儿子对老年父母的照顾:香港夹心代的境况与态度的启示

The Son's Caregiving towards Elderly Parents: The Situation of the Hong Kong Sandwich Generation and its Significance

通过研究香港中年夹心代对老年父母的照顾模式发现,儿子对父母仍存在积极的照顾,特别在经济及感情的照顾上,儿子的参予不见得比女儿少。并从老年父母的角度来了解中年夹心代的责任。研究发现不论由中年夹心代照顾者看其对老年父母的责任,抑或由老年父母的角度看儿子的责任,也都认为儿子应照顾老年父母,及在现实的情况下,儿子实际上亦有施予照顾,且其参予不见得比女儿少。不过,两代间对中年夹心代对家庭成员的责任则出现不一致的看法。中年夹心代倾向优先照顾其本身的儿女(即第三代),其次才是照顾其老年父母,再其次是照顾其配偶。

The main theme of this article is to investigate the care support pattern of the middle-aged sandwich generation for their elderly parents in Hong Kong. This article finds that adult sons in Hong Kong make an active participation in the actual behavior of elderly care for their parents, especially in financial and emotional support--not much less than their female sibling counterparts. This article further compares the perception of care responsibility from the receiver's versus the giver's perspective. The result shows consistent findings between values toward elderly care and actual care behaviors received from the parents' side in which the sons are expected and are acting as the major caregivers, much more so than the daughters. However, inconsistent expectations are found regarding the major responsibility toward various family members between the two generations. Adult children tend to take their own children (or the third generation) as the top priority of their family responsibilities, while elderly parents come in second and their own spouse becomes the third. The pattern of elderly support in Hong Kong is argued to be a product of the patriarchal norms within the changing gendered societal context. The author contends that the pattern can be explained by the interaction of blood relations with gendered division of labor. The implications of this finding towards elderly care in Chinese societies are also discussed.