Attitude toward Reliance on Children as Old Age Suport in Transitional Taiwan

Li-Shou Yang, University of Michigan

Using 1986 and 1998 Taiwanese KAP Survey data, this study will examine the impact of social changes on women's expectations for economic reliance on sons and daugthers in old age. We will examine the period trends and cohort trends in the attitudes regarding generational relationship. The pooled data from two repeated surveys allows us to take a broad range of social changes into account and to examine the ways in which social changes intersect with the lives of individuals to affect the attitudes. The hypotheses tested in this study are drawn from a research framework that integrates the modes of social organizations and life course perspectives. We expect to find more significant change in the attitude toward relying on sons than the attitude toward relying on daughters.