Child-Parent Relation and Older Adults' Health: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between China and the United States

Abstract Western culture emphasizes independence in the child-parent relationship while Chinese culture values interdependence between adult children and older parents. This study compared the association of child-parent relationships with older adults’ multidimensional health over time in the U.S. and China. Two waves of data (2012-2015) from HRS and CHARLS were used (n=6,641, aged ≥65). Linear regression models were estimated. Results showed that, compared to Chinese older adults, fewer older Americans co-resided with or lived nearby their children, had less weekly contact, and fewer financial transfers from/to their children. Most child-parent relationship variables were nonsignificant predictors of older Americans’ health. However, a closer child-parent relationship was linked to fewer depressive symptoms and better cognition among older Chinese. Co-residence was associated with poorer health among Chinese parents. The associations of child-parent relationships with older adults’ health exhibited cross-cultural differences. A cultural perspective is recommended in understanding how family relations affect older adults’ health.

housing conditions may be correlated it raises the question of whether one is a proxy for the other. We use data from the 2006 and 2008 waves of the Health and Retirement Study to examine associations between perceived neighborhood and housing conditions in 2006 and depressive symptoms (CES-D 8) score in 2008. We find that worse housing conditions and neighborhood safety are associated with more depressive symptoms two years later, even when controlling for prior depressive symptoms. Furthermore, housing and neighborhood conditions are independently related to increased depression symptoms over time. Our research contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between home and neighborhood environments and psychological wellbeing in older adults.

FAMILY AND AGING IN CROSS-NATIONAL CONTEXTS
Chair: Jennifer Ailshire Discussant: Jennifer Ailshire The global aging of the population, combined with shifts in the structure and composition of families, has led to increased attention to the role of family and social relationships in the aging experience. The importance of family in determining healthy aging, however, may largely depend on the social, political, and economic context in which individuals are embedded. Cross-national investigations offer a unique opportunity to understand how family relationships and family caregiving influence health and well-being among older adults by comparing family dynamics across different sociocultural contexts. The HRS-family of surveys, which have been harmonized within the Gateway to Global Aging, provides remarkable opportunities for cross-national comparative analysis. The papers in this session use harmonized data from the Gateway to compare the influence of family on health across different social dimensions in multiple countries from around the world, including examinations of: 1) the impact of grandparenting on health of older adults in Europe and China; 2) psychological well-being among European older adults whose partners receive formal care; 3) the influence of parent-child relationships on health and well-being of older adults in China and the U.S.; and 4) how loneliness among older adults is patterned according to their living arrangements and relationship quality. The discussion will highlight the promises and challenges of cross-national research on families and aging and how harmonized aging data facilitates international comparisons.

GRANDCHILD CARING AND LATE-LIFE DEPRESSION: A COMPARATIVE LONGITUDINAL STUDY IN CHINA AND EUROPE Yazhen Yang, University of Southampton, Southampton, England, United Kingdom
The impact of grandparenting on the grandparents' health has been relatively under-studied, and international comparisons can provide useful lessons for grandparents and policymakers. This study examined country differences in the effects of grandchild care provision on the grandparents' depression in Italy, Spain, China, Denmark and Sweden using the longitudinal Harmonised CHARLS and SHARE data collected between 2010-5. Controlling for the grandparents' depression in 2011, grandparents providing nonintensive grandparental care in China, Sweden and Denmark in 2013 were less likely to report depression in 2015 compared to those who did not provide any care in 2013. Such effects were more pronounced among grandmothers compared to grandfathers. The results indicate that the effects of grandchild caring on the grandparents' depression in China was comparable to Denmark and Sweden. Future research can focus on identifying the causal pathways between grandparenting and wellbeing, and the implications of such pathways for older persons' wellbeing worldwide. Across Europe, partners are often primary caregivers to older adults with care needs. Yet, a variety of partner care arrangements may arise. Little is known about the interrelations between partners' care arrangements, (potential) caregivers' gender, and the context in which care is embedded. We use 2015 SHARE data from 17 countries on 3,465 couples aged 50+ where one partner receives care. We examine how life satisfaction and depressive symptoms of (potential) caregivers vary across five care arrangements: solo-care; shared formal; shared informal; outsourced formal; and outsourced informal. We explore heterogeneity by gender and across four contexts: Northern, Western, Southern, and Eastern Europe. Outsourcing partners' care to formal or informal providers is linked with higher well-being among Northern and Western European women, but with lower well-being among women in Southern Europe, where traditional female caregiving responsibilities are stronger. Among men, outsourcing partner care is linked to higher well-being regardless of context. Western culture emphasizes independence in the childparent relationship while Chinese culture values interdependence between adult children and older parents. This study compared the association of child-parent relationships with older adults' multidimensional health over time in the U.S. and China. Two waves of data (2012-2015) from HRS and CHARLS were used (n=6,641, aged ≥65). Linear regression models were estimated. Results showed that, compared to Chinese older adults, fewer older Americans co-resided with or lived nearby their children, had less weekly contact, and fewer financial transfers from/to their children. Most childparent relationship variables were nonsignificant predictors of older Americans' health. However, a closer child-parent relationship was linked to fewer depressive symptoms and better cognition among older Chinese. Co-residence was associated with poorer health among Chinese parents. The associations of child-parent relationships with older adults' health exhibited cross-cultural differences. A cultural perspective is recommended in understanding how family relations affect older adults' health.

