教育能否增加养儿防老的保障?——基于代际社会交换理论的分析

How Does Education Increase the Quality of Old-age?——Analysis Based on the Inter-generational Social Exchange Theory

在中国逐渐迈入老龄化社会的背景下,基于代际互换视角,深入分析教育获得对个人养老质量的影响机制有重要的现实意义。采用中国健康与养老追踪调查(CHARLS)2014-2015年数据进行研究时发现,教育获得会通过当期与长期的代际交换增加个体的养老质量。一方面,受教育水平会对老年人的健康、物质和精神文化生活质量产生显著的正向影响;健康和财富保证个体对子女当期的时间和经济支持,增加了子女对父母养老支持,进而双重提升养老质量。另一方面,教育获得的代际效应使得教育水平较高者更愿意投资子女教育,而教育作为收入和孝敬观念提升的关键途径,增强了子女的养老能力和意愿,进而增进父代的养老质量。同时发现子女的精神慰藉对父母健康的正向影响更大,而代际照料孙辈则可能降低父母的养老质量。因此,在重视教育对代际社会交互养老影响的良性循环机制时,需关注子女对父母的精神慰藉和老年人的心理特征;并充分发挥教育的作用以优化代际交互支持的协作方式。

Under the background of aging, the lifetime benefits and non-material benefits of education deserve attention.We analyze the relationship between education and pension in the perspective of intergenerational interchange.Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study data(CHARLS 2014-2015), we find that education attainment will increase the quality of old-age through the intergenerational exchange between the current and the long-term.On the one hand, education has a significant positive impact on the elderly’s health and quality life which ensure economic and time support for their children, and then increase the support of their children for old age.On the other hand, education attainment will improve the quality of old-age through their offspring’s education and the long-term return of their children.According to the results of the mechanism, it was found that the economic support of children had less impact on the health of parents than the role of spiritual consolation.While raising by grandparents will reduce the parents’ life quality.Therefore, when attaching importance to the virtuous circle mechanism of education on the intergenerational social interaction of the elderly, it is necessary to pay attention to the children’s spiritual comfort to the parents and use the role of education to optimize the collaborative approach of intergenerational interaction support.