Between Family and Community: Intergenerational Interactions and Pathways to Active Ageing in Urban China
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: ABSTRACT This article examines how intergenerational interactions intersect with community resources to shape pathways to active ageing among urban older adults in China. Drawing on intergenerational solidarity theory, it conceptualises family and community as an integrated configuration in which care responsibilities and moral expectations are redistributed rather than simply shifted. Based on 40 semi‐structured interviews conducted in a subdistrict of Health Commission of Changning District Shanghai (2024), the analysis compares three residential arrangements: three‐generation co‐residence, empty‐nest households with distant children, and proximate but non‐co‐resident families (“a bowl of soup's distance”). It identifies three pathways: facilitation, where stable family support enables community participation; substitution, where community services replace routine functional support under distance; and complementarity, where proximity and community embeddedness jointly sustain autonomy. Across pathways, active ageing emerges as a moralised achievement sustained through self‐discipline, selective disclosure, and restrained help‐seeking to avoid “burdening” adult children.
Source: Population Space and Place
DOI: 10.1002/psp.70385
Authors: Jiayao Zhou, Geoffrey C. Chen
Institution: Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7221764307