子女外出对农村留守父母健康的影响

The Effects of Adult Children Migration on the Health of Their Parents Left Behind

老龄化背景下,成年子女的异地流动增加了中老年人的健康负担,本文使用中国健康与养老追踪调查数据和倾向分值匹配法,实证考察了农村地区成年子女跨省外出对留守父母健康的影响。估计结果显示,有子女外出的家庭,中老年父母的主观健康如自评健康、认知状况和抑郁程度较差;客观健康也受到不利影响,患关节炎、胃病和肺病的可能性更大。基于收入考量的子女外出确实增加了对父母的经济支持力度,但同时也增加了父母从事隔代照料的可能性。隔代照料负担的增加可能是子女外出对父母健康有不利影响的原因。

This paper test how migration of the rural adult children affects their leaving behind parents＇ health. Based on the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study data, using propensity score matching method,we find that the migration of the adult children migrate to other province exerts a negative influence on parents＇ health. We find that the elderty＇s self rated health,cognition and depression,as well as subjective chronic disease such as arthritis,stomach related disease and lung disease are all negatively affected by the migration of their adult children. Adult child migration indeed increased economic support to parents,but it also increase the likelihood of parents involved into intergenerational care giving. Increasing grandparents care giving maybe the underlying channel that leads to those poor health consequences.