The Influence of Early Life Experience on Late-Life Intergenerational Transfer

Background and Purpose: The Chinese traditional culture prioritizes kin relations and family interests over individual ones. It is normative for Chinese Older adults to provide time help and economic assistance to other family members within their capacities Some studies in the United States and other Western countries have illustrated that early life experience has an impact on late-life behaviors and health outcomes the early history of receiving family support influenced parents’ late-life behaviors of providing assistance to their children and grandchildren Due to the rapid socioeconomic development and urbanization in China, intergenerational support among families may likely reflect a net-downward flow of resources, that is, older generations provide more support to their children and grandchildren than they receive. However, there is limited research on the impact of early-life experiences on late-life intergenerational support. This study will improve our understanding by assessing the associations between childhood socioeconomic disadvantage and childhood trauma and time and financial transfer provided by Chinese older adults to their offspring.

Methods: The sample comprised 5,850 participants aged 60 and over who had at least one living grandchild from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). During the third wave of data collection in 2015, respondents answered questions about their socioeconomic status and demographics at the time, whether they provided time or financial transfers to their children or grandchildren, and the number of transfers provided respectively. Through answering the Life History Survey in 2016, participants provided information about childhood socioeconomic disadvantage and childhood trauma, including family conditions, physical health status, neighborhood environment, social relations, parental involved trauma, and maladaptive parental trauma. We matched individuals from these two sources based on their ID and used regression models to estimate the association between early life experiences and downward time and financial transfer.

Results: Data suggested significant associations between early life experiences and downward time and financial transfer. About 38.65% (2,261) and 35% (2,058) of 5,850 respondents provided time and economic assistance to their children or grandchildren, respectively. The chi-square test indicated that the more adverse early family condition (p=0.00) and neighborhood environment (p=0.01) were, the probability of Chinese elderly providing time transfer went up. The more parental involved trauma (p=0.04) and maladaptive parental trauma (p=0.00) participants experienced, the more likely them offering economic support. Moreover, maladaptive parental trauma (p=0.00) is positively associated with financial assistance that older Chinese adults provided to their children or grandchildren, whereas adverse neighborhood environment (p=0.00) is negatively associated with the financial transfer.

Conclusions and Implications: This study indicates the negative influence of childhood socioeconomic disadvantage and childhood trauma on downward time and financial transfer in later life among Chinese older adults. Findings also suggest the importance of providing interventions to older adults who experienced early life adversities, which may enhance the mutual help among family members within the traditional Chinese cultural norms.