Not Just the Purchase Value: How Do We Theorize In-Kind Support and Its Gendered Patterns

• In Event: Family Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3: Caregiving and Support Exchanges Across the Life Course

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to theorize and better understand in-kind support from adult children to their older parents.
Background: Most prior quantitative research combines in-kind support and monetary support into one measure, implying that they are exchangeable. Given that daughters are more likely to provide in-kind support, and the amount of in-kind support tends to be underestimated, these contributions might be under-estimated. Knowing more about in-kind support provides a more accurate picture of intergenerational support.
Method: Using data from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, this study examines the gendered processes that shape in-kind support in China’s rural and urban contexts.
Results: Daughters are substantially more likely than sons to provide in-kind support to their parents. Furthermore, daughters’ in-kind support reflects both their employment status and marital status while sons’ support is primarily driven by marital status. This study found that rural-urban differences are centered on daughters, primarily unmarried daughters.
Conclusion: In-kind support requires more time and mental labor than giving money. In-kind support is highly gendered. Married daughters might face double burdens of providing support to both their own parents and parents-in-law. Rural-urban differences centering on unmarried daughters reflects persistent traditional family norms and limited public support in rural China; rural parents might have higher expectations for unmarried daughters to support them compared to urban parents.

Author

• Shuyin Liu, University of Massachusetts-Amherst