) (0.014) Married -0.009 0.315* -0.230 (0.174) (0.134) (0.265) Education (Senior high school and above=1) 0.221+ 0.214* 0.161 (0.119) (0.093) (0.208) Log income 0.006 0.035* 0.011 (0.016) (0.014) (0.025) Active in labor market (Yes=1) 0.107 -0.584*** -0.368 (0.184) (0.130) (0.256) Self-reported good health (Yes=1) 0.852*** 0.912*** 1.587*** (0.114) (0.100) (0.228) Constant -0.126 -1.609** 1.806

(0.648) (0.551) (1.130) Log likelihood -971.136 -1720.309 -333.927 LR Chi2 85.06 156.43 64.35 Observations 1,515 3,118 799

Notes: Standard errors in parentheses. *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05, +<0.1


organizations leads to a 1.38 and a 1.25 standard deviation increase in the odds of being happy in

Hong Kong and Taiwan, respectively. Our second research hypothesis arguing that social

participation plays a more important role in more modernized societies is supported.

Table 3. Coefficients of Binary Logistic Regression for Happiness among Elderly on Social Participation in Urban China, Hong Kong and Taiwan

Hong Kong Urban China Taiwan Living arrangement (Ref.=Living with spouse) Living alone -0.628** -0.342+ -0.441 (0.220) (0.200) (0.555) Living with children -0.247+ -0.253* -0.140 (0.140) (0.113) (0.291) Living with children and grandchildren -0.361+ 0.022 0.097 (0.195) (0.110) (0.295) Social Participation (1=Yes) 0.605*** 0.109 0.455* (0.183) (0.128) (0.215) Male -0.223+ -0.236** 0.098 (0.118) (0.089) (0.228) Age 0.008 0.032*** -0.006 (0.008) (0.007) (0.014) Married 0.020 0.315* -0.248 (0.175) (0.131) (0.261) Education (Senior high school and above=1) 0.183 0.204* 0.094 (0.120) (0.094) (0.221) Log income 0.003 0.035* 0.010 (0.016) (0.014) (0.026) Active in labor market (Yes=1) 0.133 -0.579*** -0.365 (0.184) (0.128) (0.261) Self-reported good health (Yes=1) 0.860*** 0.910*** 1.545*** (0.113) (0.100) (0.233) Constant -0.310 -1.606** 1.409

(0.644) (0.531) (1.110) Log likelihood -965.357 -1719.944 -331.652 LR Chi2 96.62 157.16 68.90 Observations 1,515 3,118 799

Notes: Standard errors in parentheses. *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05, + p<0.1.

We do not observe a significant effect of social engagement in urban China. This may be

due to the unique nature of social organizations in mainland China. The Chinese government has

adopted restrictive legislation on the registration of social organizations and it is difficult for

grass-roots, self-initiated organizations to gain legal status and autonomy. These social

organizations may be less effective in generating the social capital such as social support and

self-actualization that would improve subjective well-being.


5.4 Gender differences in subjective well-being

As we observed significant differences in the relationship between living arrangement, social

participation and happiness by gender, we proceeded to estimate binary logistic models for

elderly men and elderly women separately, as shown in Table 4. The findings suggest that,

generally, elderly women’s subjective well-being was more likely to be affected by co-residence

with children and social participation.

Table 4. Coefficients of Binary Logistic Regression for Happiness among Elderly on Selected Independent Variables in Urban China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, by Gender

Hong Kong Urban China Taiwan Male Female Male Female Male Female Living arrangement (Ref.=Living with spouse)

Living alone -0.737* -0.604* -0.382 -0.436 -1.182 -0.518 (0.336) (0.303) (0.318) (0.267) (0.934) (0.754) Living with children -0.233 -0.312 -0.120 -0.432* -0.022 -0.424 (0.193) (0.207) (0.154) (0.169) (0.382) (0.459) Living with children and grandchildren

