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

Section 5: Family support and intergenerational exchanges
Figure 5.4 provides information on who provides care
and material support for grandchildren who live with
their grandparents but whose parents are absent. In
slightly half of the cases, a grandparent is the main
person caretaker for the grandchildren but in only a
relatively small per cent are the grandparents the
primary providers of financial support for the child.
Instead, the parents of the grandchild typically take
responsibility for their children’s financial support. A
similar finding emerged from a recent specialized
survey addressing the implications of migration of
adult children for their older age rural parents (Knodel
et al. 2007). This undoubtedly reflects an ability to
send remittances by adult children who migrated
elsewhere to find employment. In a small number of
cases grandchildren take care of and financially
support themselves, presumably reflecting the some
are themselves adults.
5.2 Material Support
Children can be important sources of economic
support to elderly parents through providing money,
food, and goods. As indicated in Section 3, children
frequently are cited as a source of income with just
over half of all older persons reporting that children
are their main source of current income. Figure 5.5
compares results from 1994 and 2007 Surveys of Older
Persons in Thailand with respect to children as a source
of income for elderly parents. Since only those older
persons with living children can receive income from
children, results are limited to respondents who have
at least one living child.
In both surveys the large majority of parents reported
that they received income in the prior year from
children. Also in both surveys over half of the parents
indicated that children were their main source of
income. The per cent who received any income is a
little higher for rural than urban parents but about
the same per cent of both groups in each survey report
children as their main source of income. Perhaps most
striking is the lack of change between the two surveys
in either measure. This contradicts impressions
promoted in the mass media that “an increasing
number [of elderly] do not get support from their
younger relatives.” (The Nation 2007). 19
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