Adult Children's Financial Support of Older Parents in Asia: (How) Does Family Size Matter? An Examination of the Singaporean Case

Vanessa Yong, Brown University

Declining fertility levels and population aging in many Asian countries are leading to concerns about their implications for the support of the growing numbers and proportion of elderly, particularly the future cohorts of older parents who are likely to have fewer numbers of children. Using the children's file (n=8,615) from the survey, Transitions in Health, Wealth and Welfare of Elderly Singaporeans, 1995-1999, this paper investigates variations in adult children's financial support of older parents by family size in Singapore. The multivariate findings support the old age security hypothesis and provide evidence for a significant positive relationship between family size and financial support. The association is however curvilinear with the increase in total monetary amount received by older parents at a declining rate with each additional child. Policy implications of this finding is discussed.