With the emphasis on children’s responsibility for the care of ageing parents, this study examined how Chinese adult children’s support provided to parents was associated with filial piety, support from parents and parent-child contact frequency. With the 2006 Chinese General Social Survey, we used structural equation modelling with 1,452 adults with two living parents and tested the model for sons and daughters separately. For both groups, the results showed that (1) filial piety was positively associated with emotional support provided to parents; (2) support received from parents was positively related to instrumental and emotional support to parents; and (3) parent-child contact frequency was linked to instrumental support. For adult daughters, financial support was positively associated with the support received from parents and negatively related to parent-child contact frequency. This study suggests that the traditional norm of filial piety may be less influential than other factors for adult children’s support behaviour.

Aim: As the ageing population in China increases, support required from family caregivers for older relatives living with long-term health conditions also increases. This being so, this thesis explored the experiences and perceptions of current and prospective family caregivers, under the culture of Xiao (孝; filial piety). Design and Methods: Phase 1 was conducted with 19 Chinese students using 3 focus groups to gain greater familiarity with the culture and inform the main study (Phase 2). Adopting a social constructivist philosophical position, data for Phase 2 were obtained from three generational sub-samples: only-children affected by the One-Child Policy (OCP), parents affected by OCP, and family caregivers in the workforce, totaling 23 participants through virtual in-depth interviews with participants in mainland China. Interviews were translated, transcribed, and analysed using reflective thematic analysis. Findings and Conclusion: Phase 1 confirmed the centrality of the concept of Xiao to attitudes and beliefs around future caregiving for parents. Phase 2 findings’ overarching theme was ‘Competing pressures’, which comprised of three inextricably linked themes: (i) Caregiving beliefs, (ii) Contextual factors, and (iii) Caregiving conditions. Participants expressed meaningful desires to fulfil obligations, reflecting value-based convictions, stemming from their socio-cultural environment. Stressors experienced reveals structural and personal barriers to seeking support. Ultimately, extensive demands and limited coping strategies could diminish meaning in caregiving. This thesis makes a novel contribution on perceptions and experiences of family caregivers of older relatives within China as a collectivist society. Findings have implications for research, policy, and practice, highlighting the need for culturally attuned services to build resilience.

This study examined, through a narrative phenomenological framework, the experiences of Korean female caregivers in Canada, and the ways in which filial piety obligations affected their quality of life. The existing literature is scarce on information about caregiving by Korean females in both North America and Canada. Further, caregiving issues regarding caregiving stress have mostly investigated the medical aspects. It was crucial, therefore, to investigate and understand the social aspects of the caregiving experience. Korean daughters-in-law (DILs), who lived with their aging parents-in-law (PILs) in environments profoundly rooted in Confucian values, experienced conflicts with their parents/mothers-in-law. A number of caregiving hardships were identified and categorized according to the following two themes: cultural obligations and direct caregiving practices. Some DILs’ caregiving hardships were heavier when they moved to Canada and adopted a new culture. The findings of this study show that the caregiving practices of these Korean female caregivers in Canada are changing as the DILs have been influenced by their new environment, but the findings also demonstrate that the DILs are still strongly affected by the traditional cultural values in which they were raised. This study investigated their attitudes and behaviours of these women in their caregiving roles by employing a qualitative research design. As little research has been done on immigrant women’s caregiving experience, this study provides an important contribution by examining the lived experience of immigrant women as it is affected by the traditional cultural value of filial piety. / February 2017

N/A / Unlike what most people believe, Buddhist monasteries rely not only on laymen’s financial support but also on the supports of families and relatives of monks and nuns. In addition, Buddhist renunciation does not always cut off the relationship of a monk or nun with their families. On the contrary, most of monks and nuns in my research remain close contacts with their families and relatives. It is believed that once a person joins the Order, he or she can rely fully on the monasteries’ financial, emotional and medical supports. However, this is not true in all Buddhist monasteries in Taiwan. Mutual dependency between monks or nuns and their families and relatives is the main focus of this research. With lack of supports of different aspects from the monasteries, monks and nuns will have to turn to their families and relatives for helps when needed. Therefore, keeping close and positive relationship with families and relatives is important to some monks and nuns. This research aims at: 1. finding out the kin relationships of monks and nuns; 2. looking at the mutual dependency between monks and nuns and their families or relatives; 3. comparing the ideology and reality of monastic life and Buddhist institution (monasteries). In order to achieve the above goals, I will look at possible causes that might affect the relationship between monks and nuns with their families and relatives. Moreover, although not intended, the reasons of renunciation will be discussed in this paper. Different from Buddhist monasteries in other countries and traditions, Taiwanese monasteries can be privately owned by monks, nuns, or laymen. Because of this fact, and because it determines whether monks and nuns will get necessary supports from the monasteries or not, so types of Buddhist monasteries in Taiwan will be discussed, too.

