The Filial Piety Paradox: Receiving Help from Children and Older Adults’ Quality of Life

In Singapore, the “many helping hands” policy approach to supporting older persons strongly emphasizes self-reliance and the role of familial support in old age. This aligns with strong norms of filial obligation in many Asian societies. Yet, more older adults are living alone or in non-family-based households. In this seminar, I will discuss two related projects investigating (1) the composition of social support networks among older adults; and (2) whether child-provided support (and what kind) promotes older adults’ well-being. Data were from a nationally representative survey of older Singaporeans. Findings suggest that older adults have diverse support networks, and that the effects of receiving support from children are not unequivocally positive.

About the Speaker: Shannon Ang

Shannon is currently Assistant Professor of Sociology at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He studies the health and social lives of older adults, focusing on their social participation and social support. His current interests include how older adults stay socially connected using the internet, and the adequacy of family support for older adults. Findings from these studies have been published in academic journals such as Social Science and Medicine, Demography, American Journal of Epidemiology, and Journals of Gerontology Series B: Social Sciences, amongst others.