Which Child Is Parents’ Preferred Caregiver/Listener in China?

Adult children are an important source of care providers for parents in a rapidly aging Chinese society, but we know little of which particular child is preferred by parents in time of need. Using the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey, we investigate the factors associated with parental preference of caregivers and listeners among all his or her children. With children nested within each parent, we fit the conditional (family) fixed-effect fractional logit model. The main results for both caregivers and listeners suggest a preference for the unmarried, the oldest or the youngest, and children who have provided them with support before. Coresident children are favored in rural but not urban China. We did not find preference for sons over daughters. Neither did we find any effect of prior transfers from parents to children. Our findings shed light on the changing norms of eldercare provision in a transitioning society