Kin Availability of the Elderly in Taiwan: Who Is Available and Where Are They?

This paper presents a detailed examination of the kin network of the elderly in Taiwan, with special emphasis on the number and types of kin currently alive, their location in relation to the elderly kin member, and their patterns of contact extending beyond the household. Despite the dramatic demographic and socioeconomic changes which have occured in Taiwan over the past few decades, this research indicates that the family relationships of the elderly individuals appear to have remained intact.

Although there has been a trend away from coresidence in recent decades, a high proportion of the current elderly in Taiwan continue to coreside with one or more children, and among those not coresiding with a child a large majority have a child living close by. The elderly in Taiwan also tend to maintain a high degree of contact with familiy members and other relatives outside the household. A major axis of differentiation among the current elderly is the division between the Taiwanese and the Mainlanders, arising from the large-scale immigration of Chinese Nationalists shortly after World War II. The Mainlanders (and especially males) have substantially fewer children overall, and a higher proportion of their children are unmarried. In addition, Mainlanders are much more likely to live alone or with a spouse and/or unmarried children than the Taiwanese.

Dataset(s): Survey of Health and Living Status of the Elderly: Taiwan, 1989.