Children's education and their financial transfers to ageing parents in rural China: mothers and fathers’ strategic advantages in enforcing reciprocity

Abstract

AbstractThis investigation examined the impact of children's education on their financial support to older parents in rural China based on a theoretical framework that regards financial transfers from adult children as motivated by parents’ earlier investments on children's education, and mothers and fathers having different strategic advantages to enforce reciprocity. The sample derived from six waves of panel data from the Longitudinal Study of Older Adults in Anhui Province, China, from 2001 to 2015, based on which we constructed five stacked intervals (2001–2003, 2003–2006, 2006–2009, 2009–2012, 2012–2015). The random-effects models showed that the highest educated child provided more financial support than other children and that the amount was conditional on the actual educational attainment of the highest educated child. Our results also suggested that fathers and mothers have different strategic advantages in the process. Mothers’ emotional bonds with their highest educated children enforced financial returns. In contrast, fathers’ stronger identification with traditional filial norms was more consequential for receiving financial support from the highest educated children. We discuss these findings in the context of the patrilineal family system and social changes, including rapid population ageing and the decline of fertility rates.