The Impact of Social Network on the Recognition of Responsibility for Elderly Care among Young and Middle-Aged People in China: Evidence from CGSS 2018 Data

Lu Jiehua & Gu Yuchen

Published in Population Journal, 2024, Issue 1.

Abstract: From the perspective of intergenerational changes in population, the current young and middle-aged people in China will face the dilemma of deep aging and elderly aging after they enter the elderly stage, and it is urgent to avoid the intergenerational superposition of pension pressure through prospective institutional planning and resource preparation. Since cognition is the premise and basis of one's will and behavior, clarifying their tendencies and preferences for responsible subjects can predict the potential elderly care needs to a certain extent, so as to achieve the positive aging goal of "prepared for the elderly stage" under the insufficient and uneven endowment resources. At the same time, considering that China is a society built on relationships, people often rely on blood, kinship, geographical, and other social networks and corresponding resources to reduce the costs of elderly care. Especially in the context of the shrinking function of family support, social networks are becoming an important support force for individuals to cope with the risks of elderly care. And the new forms of communication represented by the Internet are increasingly popular, providing new possibilities for ensuring the well-being of the elderly. Based on this, this study uses China General Social Survey (CGSS) data to analyze the changing trends in recognition of responsibility for elderly care among young and middle-aged individuals in China. Then it employs a multinomial logistic regression model to explore the influence of social network factors on the views of young and middle-aged groups of the responsibility for elderly care and uses the propensity score matching (PSM) method to test the robustness of the results. It is found that under the macro context of the continuous weakening of family support function, the traditional intergenerational responsibility ethic still has considerable vitality among young and middle-aged groups in China. The social networks can play the role of informal insurance, which is a complement to the formal pension system, and then reduces the impact of social risks on families. Among them, strong relationships represented by friends' communication play a strong alternative role to the model of children supporting the elderly, while weak relationships mainly have a supplementary function, indicating that the strong relationships with stronger trust have resources that are incomparable to the weak relationships. As a new representation of communication and interaction in social networks, the Internet enhances the awareness of mutual support for elderly care through information transmission and policy popularization. Social trust represents the ability of individuals to obtain information and resources in the social networks, weakening people's dependence on children and family support through the construction of social capital. Therefore, supplementing existing elderly care practices with social support networks may alleviate the increasing pressure on elderly care under the constraints of limited elderly care resources.

Keywords: recognition of responsibility for elderly care, young and middle-aged people, responsible subject of elderly care, social network