Analysis on Imbalance of Family Intergenerational Exchange in China Rural Area

Abstract

In China rural area, intergenerational exchange on supporting each other between parents and offspring is uneven. Parents pay much more than the return they’ll get when they’re old, which mainly relates to the utilities of children. In countryside, the utilities of children (especially sons) manifest in following aspects: continuing the family line, emotional comfort, laborer and supporting for old age. To some extent, these factors influence the rural intergenerational injustice respectively and together. From the prospective of trend of social and economic development, the caring of the retired will be taken by social insurance system; the intergeneration exchange on supporting each other between parents and offspring will no longer be a social issue, but in the vast rural areas, the influence of traditional culture family lineage is still powerful. The need of caring of the old becomes so weak that emotional effect becomes much more urgent. The weak status of the old generation bring the fathers’ generation in a weak social status, which seriously affect the living conditions of the old generations. Therefore, when focusing the caring issue in the country, besides that we should ensure the old be cared materially, what matters most is keep the balance between the exchanging two sides