-0.462 -0.305 0.138 -0.159 0.738+ -0.473

(0.296) (0.266) (0.147) (0.165) (0.429) (0.449) Social Participation (1=Yes) 0.556+ 0.670** 0.173 0.030 0.436 0.586+ (0.290) (0.238) (0.175) (0.188) (0.313) (0.311) Age -0.006 0.021+ 0.041*** 0.022* -0.016 -0.001 (0.012) (0.011) (0.010) (0.010) (0.021) (0.019) Married 0.002 0.075 0.385+ 0.197 -0.821 -0.218 (0.302) (0.221) (0.217) (0.171) (0.637) (0.303) Education (Senior high school and above=1)

0.125 0.267 0.230+ 0.180 0.015 0.082

(0.163) (0.181) (0.124) (0.146) (0.316) (0.327) Log income 0.001 0.005 0.017 0.055** 0.006 0.017 (0.024) (0.021) (0.019) (0.020) (0.044) (0.033) Active in labor market (Yes=1) -0.049 0.340 -0.393* -0.817*** -0.506 -0.217 (0.240) (0.306) (0.164) (0.205) (0.389) (0.374) Self-reported good health (Yes=1) 0.991*** 0.706*** 0.768*** 1.124*** 1.721*** 1.430*** (0.161) (0.161) (0.132) (0.156) (0.341) (0.323) Constant 0.520 -1.218 -2.537** -0.807 2.545 1.320

(0.986) (0.891) (0.777) (0.752) (1.783) (1.508) Log likelihood -472.428 -489.738 -872.484 -841.754 -144.375 -183.290 LR Chi2 59.76 42.62 73.86 93.79 42.36 32.41 Observations 746 769 1,556 1,562 389 410



In Table 4, two findings deserve particular attention. First, in urban China, the negative

effect of living with grown children is mainly driven by the adverse impact on elderly women.

Females are more likely to be the caregivers, and hence co-residence may place an extra burden

on them. In addition, females are more vulnerable to family quarrels. In Chinese societies,

married sons instead of married daughters are more likely to live with their parents (Xie and Zhu

2009). The relationship between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law is often a difficult

one in Chinese societies, and is believed to be an emotional challenge for both women. Second,

elderly women benefit more from social engagement than elderly men. Participating in social

organizations increased the odds of being happy by 95 percent and 85 percent for elderly women

in Hong Kong and Taiwan, respectively. It is possible that females are more capable of

generating positive returns from social activities than males. For instance, they are better at

sharing information and building affective ties.

5.5 Restricted sample

Urban China is characterized by vast regional disparities. To make the comparison more

convincing and to gain more rigorous results, we restrict our urban China sample to four

developed areas: Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangdong. We find that, as a community in

urban China becomes more developed, the factors affecting its old residents grow more similar

to those in Hong Kong. To be specific, co-residence with grown children brings more adverse

effects for the elderly in the four developed areas of urban China than for those in other areas of

urban China (as shown in Table 5). This particular living arrangement causes a 0.16 standard

deviation decrease in emotional well-being for the former, but a 0.12 standard deviation decline

for the latter. Besides, the coefficient of living with grandchildren becomes negative when we

focus on the four developed areas in mainland China, although it is insignificant. This may imply

that the benefits of grandparenting diminish as the mainland Chinese society modernizes. We

also find that income is no longer a significant determinant of happiness if an elderly lives in a

developed area of China. The results may suggest that the association between income and

happiness would weaken, and the importance of independence would strengthen in urban China

as its economy continues to develop.


Some have argued that the impacts of living arrangement and social participation may be

different for the younger old (aged 60-79) and the oldest old (aged 80 and above). We examine

the possible heterogeneous effects in Table 6. In general, the results are consistent with our

previous finding. However, the pattern is more evident among the younger old than among the

oldest old. For instance, the oldest old living with children do not report significantly worse

emotional well-being than those living independently with a spouse. This may be because they

are in poorer health and thus are more likely to require family assistance.