OLDER ADULTS' SOCIAL STRESS PROFILES: A CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISON OF THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO
Stephanie Wilson, 1 and Christina Marini, 2 1. Southern Methodist University, DALLAS, Texas, United States,

Adelphi University, Garden City, New York, United States
Older adults face heightened risks for loneliness due to social isolation. Low-quality relationships also fuel loneliness. Because living arrangements and family norms differ between countries, cultural differences may arise in the stress of isolation, loneliness, and difficult relationships. To examine social stress profiles in the US and Mexico, HRS (N=17,878) and MHAS (N=15,001) participants rated their loneliness, whether they lived alone, and relationship quality with their spouse, children, and friends. Five latent classes emerged in both samples: lonely and isolated; lonely with poor relationships; moderately lonely with ambivalent relationships; moderately lonely and unhappily married; and low social stress. Lonely isolation was most common among Americans (23.4%), but least common among Mexicans (14.0%). The highest risks for loneliness coincided with living alone in the US, but with low-quality relationships in Mexico. Results reveal undercurrents of older adults' social stress that were common to both countries, as well as important cultural differences.

ALL IN THE FAMILY? AGE, PERIOD, AND COHORT DIFFERENCES IN KINSHIP TIES AMONG OLDER U.S. ADULTS
Ellen Compernolle, 1 Khoa Phan Howard, 2 and Eric Hedberg, 3 1. NORC at the University of Chicago,Chicago,Illinois,United States,2. Northwestern University,Evanston,Illinois,United States,3. Abt Associates,Chicago,Illinois,United States In general, older adults' social networks-characteristics of which (e.g., size, type, frequency) have been linked to important health and well-being outcomes--tend to be kincentered, although this has changed over time. Disentangling these changes, however, is difficult given typical mobility decline and shrinking networks in old age (age), the rapid social and demographic changes that occurred during the 20th century (cohort), and, in recent decades, the 2008 Recession and technological advances (period). This study uses data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), a nationally representative sample of older adults (ages 57-85; 2005-2016), to examine patterns in older adults' social networks, with particular emphasis on the role that family plays. Specifically, we ask: 1) Have older adults' social networks become less kin-centered over the past decade (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)? 2) Are they less kin-centered among younger cohorts? And 3) Does the recession explain part of these period effects? We find that, between 2005 and 2016, family still comprises the majority of older adults' social networks, although their network size and range have grown larger and become less family-centric. They also report fewer close family members and friends, living with fewer family members, and less frequent interaction with network ties. Results from multi-level regression models suggest that age, and to a much lesser extent, cohort, plays a key role in many of these changes, although this varies between the first and second 5-year intervals of data collection, underscoring older adults' adaptivity to current social and economic circumstances. The cost of raising grandchildren on grandmothers' mental and physical health has been well-documented; however, little is known about whether raising grandchildren also has a cost on grandmothers' relationships with the adult children whose children the grandmothers have raised. Drawing from theories of exchange and affect, stress process model, and racial differences in intergenerational solidarity, we tested how raising grandchildren affects grandmother-adult child relations. Further, we explored the extent to which these patterns differed by race. To address this question, we used mixed-methods data collected from 553 older mothers regarding their relationships with their 2,016 adult children; approximately 10% of the mothers had raised one or more of their grandchildren "as their own." Data were provided by the Within-Family Differences Study-I. Multilevel analyses showed that raising grandchildren was associated with greater closeness in grandmother-adult child relationship in Black families; however, in White families, raising grandchildren was associated with greater conflict in the grandmother-adult child relationship. Further, the differences by race in the effects of raising grandchildren on closeness and conflict were statistically significant. Qualitative analyses revealed that race differences in the association between raising grandchildren and relationship quality could be explained by mothers' reports of greater family solidarity in Black than White families. Our findings highlight the ways in which race and family solidarity interact to produce differences in the impact of raising grandchildren on Black and White mothers' assessment of the quality of their relationships with their adult children, consistent with broader patterns of racial differences in intergenerational cohesion.