The Persistence and Change of Family Structure: A comparison of the living arrangement of the aged between Chinese mainland southeast and Taiwan region

本文以本世纪初在大陆东部、南部沿海与台湾地区进行的家庭动态调查为基础,建构主样本老年父母与子女同住的数据,分析两代同住现象。本文研究发现:第一,大陆东南沿海与台湾地区社会转型性质虽有不同,代间同住仍反映父系原则,惟大陆东南沿海地区与女儿同住及未与已婚子女同住倾向高于台湾地区,且较受老年人需求的影响。第二,由于大陆特殊的城乡政策,显示出较台湾地区更强的城乡差异;不过大陆东南沿海乡村老年人与子女同住的比例低于台湾地区的都市和乡村。第三,大陆东南沿海乡村务农比例高于台湾地区,但在公部门工作的比例也较高,反映公部门较全面介入人民生活,似乎比经济发展更有力地促进了非家庭社会组织模式的发展,这或许是两岸代间同住倾向差异的主要来源。

In this paper, we study intergenerational coresidence between the aged and their married children, based on the constructed data of the aged parents of our main respondents from the Panel Survey of Family Dynamics conducted from 2000 - 2004 in Chinese mainland southeast and Taiwan region. In terms of the findings, we have three main arguments. First, despite their different paths of social transformation, intergenerational coresidence in both Chinese mainland southeast and Taiwan region still abide by patrilineal rule. However, Chinese mainland southeast has a higher tendency of living with married daughters and living apart from adult children than Taiwan region. Second, a distinctive rural-urban policy in Chinese mainland southeast leads to a stronger rural-urban difference of intergenerational coresidence in Chinese mainland southeast than in Taiwan region. However, the aged in rural Chinese mainland southeast is more likely to live apart from married children than in both rural and urban Taiwan region. Third, the rural Chinese mainland southeast has a larger proportion of agricultural population and also a larger proportion of labor in the public sector than their counterpart in Taiwan region. This implies more intensive involvement of public sector in daily life and more non-familial mode of social organization in Chinese mainland southeast than in Taiwan region, and accordingly is perhaps a major source of different intergenerational living arrangement in two societies.

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