Table 5. Coefficients of Binary Logistic Regression for Happiness among Elderly on Selected Independent Variables in Developed Areas of Urban China, Urban China and Hong Kong

Urban China Developed areas of urban China

Hong Kong

Living arrangement (Ref.=Living with spouse)

Living alone -0.342+ -0.580+ -0.628** (0.200) (0.344) (0.220) Living with children -0.253* -0.322+ -0.247+ (0.113) (0.190) (0.140) Living with children and grandchildren

0.022 -0.138 -0.361+

(0.110) (0.196) (0.195) Social Participation (1=Yes) 0.109 0.039 0.605*** (0.128) (0.203) (0.183) Male -0.236** -0.292+ -0.223+ (0.089) (0.152) (0.118) Age 0.032*** 0.030** 0.008 (0.007) (0.011) (0.008) Married 0.315* 0.240 0.020 (0.131) (0.245) (0.175) Education (Senior high school and above=1)

0.204* 0.098 0.183

(0.094) (0.160) (0.120) Log income 0.035* 0.002 0.003 (0.014) (0.023) (0.016) Active in labor market (Yes=1) -0.579*** -0.547* 0.133 (0.128) (0.241) (0.184) Self-reported good health (Yes=1) 0.910*** 1.106*** 0.860*** (0.100) (0.186) (0.113) Constant -1.606** -1.099 -0.310

(0.531) (0.920) (0.644) Log likelihood -1719.944 -581.206 -965.357 LR Chi2 157.16 63.28 96.62 Observations 3,118 1,084 1,515



Table 6. Coefficients of Binary Logistic regression for happiness among elderly on selected independent variables in Urban China, Hong Kong and Taiwan: younger old (aged 60-79) vs. oldest old (aged 80+)

Hong Kong Urban China Taiwan Younger

old Oldest old Younger

old Oldest old Younger

old Oldest old

Living arrangement (Ref.=Living with spouse)

Living alone -0.559* -0.865 -0.496* 0.161 0.300 -4.239** (0.250) (0.536) (0.215) (0.631) (0.671) (1.457) Living with children -0.276+ -0.121 -0.312** 0.405 -0.243 0.608 (0.149) (0.444) (0.116) (0.485) (0.330) (0.794) Living with children and grandchildren

-0.380+ -0.242 0.004 0.201 -0.060 0.914

(0.210) (0.539) (0.110) (0.535) (0.336) (0.740) Social Participation (1=Yes) 0.686*** 0.182 0.116 0.255 0.365 1.254 (0.200) (0.472) (0.133) (0.443) (0.227) (0.788) Male -0.194 -0.244 -0.329*** 0.006 0.070 -0.254 (0.127) (0.327) (0.091) (0.324) (0.245) (0.615) Age 0.006 -0.014 0.053*** -0.080* 0.004 -0.045 (0.011) (0.039) (0.008) (0.040) (0.020) (0.084) Married 0.165 -0.518 0.259+ 0.087 0.029 -1.379+ (0.196) (0.444) (0.139) (0.440) (0.278) (0.762) Education (Senior high school and above=1)

0.180 0.245 0.285** 1.080* -0.070 1.255+

(0.127) (0.405) (0.094) (0.524) (0.245) (0.672) Log income 0.008 0.017 0.027+ 0.007 -0.008 0.098 (0.015) (0.050) (0.014) (0.048) (0.027) (0.089) Self-reported good health (Yes=1) 0.922*** 0.460 0.919*** 0.541 1.524*** 2.509** (0.121) (0.322) (0.102) (0.343) (0.251) (0.831) Constant -0.343 1.905 -2.947*** 7.330* 0.712 3.826

(0.816) (3.382) (0.622) (3.470) (1.484) (7.186) Log likelihood -821.467 -140.852 -1608.212 -152.329 -276.772 -46.327 LR Chi2 92.23 9.54 151.98 367.291 53.74 35.89 Observations 1,301 214 2,896 297 668 133


5 Discussion and Conclusion

In traditional societies, the family is a fundamental institution that enables individuals to age

happily and actively. Senior people receive financial, instrumental and emotional support from

the younger generations with whom they live. At the same time, they gain self-worth by

contributing to the household in multiple ways, such as coordinating daily life and work,

undertaking grandparenting duties and mediating disputes. However, profound social changes,

including emerging urbanization, migration and individualism, and declining fertility, have

gradually given rise to nuclearized families. How to maintain the elderly’s physical and


psychological health in a changing world poses a great challenge to both policy makers and

individual families.

