Who will do more? The pattern of daily out-of-home activity participation in elderly co-residence households in urban China

Over the last several decades an on-going interest by academics in studies of intra- and inter-personal relationships has revealed complex and dynamic decision-making mechanisms within households. However, previous research has mainly focused on the relationship between partners/spouses in households of couples and/or nuclear families. The intra-household dynamics in household contexts other than couples/spouses and inter-personal relations in these other households remain largely unknown. This paper is therefore dedicated to investigating the intra- and inter-personal interactions of partners/spouses and inter-personal interactions between different generations in elderly co-residence households. Using data from the Nanjing Residents Travel Survey 2012, an asymmetric structure is observed among the interactions between young females and males: males' activity participation is more strongly affected by females' activity engagement than the reverse. The presence of an elderly mother or mother-in-law tends to reduce the interdependence of intra- and inter-personal interactions for both young couples. It is interesting to find that a young female's activities are more determined by her elderly mother in the extended family than her husband. The influence of a young spouse on an old mother's activity participation is also gender-specific. Implications of these findings for public policies are also discussed at the end of the paper. •Males’ activity participation is more strongly affected by that of females than the reverse•The presence of a mother leads to less radeoffs between activities of both spouses•Female’s activities are more determined by her mother in the extended family than her husband•The influence of a young spouse on an old mother’s activity participation is gender-specific