提供隔代照料对中老年人认知功能的影响研究——基于倾向值匹配方法分析

Influence of Skip-generation Care Offering on Cognitive Function of Middle-aged and Elderly People——An Analysis Based on Propensity Matched Technique

在中国现代社会的代际关系中,祖父母为孙子女提供隔代照料是一个极为重要的研究课题。而学者们关注的重点集中于提供隔代照料行为对中老年人身心健康的作用机理,少有研究关注其对认知功能的影响。仅有的研究也由于数据的可得性以及计量模型的偏差无法有效衡量提供隔代照料行为与认知功能之间真实的因果关系。为此,本文基于2015年中国健康与养老追踪调查(CHARLS)截面数据,采用倾向值匹配的分析方法探讨提供隔代照料对中老年人认知功能的影响。研究发现提供隔代照料的中老年人在性别、年龄、婚姻状态、现居住地、身心健康、代际关系等方面与不提供隔代照料的中老年人存在显著差异。在这种差异显著存在时,传统的回归模型会高估提供隔代照料对中老年人认知功能的干预效应。在控制了选择性问题后发现提供隔代照料对中老年人的认知功能影响仍然存在。中老年人提供隔代照料确实可以提高其认知功能,但是在性别上存在差异:提供隔代照料对男性中老年人认知功能的正向影响比女性更为明显。因此,中老年人提供隔代照料的行为不仅有益于其认知功能的维护与提高,推进健康老龄化的进程,同时也为其子女提供了喘息的机会,缓解小型核心化家庭的抚育压力。

In the intergenerational relations of modern Chinese society,it is an extremely important research direction that grandparents provide intergenerational care for grandchildren.However,scholars focus on the mechanism of providing intergenerational care on the physical and mental health of middle-aged and elderly people,while few studies pay attention to the influence of intergenerational care on their cognitive function.The only research is also due to the availability of data and the deviation of measurement model,which can not effectively measure the real causal relationship between intergenerational care and cognitive function,and has certain limitations.Therefore,based on the cross-sectional data of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS)in 2015,this paper uses propensity matched technique to explore the influence of the middle-aged and elderly people who provide intergenerational care on their cognitive function in China.It is found that there are significant differences between the middle-aged and elderly people who provide intergenerational care and those who do not provide intergenerational care in terms of gender,age,marital status,current residence,physical and mental health,intergenerational relations and other factors.When this difference exists significantly,the traditional regression model will overestimate the intervention effect of providing intergenerational care on the cognitive function of middle-aged and elderly people.After controlling the selective problem,it is found that the influence of intergenerational care on the cognitive function of middle-aged and elderly people still exists.Intergenerational care can improve the cognitive function of middle-aged and elderly people,but there are differences in gender:the positive impact of intergenerational care on the cognitive function of male middle-aged and elderly people is more obvious than that of female people.Therefore,the behavior of providing intergenerational care for middle-aged and elderly people is not only beneficial to the maintenance of their cognitive function and promoting the healthy aging process,but also provides a breathing space for their young children and relieves the nursing pressure of small core families.