Jiaowei Gong

DOI: doi.org/10.1093/sf/s...

[6] In the Online Appendix (Part C), we further show that intergenerational ties respond even to relatively small physical and cognitive declines, whereas mental health declines only trigger changes at very high thresholds, reinforcing the substantive asymmetry across health domains.

[5] Using difference models, we decompose the transition and show that the reorganization of intergenerational ties following health declines is driven by changes in functional support and contact, rather than by shifts in emotional dimensions.

[4] Compared to families without daughters, those with daughters exhibit much stronger shifts in intergenerational relationship types following physical and cognitive health declines, suggesting that daughters serve as key agents of strategic family resilience.

[3] After physical and cognitive health declines, the closest intergenerational tie shifts toward tighter types, while the most distant tie becomes more divergent. By contrast, mental health declines show little change, likely reflecting the stigma of mental health problems in East Asian contexts.

[2] We first use k-means clustering on multiple dimensions of intergenerational ties (emotional affinity, functional exchange, and associational connection) to classify parent–child relationships into five types, from alienated to tight-knit.

[1] Theoretically, we frame strategic family resilience as a multi-dimensional and gendered family-systems response: health declines prompt families to reorganize intergenerational ties across emotional, functional, and contact dimensions, producing greater differentiation across children.

Excited to share my first publication in sociology at @sfjournal.bsky.social! This study shows how families respond to parental health declines by strategically allocating intergenerational ties. Grateful to my coauthors when I study in China.