高齡化社會的來臨，增加了台灣的長期照顧需求。在華人家庭傳統上，照顧一直是女性的責任，社會規範與對性別角色的期待也都將照顧工作賦予女性。但隨著婦女勞參率的增加，許多有經濟能力的女性也開始試圖透過將照顧工作「外包」的方式，來移轉自己的照顧責任。從台灣逐年攀升的外籍看護工人數，即可看出此一趨勢發展。在過往母職外包的文獻中，母親將照顧小孩的責任外包出去的同時，會透過各種手段來維持其原有家庭的完整性，以及合理化這些作為，並重新詮釋這些原本被認為該由自己承擔的責任。而這樣的情況，是否同樣會發生在「孝道外包」的情況中？子女／媳婦會怎麼樣去詮釋自己的行為？他們如何定義照顧工作外包後「孝」的意義？ 本研究發現，家庭成員選擇外包照顧工作的過程中，受到子女輩成員間的經濟能力、角色與長輩的情感關係等各種因素所影響，主要的決策者與執行者會由不同的家庭子女輩成員擔任。對於將奉養工作外包給外籍看護的子女／媳婦來說，他們透過將自己的角色轉換成「監督者」或「主導者」，以確保外籍看護維持高品質照顧的方式，來重新定義自己的孝道實踐。「父母在家終老」以及「主導照顧過程」成為孝的核心條件。此外，透過敘述外籍看護的「專業」與「像對待家人」般的良好照顧，來證明他們將長輩的孝道外包是對長輩「有利的」。同時這個利益並不只是對於長輩，聘請外籍看護還有許多對其他家庭成員有利的外溢效果；例如整理家務，煮飯等等。對子女輩成員來說，聘請外籍看護是一個多方考量後，在現今照顧工作逐漸走向市場化下，對整體家庭最具利益的選擇。 / The need for long-term care increases with Taiwan’s aging population. According to the Chinese tradition as well as current social norms and expectations, care work is considered women’s responsibility. However, with women’s increasing participation in the labor force, many financially-abled women started to outsource care work to relieve their responsibility. The rise in the rate of hiring foreign caregivers in Taiwan manifests this trend. Current literature on outsourcing maternal care work has pointed out the ways mothers maintain family intactness and justify their behavior of outsourcing maternal care. Does the same situation happen in outsourcing filial piety? How do sons, daughters and daughter-in-laws justify such behavior? How would they reinterpret the meaning of ‘filial piety’ after sourcing parental care? The study found that the choice of outsourcing parental care work was affected by factors such as children's financial conditions, roles in the family, and relationship with parents. Sons, daughters and daughters-in-law often played different roles of decision makers and managers in outsourcing parental care. For those who outsourced parental care work to foreign caregivers, their roles were changed from 'primary caregiver' to 'supervisor' or 'manager' to ensure that their parents would obtain high quality care. In this way, the meaning and practice of filial piety were redefined. 'Parents living at home till the end of life' and 'quality control of parental care' became the core considerations of filial piety. By emphasizing foreign caregivers' professionalism and their family-like relationship with foreign caregivers, those children who outsourced parent care work justified their choice of outsourcing and claimed that such arrangement was beneficial to parents who were cared for. In addition, the care work provided by foreign caregivers often generated 'spillover effects' for the whole household; not only parents but other family members could also obtain benefits from hiring foreign caregivers. For example, foreign caregivers helped cleaning house, cooking and so on. Consequently, the choice of outsourcing parental care work to foreign caregiver was considered most appropriate for the whole family.

No description available.

The aim of this study was to increase understanding of how older Syrian migrants experience aging in Sweden as well as their perspective on needs related to aging and how these needs can be met. The empirical base of the study was eight semi-structured qualitative interviews. In addition, theories about Maslow's hierarchy of needs and social support were applied to the study to enable a further analysis of our respondents' perspectives on aging, perspectives on Swedish elderly care and perspectives on relative support. The result of the study shows that our respondents feel that it is difficult to see how their needs as elderly people can be met. They live in a country with a different language and culture without having any knowledge about the new country. They also believe that the responsibility lies mainly on their relatives instead of searching for help or support from the public elderly care, because they think that the help offered by the elderly care is not prepared to their individual needs. The study concluded that our respondents think that aging in a foreign country does not give the same feeling as aging in their home country. Learning a new language is certainly not easy for them. It is also not easy for them to live in a new society with its norms, culture, and tradition. All of our respondents are dependent on their adult children and need help with various things. This help that children provide for their elderly parents is an obligation in their culture.

This study explores the changing nature of filial piety in contemporary society in rural China. With the economic, social and political upheavals that followed the Revolution, can 'great peace under heaven' still be found for the rural Chinese family as in the traditional Confucian proverb,"make yourself useful, look after your family, look after your country, and all is peaceful under heaven"? This study explores this question, in terms not so much of financial prosperity, but of non-tangible cultural values of filial piety, changing familial and gender roles, and economic migration. In particular, it examines how macro level changes in economic, social and demographic policies have affected family life in rural China. The primary policies examined were collectivisation, the hukou registration system, marketization, and the One-Child policy. Ethnographic interviews reveal how migration has affected rural family structures beyond the usual quantifiable economic measures. Using the village of Meijia, Sichuan province, as a paradigmatic sample of family, where members have moved to work in the cities, leaving their children behind with the grandparents, the study demonstrates how migration and modernization are reshaping familial roles, changing filial expectations, reshuffling notions of care-taking, and transforming traditional views on the value of daughters and daughters-in-law. The study concludes that the choices families make around migration, child-rearing and elder-care cannot be fully explained by either an income diversification model or a survival model, but rather through notions of filial piety. Yet the concept of filial piety itself is changing, particularly in relation to gender and perceptions about the worth of daughters and the mother/ daughter-in-law relationship. Understanding these new family dynamics will be important for both policy planners and economic analysts.