Sons, Daughters, and Intergenerational Support in Taiwan

Abstract

This study focuses on married children's financial support for their parents in Taiwan. It is often assumed that economic and social changes accompanying industrialization will drastically weaken parental power and thus reduce the support from adult children to parents. The data in this article, however, show that the vast majority of married children, both sons and daughters, provided net financial suppor for their parents during the previous year. The socioeconomic characteristics of the parents and children in the families where financial transfers occurred indicate that the altruism/corporate group model best portrays intergenerational transactions during the period of rapid economic growth.