Which Sons Live with their Parents: How do Sons’ and their Male Siblings’ Exchanges with Parents Matter?

Zhen Cong, University of Southern California
Merril Silverstein, University of Southern California
Shuzhuo Li, Xi'an Jiaotong University

This article investigates in rural China how migrant sons, through their “time-for-money” exchanges with parents, influence the odds that parents coreside with other non-migrant sons, and how non-migrant sons’ previous migration experience influences their odds of coresiding with parents after they return to the village through their previous exchanges with parents. Based on a two-wave longitudinal study in Anhui Province, China, collected in 2001 and 2003, our working sample included 662 elders who had at least one non-migrant son, corresponding to 994 observations, each representing one non-migrant son, but with migrant siblings’ information embedded. Using clustered logistic regression, we found “time-for-money” exchanges with migrant sons reduced elders’ odds to coreside with any non-migrant son. Providing help to a non-migrant son increased elders’ odds to coreside with this child, but whether the child had previous migration experience does not make a difference in the odds increased.