Aging & Social Change: Fourteenth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Filial piety—the belief that children should provide care, support, respect, and obedience to their older parents—is a fundamental normative expectation in East Asian societies. This study investigates the relationship between geographic proximity of children and support received from them and parents’ perceptions filial piety in rural China. We used the 2021 wave of the Longitudinal Study of Older Adults in t Anhui Province to predict parental assessments of filial piety for each of their children. Random effects ordinal logistic regression models using an internal moderator approach was employed to compare coresident children with non-coresident children based on their proximity and support provided. Findings indicate that parents tend to perceive their coresident children as being more filial compared to non-coresident children, particularly when parents are in worse functional health. However, non-coresident children can compensate for their absence in being perceived as filial by providing instrumental and financial support, as well as by maintaining frequent visits and communication with parents who live farther away. Analyses also examines variation in filial piety by the level of economic development and modernization of the village in which parents reside. The study’s results suggest filial piety norms in rural China have adapted to the diminished emphasis on intergenerational coresidence resulting from urbanization and significant rural-urban migration trends in modern China and requiring. that children find alternative ways to fulfill their filial obligations.