SIBLING SUPPORT IN LATER LIFE

Abstract

Family care of the elderly has always been focused around spousal support, and the support from children or grandchildren. Now, there is a concern whether these family members will be available in later life given the rising divorce and singlehood rates, and the competing life demands for the children or grandchildren of the elderly. Siblings as a potential resource in late-life has been overlooked in local practice, policies, and research. This study is based on the data collected from 92 elderly Chinese in the day rehabilitation programme. A path model is used where sibling support is examined along with the instrumental support received from the elders' all other support sources. The actual and perceived availability of instrumental support from siblings are the dependent variables. Other predictor variables include sibling relationship and geographic proximity. The results indicate that instrumental support is received from siblings only in the absence of both the spousal and children ties. Furthermore, the amount of sibling support is contingent upon the geographic proximity between the elderly and their closest siblings. And sibling relationship is important in· predicting the elders' perception of receiving instrumental support from their closest siblings. The implications of these findings for both the current and future elderly will be discussed in terms of practice, policy, theory and research.