Changing Family Configuration and Elderly Care in Thailand

Abstract

This paper discusses the relationship between rapid aging and unique family structural changes in Thailand. Previous research argued that “socialization of care” had advanced alongside modernization and the aging progress. Similar to other Asian countries, Thai society has both modernized and aged. In Thailand, however, over the last 30 years, the proportion of nuclear family households has decreased, and extended family households have increased. Why has the proportion of extended families increased? From an analysis of the Survey of Older Persons in the Thailand census, the proportion of care by extended family members such as nephews, nieces, and grandchildren has increased in municipal areas. In addition, from fieldwork research in the Bang Si Thong District, we discovered that because some older people do not have children or their children cannot take care of them, they were cared for by other relatives. From our analyses, we discovered this phenomenon of “extended familiarization of care,” where relatives who are not nuclear family members actively take care of older people as a substitute for the older people’s children because of undeveloped public care systems.