Family Connections and Subjective Wellbeing in Transitional China

This study investigates inter-generational connections between adult children and elderly parents in China during a period of profound socioeconomic transformations and examine their impact on subjective wellbeing. Using data from the China Household Finance Survey, we examine whether adult children experience greater happiness when they maintain close connections with their aging parents. In addition to considering the well-established factors of age, health, homeownership, and financial resources, we specifically focus on living arrangements between adult children and aging parents and find living apart but in proximity has replaced co-residence as the dominant living arrangement in China and has a significant positive effect on wellbeing. Furthermore, we observe that strong intergenerational connections, encompassing emotional and material support, also significantly enhance wellbeing. This suggests that despite ongoing modernization and market transition in China, the enduring influence of Confucian values on family bonds persists, albeit with some contemporary adaptations, thereby promoting wellbeing. By examining inter-generational connections within extended families and their intersectionality with SWB, this study contributes to the literature on wellbeing by providing a familial perspective and studying a unique meso-level local contexts defined by family relations rather than spatial or administrative boundaries.