Intergenerational Support and Older Parents' Subjective Well-being

Overview

Singapore is aging rapidly. How to maintain and improve the well-being of older adults in their later years is a key challenge policymakers face. The support system has depended on informal institutions such as culture where intergenerational support is seen as a virtue, and formal institutions such as public policies promoting co-residence or residence in proximity between adult children and their parents. This study focuses specifically on the investigation of intergenerational support and its association with the subjective well-being of older parents. A better understanding on the directions, levels, and types of intergenerational support and how these in turn are related to different aspects of subjective well-being of older parents will provide insights into how Singapore families are coping as the country ages.

Study Details

This project aims to collect data from a nationally representative sample of 300 households with older parents and document the patterns of support between older parents and adult children by examining three types of intergenerational support (financial, instrumental, and emotional), transfers in both directions (giving/receiving), and the magnitude and frequency of each type of support. It will use recent advances in statistical modelling to study how intergenerational support is associated with the subjective well-being of older parents.

The research project is supported by the Ministry of Education Start-up Research Funding. At the request of the research team, the Department of Statistics randomly selected and provided residential addresses to us solely for the purposes of this research.