Domestic Generative Acts and Life Satisfaction among Supplementary Grandparent Caregivers in Urban China: Mediated by Social Support and Moderated by Hukou Status.

Haoyi Guo,Steven Sek-Yum Ngai

doi:10.3390/ijerph182211788

Abstract

Urban China is witnessing a growth of migrant grandparents apart from the prevalent local grandparent caregiving. However, the health consequences and influencing factors of grandparent caregiving remain largely unknown among migrant and local grandparent caregivers. This study examined informal and formal social support’s mediation roles between domestic generative acts and life satisfaction, as well as investigating Hukou’s (household registration system) moderation effect. Our sample compromised 1013 grandparent caregivers (Migrant = 508, Local = 505) from 12 kindergartens with a multistage clustered random sampling from Eastern China. Migrant grandparent caregivers had significant lower informal social support (M = 4.000, L = 4.355, p < 0.001), formal social support (M = 1.787, L = 2.111, p < 0.001), and life satisfaction (M = 3.323, L = 3.574, p < 0.001) than local ones. Structural equation modeling results indicated that domestic generative acts positively associated with life satisfaction (b = 0.085, p < 0.05), informal (b = 0.223, p < 0.001) and formal social support (b = 0.080, p < 0.05); informal (b = 0.379, p < 0.001) and formal social support (b = 0.138, p < 0.001) positively associated with life satisfaction. In addition, both informal (β = 0.084, CI [0.039, 0.101], p < 0.001) and formal social support (β = 0.011, CI [0.001, 0.018], p < 0.05) mediated the relationship between domestic generative acts and life satisfaction. Furthermore, Hukou status moderated the indirect path from domestic generative acts to life satisfaction via informal social support (p < 0.01), but not formal social support (p > 0.05). Migrant grandparent caregivers, with limited formal social support resources, were found to be more dependent on informal social support than locals. The findings revealed social support and wellbeing disparities among migrant and local grandparent caregivers in urban China. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are also discussed.

Highlights

With greater longevity and lower fertility, grandparent caregiving is increasingly available in China and worldwide, and its influencing factors on grandparent caregivers’health have drawn considerable scholarly attention [1,2,3]
The results showed that domestic generative acts had a direct effect on life satisfaction (b = 0.085, SE = 0.035, p < 0.05), which supported Hypothesis 1
The present study extends the literature by indicating that the indirect path from generative acts to life satisfaction via informal social support is moderated by Hukou status, that migrant grandparent caregivers are affected to a greater extent by informal social support levels than locals, given their scarce formal welfare support due to residency restriction

Summary

Introduction

With greater longevity and lower fertility, grandparent caregiving is increasingly available in China and worldwide, and its influencing factors on grandparent caregivers’health have drawn considerable scholarly attention [1,2,3]. With greater longevity and lower fertility, grandparent caregiving is increasingly available in China and worldwide, and its influencing factors on grandparent caregivers’. A basic typology to describe grandparent caregiving is suggested by Baker and Silverstein [4]: primary care for grandchildren due to family crisis or parental out-migration and supplementary care to assist working parents. Previous studies in China mainly focused on rural areas, where grandparents served as primary caregivers for left-behind children under parental out-migration [6,7,8]. It is noteworthy that the background of grandparent caregivers in urban China is increasingly heterogeneous, as many rural grandparents join migrant families in urban destinations to provide childcare [9]. The latest statistics from the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China estimate approximately eight million grandparent caregivers

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