| Description |
This dissertation is comprised of three empirical studies that provide a complementary understanding regarding parental dissatisfaction, offspring's filial discrepancy, and their effects on parental health and wellbeing in late life. Data were collected in 2014 from a sample of 432 community-dwelling respondents (not couples) aged 60 to 79 in Linxi County of northern China with a total number of 1,223 offspring. The first study investigates whether parental dissatisfaction is linked to four health and wellbeing outcomes and explores potential psychological mechanisms that may underlie this proposed linkage. Findings indicate that parental dissatisfaction is significantly associated with the four outcomes, net of sociodemographic covariates. Findings also demonstrate that self-esteem and feeling useless mediate this association separately and simultaneously; suggesting both may function as individual and parallel psychological pathways underlying this linkage. The second study identifies the correlates of parental dissatisfaction in old age by testing five blocks of potential correlates. Financial strain, poor health, dissatisfaction with any child's marital status, and having more child-raising problems than other parents are associated with parental dissatisfaction. Parentally dissatisfied parents also reported failing to get along with at least one child, having at least one child with filial discrepancy, and believing in weaker filial obligation from offspring. The third one is a mixed-methods study using both quantitative and qualitative data. It examines the association between offspring's filial discrepancy and parental depression and explores the personal meaning of filial piety from the perspective of the older generation. Results from logistic regression indicate that filial discrepancy is significantly associated with parental depression, net of age, gender, financial strain, social support, and health status. Qualitative findings reveal that traditional filial piety values are fading even in one of the least developed Chinese counties, identifying six broad themes that reflect the coexistence of traditional and modern filial values regarding participants' definition of a filial child. These themes represent traditional filial piety values in a much-diluted form, filial piety values that converge with filial obligations in Western culture, and traditional filial piety beliefs in the absolute form, highlighting the complexity and evolution of the concept of filial piety. |
