Population Ageing and the Well-Being of Older Persons in Thailand ...

Section 5: Family support and intergenerational exchanges
differs only modestly with respect to the gender of
the child as indicated by the ratio of the per cent who
live with single daughters to the per cent who live with
single sons. In contrast, co-residence with married
children is clearly related to the gender of the child
with a substantially greater tendency to live with a
married daughter than son. This reflects a well-known
matrilocal tendency among ethnic Thais, especially
those in the North-East and upper North (Knodel,
Chayovan & Siriboon 1992a). This tendency,
however, is far weaker in urban than rural areas,
undoubtedly reflecting the far greater influence of
Chinese or mixed Thai-Chinese ethnicity (and the
associated preference for residing with a married son)
among older persons in urban areas.
Co-resident grandchildren. Older age Thais often
contribute to their adult children’s well-being by
providing a number of useful services including
helping with household chores, minding the house,
and preparing meals. In addition, as grandparents
they often assist with the care of their grandchildren,
from both co-resident and non co-resident children.
This frees the parents of the grandchildren to engage
in economic activity outside the home. In the case of
caring for grandchildren from migrant children, the
grandparents may take virtually full responsibility for
their upbringing during their formative years. One
potential outcome of this phenomena is the creation
of what is often labeled “skip generation” households
referring to the fact that in some cases grandparents
live together with dependent grandchildren but in the
absence of any of their adult children who have all
either migrated or died. To some extent the AIDS
epidemic contributes to the formation of skip
generation households, especially where the epidemic
is very severe. In Thailand, however, by far the main
cause leading to skip generation households is the
migration of adult children, typically to find
employment. Moreover, as documented in Section
2, migration of children of the elderly has increased
substantially recently, especially among the children
of older persons in rural areas.
There is no standard measure of skip generation
households. For the purpose of this report, we define
skip generation households as those who have one or
more grandchildren but no married child or child
in-law in the household. 17 Figure 5.3 compares the
proportion of older persons who live in skip
generation households in 1994 and 2007. The
results point to a substantial increase during the
intervening period. At both times, elderly are more
likely to be in skip generation households in rural than
urban areas although the rural-urban difference has
become more pronounced. This is consistent with
the evidence presented in Section 2 indicating a
substantial increase in migration among the adult
children of older aged rural Thai parents between 1995
and 2007. At the same time, however, the low
fertility of childbearing adults during this period
undoubtedly moderated the extent of increase in skip
generation households.
The 2007 Survey of Older Persons in Thailand
includes information specifically about the numbers
of co-resident grandchildren with a parent and the
number with no parent in the household (i.e. the
parents either live elsewhere or have died). For
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