title: Sources of older parents' ambivalent feelings toward their adult children: the case of rural China.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Relying on the concept of sociological ambivalence, this study investigated the sources of intergenerational ambivalence in rural China, a traditional society that undergoes dramatic demographic, economic, and social changes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were derived from a survey of 1,162 older adults and their 4,396 children in rural Anhui province. Two-level mixed-effects model was carried out to predict ambivalent feelings reported by the older parents toward their adult children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The findings yielded both similar and distinctive predictors of intergenerational ambivalence among the Chinese elderly population compared with their Western counterparts. The Chinese elderly population reported greater ambivalence toward sons than toward daughters. Adult children's higher socioeconomic status, represented by a more prestigious job and an urban household registry status (hukou), was associated with reduced ambivalence among parents. Parents' monetary support to children and assistance with childcare, which is common in rural China due to the massive out-migration, were also associated with higher levels of ambivalent feelings.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We interpreted the findings in the larger social context of strong son preference, large-scale rural-to-urban migration, and rigid rural-urban division in China due to the household registration system. Our findings demonstrate that individual feelings of ambivalence are culturally structured and are determined within complex social environment.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1223, USA. man-guo@uiowa.edu
authors.forename: Man
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: Merril
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Silverstein
mesh_terms: D032721:Adult Children / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations / Q000208:ethnology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D012424:Rural Population; D012737:Sex Factors; D012923:Social Class