A number of sociologists studying the determinants of psychological well-being are fairly

optimistic about the consequences of declining traditional family support. They claim that social

factors influencing emotional well-being do evolve with socioeconomic development. Although

the traditional sources of support for the elderly have inevitably dwindled amid development,

their happiness is not necessarily threatened because their expectation for family support may

also have changed (Chen and Short 2008; Yamaoka 2008). According to socioeconomic

development theory, the process inherent in social development is the transformation of a

kinship-dominated society to one that emphasizes individualism, independence, social life and

self-fulfillment. It is believed that the effect of social participation on subjective well-being

would surpass that of co-residence with children in a modernized and developed society. As a

result, facilitating social participation would serve as a new approach to promote active aging

(World Health Organization 2002).

Although theoretically appealing, this theory about subjective well-being has rarely been

tested empirically. In this study, we fill this knowledge gap by comparing urban China, Hong

Kong SAR and Taiwan. We provide more rigorous evidence than cross-national comparisons do

because similarities in cultural background and biological characteristics enable us to control for

unobserved heterogeneity to a large degree. Such comparison is not often done in existing

literature, mostly because representative, household-based data on Hong Kong were not

available in the past. Using data from the HKPSSD, we draw the first comprehensive picture of

elderly life in Chinese societies.

We find that living independently with a spouse is more likely to be considered as the

best living arrangement in a more modernized Chinese society (i.e. Hong Kong) than in

relatively more traditional ones (i.e. urban China and Taiwan). Also, social participation carries a

greater weight in determining the elderly’s subjective well-being in the former than in the latter.

Besides, the study suggests that elderly women may benefit more from independent living and

social participation. In a traditional multigenerational household, females are usually the

caregivers and responsible for domestic work. Those elderly women living with their daughter-

in-law may find themselves in frequent disputes. A reduced family size accompanied by


modernization may ease their physical burden and emotional pressure. In the meantime, social

participation may provide them with an important channel outside of the family to build affective

social ties, and to assume meaningful social roles. These factors may greatly enhance their

subjective well-being.

Our study is by no means implying that elderly Chinese refuse to be taken care of by their

children. Rather, our findings suggest that aging can be a positive experience. The majority of

the elderly in Chinese societies are self-reliant. For instance, less than 11 percent and 15 percent

of the elderly require assistance with daily activities in Hong Kong and urban China in our

sample, respectively (calculated from the HKPSSD and CFPS). The elderly are capable of taking

care of themselves, and can contribute their lifetime of experience and knowledge to the

community through active social participation. An active and productive life, in turn, may

improve their physical and psychological well-being.

Our analysis sheds new light on the implications of aging policies. First, creating more

opportunities for the elderly to engage with the society may be an effective and practical way to

improve their subjective well-being and quality of life in the context of modernization and

globalization. To achieve this goal, governments should develop comprehensive neighborhood

development programs, including life-long learning and peer-support projects, elderly-friendly

housing policies, and provision of health and care facilities. In addition, mainland China should

try to provide a more favorable legal environment for grass-roots organizations so that more

people, especially the elderly, would be interested in joining them. Second, aging policies should

be gender-specific. Women’s traditional role as caregivers may be contributing to their lower

independence and smaller social networks. Strategies aiming to enhance women’s social

participation are needed to improve their general well-being.


References

Amsden, Alice H. 1979. "Taiwan's Economic History: A Case of Etatisme and a Challenge to Dependency Theory." Modern China 5(3): 341-79.

Baker, Lindsey, and Merril Silverstein. 2012. "The Well-Being of Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren in China and the United States." In Contemporary Grandparenting: Changing Family Relationships in Global Contexts, edited by Sara Arber and Virpi Timonen, 51-70. Chicago: Policy Press.

Berkman, Lisa F., Thomas Glass, Ian Brissette, and Teresa E. Seeman. 2000. "From Social Integration to Health: Durkheim in the New Millennium." Social Science & Medicine 51(6): 843-57.

Brehm, John, and Wendy Rahn. 1997. "Individual-Level Evidence for the Causes and Consequences of Social Capital." American Journal of Political Science 41(3): 999-1023.

HKSAR Census and Statistics Department. 2012. Hong Kong Population Projections: 2012-2041. Hong Kong: Census and Statistics Department. http://www.statistics.gov.hk/pub/B1120015052012XXXXB0100.pdf.

