子女离婚对老年人健康的影响研究--基于CLASS数据的实证分析

Adult Children’s Divorce and Their Older Parents’Health--Empirical Study Based on CLASS Data

婚姻稳定性下降、人口老龄化加剧预示着越来越多的老年人会经历子女离婚,然而子女离婚是否以及如何影响老年父母健康尚缺乏研究。本文基于生命历程理论和社会性别理论,从老年健康的角度出发,强调来自家庭层面子女离婚的影响,并从家庭代际经济支持等方面分析子女离婚如何影响老年健康及其发生的机制,探索家庭内部影响因素间的作用与联系。本文利用2014年和2018年“中国老年社会追踪调查数据”(CLASS)分析子女离婚对老年父母健康状况的影响。研究发现对于当前我国老年人而言,子女离婚仍是少数,但子女离婚会对老年父母健康带来冲击,表现为有离婚子女的老年人更可能自评身体不健康、慢性病患病数量显著更多、精神健康水平更低;子女离婚对老年父母的健康负面影响具有持久性;相较于儿子离婚,女儿离婚的老年人更可能自觉身体不健康;子女离婚对父母健康的影响具有性别异质性,离婚更易影响女儿对父母的经济支持水平是一个重要原因。

Decreasing marital stability,coupled with the aging population,heralds that more and more older adults in China will experience their adult children’s divorce.The issue has been yet,less frequently visit⁃ed.Based on the life course theory and gender perspective,this paper studies the impact and mechanism of children’s divorce on their parents’health at intra-household level.Using data from 2014 and 2018 CLASS,this paper analyzes the effects of adult children’s divorce on the health of the Chinese elderly.Results show that marital dissolution by adult children detrimentally affects older parents’health,as evi⁃denced by the increased odds of poorer self-rated health,more chronic diseases and lower scores on mental health among the elderly with divorced children.The negative effects tend to be lasting.A gender perspec⁃tive further reveals that the strains are limited to daughters’divorce,and that effects hold equal for both fathers and mothers.Divorced women’s fewer financial supports to older parents might be essential in explaining the association between daughters’divorce and older parents’poorer health.