Intergenerational Support Exchange within Chinese, British and European Families

我的博士研究主要从以下四个方面展开：第一，撰写关于代际支持交换变化与中国老年人健康状况关系的博士论文。我的博士研究发现，近年来，老年人接受成年子女非正式护理的比例有所下降，原因是两代人之间的地理距离越来越远。尽管如此，在2011年至2015年期间，拥有双向代际经济支持的比例随着时间的推移而增加。此外，随着智能移动的手机和社交媒体应用程序的普及，远程联系已逐渐取代传统的面对面联系方式。新形式的代间支助意味着新的可能性，一种支助的假设不一定意味着整个代间关系的恶化。第二，代际支持交换与老年人的健康状况是否存在关联，关联的程度如何，这一问题的答案可能因文化背景而异。我在访问马克斯·普朗克人口研究所时，根据CHARLS、艾尔莎和SHARE的一波数据（2014/15年）对这一主题进行了研究，发现祖父母对孙辈照顾的参与在英格兰并不强烈。此外，南欧国家的祖父母不太可能照顾孙子，但比北方国家和中国的祖父母更密集。重要的是，南欧国家的祖父母最有可能报告有抑郁症状，其次是中国和北方欧洲国家，这与他们（密集）提供孙子护理有关。在奖学金期间，我计划完成研究项目，包括另外两波数据（2010/11和2012/13）从查尔斯，艾尔莎和分享在我的分析。第三，对CPDRC进行研究访问对研究合作和影响非常有益。我计划在访问CPDRC期间向政策制定者和实践者，学术和非学术受众，即国家老龄委员会，国家卫生委员会传播我的研究成果，这有助于更好地了解代际支持的交流，改善中国的代际联系。代际流动的支持作为一个主题是至关重要的日常家庭生活和利益的广泛受众，而要学习的经验教训也有其他方面的全球性的影响。最后，奖学金有助于从我的博士产生研究影响。在学术影响方面，除了出版物，我计划在CPC研讨会系列中发表一个关于我的研究的研讨会，并参加国际会议，介绍我的研究成果。对于非学术影响，我的目标是在研究的各个阶段，让当地的利益相关者，如当地的年龄关注团体和照顾者团体在南安普顿和汉普郡理事会。与利益攸关方密切合作，并在不同阶段与他们沟通，使知识成为研究的资产。我还将利用我的导师和导师的现有网络，并将我的研究成果提交给英国人口与老龄化研究中心，DWP和ONS人口与老龄化研究中心，提高国家政策制定者对研究的认识，并加强工业战略“健康老龄化”挑战的证据基础。

The fellowship enables me to extend my PhD research mainly in four ways.Firstly, I will produce publications from my PhD, which examined the association between the changes in intergenerational support exchange and the health status of older Chinese people. My PhD study found that the proportion of older people receiving informal care from their adult children has declined in recent years, resulting from increasing geographical distance between the two generations. Despite this, the proportion of having bidirectional intergenerational economic support increased over time between 2011 and 2015. Moreover, distant contact has gradually replaced the traditional way of in-person contact, with the popularisation of smart mobile phones and social media apps. New forms of intergenerational support imply new possibilities, and an assumption that a reduction in one type of support may not necessarily indicate a deterioration in intergenerational relations as a whole. Papers based on the research findings will be produced and submitted to well-established academic journals.Secondly, whether intergenerational support exchange has an association with the health status of older people and the strength of such association is a question which may be answered differently depending on the cultural context. I conducted research on this topic based on one wave of data (2014/15) from the CHARLS, ELSA and SHARE as part of my institutional visit to the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, and found that the involvement of grandparents in their grandchildren's care was not strong in England. Moreover, grandparents in southern European countries were less likely to provide grandchild care but do so more intensively than their counterparts in northern European countries and China. Importantly, grandparents in southern European countries were most likely to report having depressive symptoms, followed by China and northern European countries, which were associated with their (intensive) provision of grandchild care. During the fellowship, I plan to complete the research project by including another two waves of data (2010/11 and 2012/13) from the CHARLS, ELSA and SHARE in my analysis. One journal article and one policy brief will be produced from this project.Thirdly, undertaking a research visit to the CPDRC is significantly beneficial for research collaboration and impact. I plan to disseminate my research findings to policy makers and practitioners, academic and non-academic audiences, i.e. the National Ageing Committee, the National Health Commission during my visit to the CPDRC, which help to better understand the exchange of intergenerational support and improve intergenerational ties in China. Intergenerational flows of support as a topic are crucial to everyday family life and of interest to a wide range of audiences, while the lessons to be learnt also have implications for other contexts globally.Finally, the fellowship helps to generate research impact from my PhD. In terms of academic impact, in addition to producing publications, I plan to deliver a seminar on my research within the CPC Seminar series and attend international conferences to present my research findings. For non-academic impact, I aim to engage local stakeholders, such as local groups of Age Concern and carer groups in Southampton and the Hampshire County Council at all stages of the research. Working closely with stakeholders and communicating with them at different stages enable knowledge, which are an asset to the research. I will also make use of the existing networks of my supervisors and mentor and present my research findings to AgeUK, DWP and ONS Centre for Demography & Ageing, raising awareness of the research amongst national policy makers and strengthening the evidence base for the 'Healthy Ageing' Challenge of the Industrial Strategy.