Legacy of one-child policy could have consequences for elderly welfare

Longstanding concerns that elderly mainlanders will be abandoned by their children as they move away from home appear to be unfounded - for the time being - according to a major new study by a team of international researchers led by Peking University.

The findings of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, the biggest-ever survey of middle-aged and elderly people on the mainland, shows that even when elderly parents do not live with their children, there is typically a child living nearby.

Only 38 per cent of mainlanders aged 60 and above live with their children, according to the study. But of those who don't, 60 per cent have at least one child living in the same immediate neighbourhood, while 25 per cent have a child living in the same county or city.

"We didn't realise the fact that so many adult children, who did not live with their parents, were living so close to them - even in the same neighbourhood," says John Strauss, professor of economics at the University of Southern California and one of the study's principal investigators. "Our work is among the first studies to show that."

The landmark study surveys 17,708 individuals in nearly 10,300 households, in 150 counties and districts in 28 of the mainland's 31 administrative regions. One person aged 45 or over in each household was interviewed along with their spouse. They will be followed up every two years; the second wave takes place this summer.