Intergenerational Support for the Elderly in Indonesia

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The research analyzes the relationship between individual characteristics associated with family change and the type and level of support adult children provide their elderly parents in Indonesia. Support here refers to money, goods, time and co-residence. Since the 1970s, Indonesia has undergone profound social, economic, and demographic changes that are hypothesized to affect the social organization of the family. One change in the social organization of the family that has been theorized to accompany these changes is the growth of nucleated family structures. In Indonesia, this could have a significant and adverse impact on the well being of the elderly because most support for the elderly takes the form of co-residence. The research analyzes three waves of the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS-1/1993, IFLS-2/1997, IFLS- 3/2000) and anthropological literature to address three specific aims: (1) develop a series of multivariate regression models to examine the relationship between the type and amount of support an adult child provides their elderly parents and key family change characteristics and other socioeconomic and demographic traits, (2) examine the likelihood that an adult child and elderly parent will transition into and out of co-residence between survey waves, and (3) analyze the support an adult child provides their elderly parent(s) with a specific focus on the significance of ethnicity and its associated cultural norms. The study will contribute to our understanding of intergenerational support for the elderly in Indonesia by analyzing the combined effect of structural outcomes of development as viewed through key family change characteristics, standard socioeconomic and demographic traits, and cultural norms. As a result, the proposed study seeks to provide insight into how these different forces create, maintain, and transform support relationships. The proposed study will result in submission of three manuscripts and the development of an R01 proposal. Future work will focus on (1) the perspective of the elderly parent; (2) additional independent variables based on sibling characteristics; and (3) examination of subjective, objective, and community health variables.