HKSAR Census and Statistics Department. 2015. Women and Men in Hong Kong: Key Statistics. Hong Kong: Census and Statistics Department. http://www.statistics.gov.hk/pub/B11303032015AN15B0100.pdf.

Chattopadhyay, Arpita, and Robert Marsh. 1999. "Changes in Living Arrangement and Familial Support for the Elderly in Taiwan: 1963-1991." Journal of Comparative Family Studies 30(3): 523-37.

Chang, Ying-hwa, and Yang-chih Fu. 2004. "The Evolution of the Taiwan Social Change Surveys." Birth of JGSS and Its Fruit: Social Surveys in Different Countries and Areas and JGSS: 149-60. http://www.ios.sinica.edu.tw/ios/E/people/personal/yhchang/%E5%B0%88%E6%9B%B8/The%20Evolution%20of%20the%20Taiwan%20Social%20Change%20Surveys2004.pdf.

Chen, Feinian, Guangya Liu, and Christine A. Mair. 2011. "Intergenerational Ties in Context: Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren in China." Social Forces 90(2): 571-94.

Chen, Feinian, and Susan E Short. 2008. "Household Context and Subjective Well-Being among the Oldest Old in China." Journal of Family Issues 29(10): 1379-403.

Chen, Wei. 2006. "China Opulation Projections: 2005-2050." Population Research 30(4): 93-95.

Chinese Family Business Global. 2013. "Chinese Family Business Report ". http://cfbglobal.org/component/k2/item/86-2013-12-04-01-32-06.

China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. 2011. “2011 CHARLS Wave I (Baseline)” http://charls.ccer.edu.cn/en/page/documentation/2011_national_baseline.

Chu, Cyrus C.Y., Yu Xie, and Ruoh-rong Yu. 2011. "Coresidence with Elderly Parents: A Comparative Study of Southeast China and Taiwan." Journal of Marriage and Family 73(1): 120-35.

Claessens, Stijn, Simeon Djankov, and Larry HP Lang. 2000. "The Separation of Ownership and Control in East Asian Corporations." Journal of financial Economics 58(1): 81-112.

Cohen, Sheldon. 2004. "Social Relationships and Health." American Psychologist 59(8): 676-84.

Cowgill, Donald Olen, and Lowell Don Holmes. 1972. Aging and Modernization. New York: Appleton Century Crofts.Cox,

Wendell, and Hugh Pavletich. 2015. "12th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2016, Rating Middle-Income Housing Affordability." Demographia. http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf.

http://www.statistics.gov.hk/pub/B1120015052012XXXXB0100.pdf

http://www.statistics.gov.hk/pub/B11303032015AN15B0100.pdf

http://www.ios.sinica.edu.tw/ios/E/people/personal/yhchang/%E5%B0%88%E6%9B%B8/The%20Evolution%20of%20the%20Taiwan%20Social%20Change%20Surveys2004.pdf

http://www.ios.sinica.edu.tw/ios/E/people/personal/yhchang/%E5%B0%88%E6%9B%B8/The%20Evolution%20of%20the%20Taiwan%20Social%20Change%20Surveys2004.pdf

http://cfbglobal.org/component/k2/item/86-2013-12-04-01-32-06

http://charls.ccer.edu.cn/en/page/documentation/2011_national_baseline

http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf


Davis, Maradee A, Deborah J Moritz, John M Neuhaus, John D Barclay, and Lauren Gee. 1997."Living Arrangements, Changes in Living Arrangements, and Survival among Community Dwelling Older Adults." American Journal of Public Health 87(3): 371-77.

Davis-Friedmann, Deborah. 1991. Long Lives: Chinese Elderly and the Communist Revolution. California: Stanford University Press.

De Jong Gierveld, Jenny, and Theo Van Tilburg. 1999. "Living Arrangements of Older Adults in the Netherlands and Italy: Coresidence Values and Behaviour and Their Consequences for Loneliness." Journal of Cross-cultural Gerontology 14(1): 1-24.

Easterlin, Richard A. 2001. "Income and Happiness: Towards a Unified Theory." The Economic Journal 111(473): 465-84.

Friedkin, Noah E. 2004. "Social Cohesion." Annual Review of Sociology 30: 409-25.

