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Intergenerational solidarity, social participation and psychological wellbeing of the elderly in India

Shrestha Saha, National University of Singapore

This study investigates whether intergenerational solidarity and social participation are the critical determinants of subjective wellbeing and psychological distress of the elderly in India. The data has been collected from a cross-sectional survey BKPAI India, 2011, for seven states of India with a total sample of 9852. In particular, the study captures the impact of structural, affectional, associational functional, and consensual solidarity and the role of social engagement. I use multiple regression and logistic regression to see the impact of intergenerational solidarity and social participation on wellbeing and psychological distress, respectively. The study reveals that social participation is positively associated with subjective wellbeing even after controlling socio-economic demographic factors and intergenerational solidarity. However, social participation can significantly reduce the psychological distress only when intergenerational solidarity is not taken into consideration. Emotional solidarity, functional solidarity, and consensual solidarity have shown significant impact on Indian elderlies subjective wellbeing and psychological distress. Structural solidarity (living with an adult son) has a protective effect on Indian parents' wellbeing; however, fully mediated through emotional solidarity. The study suggests that both social participation and intergeneration solidarity have significant protective impact on elderlies' subjective wellbeing, but for psychological distress intergenerational solidarity is more significant.

Keywords: Population ageing, Intergenerational relations, Social network methods, Health and morbidity

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  Presented in Session 54. Intergenerational and Social Support among Older Persons