Factors Associated with Life Satisfaction among Migrant Grandparent Caregivers in Sichuan Province, China
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Abstract
This study aimed to (1) assess the level of life satisfaction among migrant grandparent caregivers in Sichuan Province, China; (2) examine the associations of policy implementation effectiveness, age-friendly community governance effectiveness, digital public service inclusiveness, and intergenerational relationship quality with life satisfaction. Data were collected from 385 migrant grandparent caregivers using a structured questionnaire with five-point Likert-scale measures. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression were used for data analysis.
The results showed that migrant grandparent caregivers reported moderate life satisfaction. All four contextual factors were significantly and positively associated with life satisfaction. The regression model explained 28.0% of the variance in life satisfaction. Among the predictors, age-friendly community governance effectiveness had the strongest standardized association with life satisfaction, followed by digital public service inclusiveness, intergenerational relationship quality, and policy implementation effectiveness.
Theoretically, these findings empirically validate the integrated framework of Ecological Systems Theory and Person-Environment Fit in the context of late-life migration, demonstrating that life satisfaction is shaped by the interplay among multiple nested environmental systems (community, digital, family, and policy) rather than by family conditions alone. In practice, the results suggest that targeted interventions should prioritize enhancing age-friendly community governance and bridging the digital divide for older adults, as these proximal environmental factors show the strongest associations with their life satisfaction. Furthermore, fostering the quality of intergenerational relationships remains a crucial family-level support mechanism.
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