Greenhalgh, Susan. 1994. "De-Orientalizing the Chinese Family Firm." American Ethnologist 21(4): 746-75.

Gundelach, Peter, and Svend Kreiner. 2004. "Happiness and Life Satisfaction in Advanced European Countries." Cross-Cultural Research 38(4): 359-86.

Hagerty, Michael R. 1999. "Testing Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: National Quality-of-Life across Time." Social indicators research 46(3): 249-71.

Hawe, Penelope, and Alan Shiell. 2000. "Social Capital and Health Promotion: A Review." Social Science & Medicine 51(6): 871-85.

Helliwell, John F, and Robert D Putnam. 2004. "The Social Context of Well-Being." Philosophical Transactions-Royal society of London Series B 359: 1435-46.

Hermalin, Albert I, and Li-Shou Yang. 2004. "Levels of Support from Children in Taiwan: Expectations Versus Reality, 1965–99." Population and Development Review 30(3): 417-48.

Iliffe, Steve, Sharon See Tai, Andrew Haines, Stephen Gallivan, Eva Goldenberg, Angela Booroff, and Paula Morgan. 1992. "Are elderly people living alone an at risk group?" BMJ 305:1001-1004.

Inglehart, Ronald, Roberto Foa, Christopher Peterson, and Christian Welzel. 2008. "Development, Freedom, and Rising Happiness: A Global Perspective (1981–2007)." Perspectives on Psychological Science 3(4): 264-85.

Kawachi, Ichiro, Bruce P Kennedy, and Roberta Glass. 1999. "Social Capital and Self-Rated Health: A Contextual Analysis." American Journal of Public Health 89(8): 1187-93.

Kennedy, Bruce P, Ichiro Kawachi, and Elizabeth Brainerd. 1998. "The Role of Social Capital in the Russian Mortality Crisis." World Development 26(11): 2029-43.

Lane, Robert E. 2000. "Diminishing Returns to Income, Companionship and Happiness." Journal of Happiness Studies 1(1): 103-19.

Li, Lydia, Jersey Liang, Amanda Toler, and Shengzu Gu. 2005. "Widowhood and Depressive Symptoms among Older Chinese: Do Gender and Source of Support Make a Difference?" Social Science & Medicine 60(3): 637-47.

Li, Lydia W., Jiaan Zhang, and Jersey Liang. 2009."Health among the Oldest-Old in China: Which Living Arrangements Make a Difference?" Social Science & Medicine 68(2): 220-27.

Logan, John R, Fuqin Bian, and Yanjie Bian. 1998. "Tradition and Change in the Urban Chinese Family: The Case of Living Arrangements." Social Forces 76(3): 851-82.

Logan, John R, and Fuqin Bian. 1999. "Family Values and Coresidence with Married Children in Urban China." Social Forces 77(4): 1253-82.


Muramatsu, Naoko, and Hiroko Akiyama. 2011. "Japan: Super-Aging Society Preparing for the Future." The Gerontologist 51(4): 425-32.

Nahapiet, Janine, and Sumantra Ghoshal. 1998. "Social Capital, Intellectual Capital, and the Organizational Advantage." Academy of Management Review 23(2): 242-66.

Portes, Alejandro. 2000. "Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology." In Knowledge and Social Capital: Foundations and Applications, edited by Eric L. Lesser, 43-67. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann

Ren, Qiang, and Donald J Treiman. 2015. "Living Arrangements of the Elderly in China and Consequences for Their Emotional Well-Being." Chinese Sociological Review 47(3): 255-86.

Rook, Karen S. 1984. "The Negative Side of Social Interaction: Impact on Psychological Well-Being." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 46(5): 1097-108

Rook, Karen S, and Paula Pietromonaco. 1987. "Close Relationships: Ties That Heal or Ties That Bind." Advances in Personal Relationships 1: 1-35.

Saich, Tony. 2000. "Negotiating the State: The Development of Social Organizations in China." The China Quarterly 161: 124-41.

Silverstein, Merril, and Vern L Bengtson. 1994. "Does Intergenerational Social Support Influence the Psychological Well-Being of Older Parents? The Contingencies of Declining Health and Widowhood." Social Science & Medicine 38(7): 943-57.

