Examining Taiwan's Household Types and Their Functions from the Perspective of Parents' Living Arrangements

• Published in: Táiwān jīngjì yùcè yǔ zhèngcè 2011-10, Vol.42 (1), p.149
• Main Authors: Chen, Chaonan, Lin, Huilin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Families & family life; Family structure; Households; Industrial development; Living arrangements; Marital status; Parents & parenting; Polls & surveys; Siblings; Social change; Social support; Studies; Urbanization
• ISSN: 1729-8849; 1729-9241
• DOI: 10.29629/TEFP.201110.0005

Following Sussman's suggestion, this study aims to examine the impact of household separation on intergenerational support exchange. Living arrangements and marital status of respondent's siblings are used to classify household types. The respondents who live with their parents are referred to as "co-residing with respondents". The rest of the respondents are grouped as "co-residing with respondent's married siblings" and "others". The 2006 Taiwan Social Change Survey data show that about 50% of parents are living with the survey respondents. The shares of those co-residing with respondent's married siblings are 16% and 19% for fathers and mothers, respectively, while the share accounted for by "others" is 33% for both fathers and mothers. The three types of household differ in terms of the pattern of intergenerational support exchange. Those co-residing with respondent's married siblings and "others" provide more but receive less financial support and concern than the respondents who live with their parents. They, however, exchange less by way of household chores with parents than those living with parents. Generally speaking, children living in households separated from parents become autonomous but not isolated, or function well in providing support to parents. The differential support pattern is due to the influence of social norms, the task nature, exchange direction, and household type. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]