Wang Yuze et al: Study on the impact of rural labor return on parents' health

Wang Yuze Gong Xiaobei Li Gucheng Hao Zhuang

college of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University

abstract

under the new situation of moderate aging of the population and accelerated return of rural labor force, it is of great significance to study the impact of labor return on the health of middle-aged and elderly parents, which is of great significance to promote the process of healthy aging and help rural revitalization. Based on the new labor migration theory, this paper explains the mechanism of the influence of rural labor backflow on the health of middle-aged and elderly parents, and uses the fixed effect-tool variable model to empirically analyze the effect of labor backflow on the health of parents. The results showed that the return of rural children significantly reduced the probability of hospitalization, medical expenditure and depression of parents, and improved the physical and mental health of parents. The results of the mechanism analysis show that the return of rural children can improve the health status of parents by enhancing the intergenerational support for parents in terms of economy, health and emotion. Further analysis shows that if the demographic characteristics of parents and their children are different, or the social and economic status of the family is different, there are significant differences in the impact of children's return on the health of parents; with the increase of the return time, the impact of children's return on the health of parents shows a trend of diminishing marginal utility; the distance of the return space will affect the health benefits of rural children's return; in economically underdeveloped areas, labor return can significantly improve parents' life satisfaction, but this effect is not significant in economically developed regions. Therefore, in the process of promoting healthy aging in rural areas, it is necessary to fully consider the important role of labor mobility and intergenerational support on the health of the middle-aged and elderly population.

Keywords

rural labor return; parental health; population aging; intergenerational support

provenance: Agricultural Technology and Economics 2025, No. 8, pp. 118-140.