Changing Intergenerational-Caring Relations in East Asia

This paper is based on both international and comparative research on intergenerational-caring relationships in which women simultaneously provide care for their frail elderly relatives as well as young children/grandchildren in East Asian societies. The ageing of population, the decrease in average number of siblings and the rising average age of mothers at the time of child bearing, all to suggest that new types of intergenerational care relations may increasingly become common in developed countries. East Asian societies are not exceptions. More over such intergenerational caring relations may possibly be more prevalent in East Asia than other European counterparts as facing with acute demographic changes, different family values and carer regimes embedded in the societies.  Through the comparative analysis of data generated from mixed research methods (mainly semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys) in each society, this paper will investigate how these sandwich generations experience a double responsibility of care, by analysing resources available to them from local policy configurations and from their personal and kin networks. We will extend our analysis to the influence of changing family-centred welfare regimes in East Asia on generational caring relations and experiences of women therein.