Intergenerational Family Relationships and Their Impact on Preferences for Meeting Future Care Needs Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in Taiwan

This chapter investigates middle-aged and older adults’ preferences for meeting future care needs in Taiwan to examine the relationship between intergenerational family relationships and preferred sources of care. Data were taken from the 2016 Taiwan Social Change Survey. While most middle-aged and older adults preferred home care, more than 40% favored community-based care and institutional care. The ideal form of older adult care in the minds of middle-aged and older people in Taiwan has altered from that in traditional times. Intergenerational family relationships were related to preferences for meeting future care needs, and gender played a significant role. The more assistance older men provided to adult children, the more they preferred to receive institutional care. The more conflicts older women had with adult children, the more they preferred to receive institutional care. The influence of filial norms was still salient for both men and women; those who expected less of their adult children to fulfill filial piety preferred to receive institutional care in later years.