The Health Benefits of Daughters-in-law
"With her two daughters-in-law she [Naomi] left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah." -Ruth 1:7
"But Ruth replied: "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." -Ruth 1:16-17
(China)—In a throwback to the Biblical story of Ruth and Naomi, a new study finds that the assistance of daughters-in-law—but not their own children—helps mitigate depression among older people in China. Considering China's one child policy and the fact that sons are more valued than daughters, it comes, perhaps, as no surprise.
According to a EurekAlert report, Dr. Zhen Cong and Professor Merril Silverstein of the USC Davis School of Gerontology were intrigued by earlier findings showing that intergenerational support, particularly hands-on care, had inconsistent effects on the psychological well-being of Chinese elders. (Photo: USC News)
Cong and Silverstein looked at rural Anhui province, where rates of depression are twice that of their urban counterparts (though still much lower than in the West). They found that "instrumental support"—such as personal care and household chores—a positive effect on well-being, depending on who was providing the service.
When women shared a home with their in-laws, their presence and support was particularly beneficial to the psychological well-being of older mothers. Daughters-in-law provided the overwhelming majority of personal care for older women in a household, the researchers found.
Similarly, the report adds, mothers who received an increase in household support from daughters-in-law had fewer depressive symptoms, while those who experienced an increase in household support from their own daughters had more depressive symptoms.
"A general pattern emerged that supported the prolific and meaningful contributions of daughters-in-law in the support systems of older people in rural China," Silverstein says.
"Aversion to household support from daughters and sons was sufficiently strong among older mothers and fathers to cause negative psychological outcomes, affirming the adverse emotional consequences that result when traditional expectations are violated."
The researchers note that almost two-thirds of the older population in China lives in rural areas, making it the largest concentration of older adults in the world.
