A Comparative Study on Supporting Elderly Parents in Asian Cities: Attitudinal Differences among Female Students

Abstract

This paper looks into the differences of attitudes towards supporting elderly parents among female students in six major cities in Asia. For this purpose, surveys were conducted among female university students in Seoul, Hong Kong, Nanjing, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Tokyo. The filial expectations of mothers to the respondents were also asked in the questionnaire. Results showed that the respondents perceived that mothers prefer to be taken care of by their daughters more than their sons in all the cities. Secondly, a majority of the female students intend to give cash assistance to their mothers, except for the Japanese respondents. Thirdly, the attitudes towards supporting elderly mothers are not always related to the level of economic growth of their countries. Finally, hiring foreign domestic helpers is taking an important role in these countries except for Japan, whereas such private arrangements are quite common in Singapore. From this survey, we can see that the attitudes of supporting elderly parents are influenced by welfare values and cultures in these countries. Also, it is observed that the maternal lines are stronger than the paternal lines in supporting elderly parents among the major cities in Asia today.