The future of family support for Thai elderly: views of the populace

The number of older persons in Thailand will increase substantially during the coming decades. This paper indicates that future Thai cohorts entering the old age span will have fewer and more dispersed children to depend on while at the same time likely survive to increasingly older ages.

The paper shows that:

• national survey data has documented a steady reduction over the last decades in coresidence with children
• the data indicates a widespread preference for children to be the main care provider when a parent is too old to carry on without assistance
• the decreasing availability of children who coreside or live nearby suggests a disjuncture between the empirical reality and normative preferences

However, the Thai government is taking the challenges of population ageing seriously and may well play a larger role in the future in terms of care provision for the elderly. Moreover, the following points are drawn:

• Thai families are likely to exercise human agency to adapt to the new circumstances
• a possible arrangement could be to pay a relative in the parental locality or a trusted neighbour to take the role of caregiver if a child was unable to return
• future advances in communication technology as well as the spread of home computers are likely to mitigate the effect on social contact of increased dispersion of adult children
• improved long distance transportation will also facilitate the possibility of bringing together elderly parents and absent children when the need to meet arises
• increased economic activity among older persons may provide a substitute for filial material support in the future; therefore, it is suggested to address eliminating the current age limit
• indeed, this can advance elderly employment even in the private sector by helping establishing a new norm about the appropriate age to retire