子女越多农村老人越幸福吗?——兼论代际支持对农村老人主观幸福感的影响

Does More Children Mean Higher Subjective Well-being for the Rural Elderly? On the Effect of Inter-generational Support on Subjective Well-being of Rural Elderly

基于对湖北和陕西农村老人的抽样调查,检验了子女数量与农村老人主观幸福感的关系,以回应"多子多福"的现实性,同时探讨了代际支持对农村老人主观幸福感的影响。研究发现,"有子"比"无子"更"多福",但"多子"不一定"多福"。有子女的农村老人,无论是儿女双全,还是只有儿子或者只有女儿,都比没有子女农村老人的主观幸福感更高。但是并非子女越多,农村老人的主观幸福感越高,对于有子女的农村老人,子女总数、儿子数量、女儿数量对其主观幸福感的影响均不显著。进一步的研究发现,农村老人的主观幸福感更大程度上受到代际支持的影响,子女对农村老人的经济支持以及生活照料均可提高农村老人的主观幸福感。总体来看,并非子女越多农村老人越幸福,子女经济支持和生活照料才是影响农村老人主观幸福感的关键因素。

Based on the sampling survey of the rural elderly in Hubei province and Shaanxi province,this paper discusses the relationship between the number of children and the subjective well-being(SWB)of the rural elderly,in order to test the idea of"more children higher SWB".This paper also discusses the effect of inter-generational support on the SWB of the rural elderly.The study found that the rural elderly with children had higher SWB than rural elderly people without children,but more children did not necessarily mean higher SWB.The rural elderly who having children,whether having sons and daughters or having sons or daughters only,have higher SWB than those without having children.As for the rural elderly who having children,the total number of children,the number of sons and the number of daughters have no significant effect on their SWB.Further studies have found that the SWB of the rural elderly is affected to a greater extent by inter-generational support.The economic support and life care of children to the rural elderly can improve the SWB of the rural elderly.In general,for the rural elderly,more children does not mean higher SWB.The economic support and life care of the children are just the key factors that affect the SWB of the rural elderly.