Research Background and Purposes: The influences of population ageing and declining birthrate have led to many challenges for informal elder care, while the responsibility of informal elder care is mainly taken by adult children. Therefore, this study selected the elders of different self-perception of health conditions as research subjects, in order to investigate the generational communication between the elders and their eldest sons and daughters and to analyze the influences of extent of generational communication on self- perception of health conditions.
Research Method: This study used a secondary data analysis of cross-sectional studies to analyze the data released from the RR2006 database of the Programs for the Study of Chinese Families of Academia Sinica in 2006. The subjects were 833 elderly people over the age of 60.
Research Results: There were three findings in the results: First, in the aspect of variable of socio-
demographic characteristics, elderly female, presently unemployed, had not retired, and the elderly with worse living conditions over the past year showed worse self-perception of health conditions. Second, in the aspect of variable of the extent of generational communication between the elderly people and their eldest sons and daughters, it was found that the extent of generational communication between the elders and their eldest sons had no influence on self-perception of health conditions. Third, the weaker the extent of generational communication and associational solidarity between the elders and their eldest daughters were, the worse self-perception of health conditions was.
Research Conclusions: Elderly female, presently unemployed, had not retired, and the elderly who had poor living conditions over the past year showed worse self-perception of health conditions. The elderly people who had weaker extent of associational solidarity and structural solidarity with their eldest daughters had worse self-perception of health conditions; however, the extent of generational
communication between the elders and their eldest sons had no significant influence on self-perception of health conditions.