Silverstein, Merril, Zhen Cong, and Shuzhuo Li. 2006. "Intergenerational Transfers and Living Arrangements of Older People in Rural China: Consequences for Psychological Well-Being." The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 61(5): S256-S66.

Sirgy, M Joseph. 1986. "A Quality-of-Life Theory Derived from Maslow's Developmental Perspective: 'Quality' is Related to Progressive Satisfaction of a Hierarchy of Needs, Lower Order and Higher." American Journal of Economics and Sociology 45(3): 329-42.

Sun, Xiaojie, Henry Lucas, Qingyue Meng, and Yaoguang Zhang. 2011. "Associations between Living Arrangements and Health-Related Quality of Life of Urban Elderly People: A Study from China." Quality of life research 20(3): 359-69.

Taiwan National Development Council. 2014. Taiwan Population Projections: 2014-2060. Taipei: Department of Human Resources Development. http://www.ndc.gov.tw/en/cp.aspx?n=2E5DCB04C64512CC.

The World Bank. Accessed June 27, 2016. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.65UP.TO.ZS.

Thornton, Arland. "Modernization and Family Change." Paper presented at the Social Change and Family Policies: Proceedings of the 20th International CFR Seminar, 1984.

Veenstra, Gerry. 2000. "Social Capital, Ses and Health: An Individual-Level Analysis." Social Science & Medicine 50(5): 619-29.

Waite, Linda, and Maggie Gallagher. 2000. The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Healthier, Happier, and Better-Off Financially. Maryland: Broadway Books.

Wallace, Claire, and Florian Pichler. 2009. "More Participation, Happier Society? A Comparative Study of Civil Society and the Quality of Life." Social Indicators Research 93(2): 255-74.

Wang, Jinfeng, Tianyong Chen, and Buxin Han. 2014. "Does Co-Residence with Adult Children Associate with Better Psychological Well-Being among the Oldest Old in China?" Aging & Mental Health 18(2): 232-39.

http://www.ndc.gov.tw/en/cp.aspx?n=2E5DCB04C64512CC

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.65UP.TO.ZS


Wang, Jing-Jy, Mariah Snyder, and Merrie Kaas. 2001. "Stress, Loneliness, and Depression in Taiwanese Rural Community-Dwelling Elders." International Journal of Nursing Studies 38(3): 339-47.

Whyte, Martin King. 2005. "Continuity and Change in Urban Chinese Family Life." The China Journal 53: 9-33.

Wong, Fai-Ming. 1975. "Industrialization and Family Structure in Hong Kong." Journal of Marriage and Family 37(4): 985-1000.

World Health Organization. 2002. “Active Aging: A Policy Framework.” http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/67215/1/WHO_NMH_NPH_02.8.pdf.

Wu, Xiaogang. 2016. "Hong Kong Panel Study of Social Dynamics (HKPSSD): Research Designs and Data Overview." Chinese Sociological Review 48(2): 162-84.

Xie, Yu, and Jingwei Hu. 2014. "An Introduction to the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS)." Chinese Sociological Review 47(1): 3-29.

Xie, Yu, and Haiyan Zhu. 2009. "Do Sons or Daughters Give More Money to Parents in Urban China?" Journal of Marriage and Family 71(1): 174-86.

Yamaoka, Kazue. 2008. "Social Capital and Health and Well-Being in East Asia: A Population-Based Study." Social Science & Medicine 66(4): 885-99.

Yang, Yang. 2008. "Social Inequalities in Happiness in the United States, 1972 to 2004: An Age-Period-Cohort Analysis." American Sociological Review 73(2): 204-26.

Yip, Winnie, S.V. Subramanian, Andrew D. Mitchell, Dominic T.S. Lee, Jian Wang, and Ichiro Kawachi. 2007. "Does Social Capital Enhance Health and Well-Being? Evidence from Rural China." Social Science & Medicine 64(1): 35-49.

Subjective Well-being of Chinese Elderly - Population ... Well-being of Chinese Elderly: A...

Documents

Transcript of Subjective Well-being of Chinese Elderly - Population ... Well-being of Chinese Elderly: A...