Living with offspring surely brings happiness to the elderly?—the heterogeneity in the effect of living arrangements on the life satisfaction of the Chinese elderly

• Published in: Procedia computer science Vol. 214; pp. 359 - 366
• Main Author: Zhu, Meihong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 2022
• Subjects: causal forests; effect; heterogeneity; individual treatment effect (ITE); living arrangements; individual treatment effect (ITE); living arrangements; causal forests; heterogeneity; effect
• ISSN: 1877-0509; 1877-0509
• DOI: 10.1016/j.procs.2022.11.186

This paper studies the effect of living arrangements on the life satisfaction of the Chinese elderly. It first points out that the effect is significant, and living with offspring can improve the life satisfaction of the elderly on average. Then, by employing a machine learning algorithm—causal forests, it spotlights an exploration of the heterogeneity in this effect. The effect heterogeneity is expressed by the difference of individual treatment effect (ITE) where an individual is indicated by the characteristics of covariates. Especially, the elderly with the following characteristics, significantly benefit from living with their offspring: female, rural residential identity, relatively older, low education level, bad physical and mobility condition, seldom participating in social activities, no spouse accompanying, poor financial conditions, a small number of surviving children, much emotional interaction with their children, small financial support to children, much daily care from children. These results demonstrate empirical relationships between living arrangements, individual and family characteristics, and life satisfaction of the Chinese elderly, and provide a valuable reference for families and society to develop appropriate eldercare plans for the happy lives of the elderly.