📁 Research · 2022–2023
Intergenerational Care & Elderly Well-being Research Project
Who holds the family together — and at what cost?
In rapidly urbanizing cities, childcare is increasingly shifting across generations. Grandparents are no longer occasional helpers — they have become primary caregivers. Over 50% of elderly individuals in China are involved in raising grandchildren. Yet most discussions focus on children and parents. The elderly are rarely centered in this system.
Project Info
Mixed-methods research on skip-generation caregiving in urban China, centering the elderly experience.
Focus
What this research explores
This research centers on the elderly as the often-invisible backbone of urban family life — examining how the caregiving role reshapes their lives across three dimensions.
Physical Health
How caregiving reshapes elderly bodies and health — sustained physical labor, repetitive strain, and the long-term toll on aging bodies.
Mental Well-being
How caregiving influences mental states and emotional well-being — the coexistence of fulfillment, stress, fatigue, and loss of personal time.
Family Tension
How family dynamics and generational gaps create tension — conflicting parenting beliefs, communication breakdowns, and invisible emotional friction.
Method
Grounded in data and lived experience
A mixed-method approach combining systematic literature review with in-depth field interviews — grounding insights in both academic evidence and the texture of real lives.
12
Literature Review
Academic sources spanning sociology, gerontology, and public health — mapping the structural forces behind skip-generation caregiving.
39
Field Interviews
Elderly caregivers and young parents in Chongqing — conversations about daily routines, emotional states, family tensions, and sense of self.
What We Found
Five patterns across all interviews
Across 39 conversations, five consistent themes emerged — each pointing to a different dimension of how caregiving restructures elderly lives.
A System, Not a Choice
Caregiving is driven by structure, not preference: work pressure on young parents, lack of accessible childcare, cultural expectations of family responsibility. Grandparenting becomes inevitable infrastructure — something entered into without real alternative.
Physical Cost
Caregiving is labor-intensive: continuous supervision, repetitive physical strain, long-term health risks. Aging bodies are pushed into high-intensity care work — a sustained demand that accumulates over months and years.
Emotional Duality
A condition of being "tired, but needed" — held together by love and obligation at once.
Rewarding
- Sense of purpose
- Emotional fulfillment
- Family belonging
Exhausting
- Stress and fatigue
- Loss of personal time
- Ongoing responsibility
Disappearing Self
Social lives shrink, hobbies disappear, daily routines revolve entirely around children. Caregiving leads to a gradual loss of personal identity — a slow erosion rather than a single break.
Invisible Tension
Intergenerational differences create friction: conflicting parenting styles, communication gaps, subtle but persistent conflicts. Often minimized by both sides — but emotionally accumulative, and rarely resolved.
Core Insight
Intergenerational caregiving is not just a family choice. It is a hidden support system sustaining urban life. But within this system — the people who hold it together are also the ones most overlooked.
Solution
Design Direction
Rather than treating intergenerational caregiving as a problem to eliminate, this project reframes it as a system to support, balance, and sustain.
01
Knowledge Platform
A content-based system designed to bridge the generational knowledge gap. Translates modern parenting concepts into accessible formats for elderly users. Reduces conflicts caused by misaligned caregiving beliefs. Content delivered through text + audio.
→ Supporting caregivers without increasing cognitive load
02
Daily Support Tool
A lightweight digital system integrated into daily caregiving routines. Structures information into clear modules. Encourages rest and self-awareness. Reduces mental fatigue through simplified interaction design.
→ Transforming caregiving from constant pressure into a manageable rhythm
03
Social Layer
A shared space for elderly caregivers to reconnect socially. Enables peer-to-peer experience sharing. Provides a channel for emotional expression. Rebuilds a sense of community and belonging.
→ Shifting caregiving from an isolated task to a collective experience
04
Intergenerational Interaction
A play-based system designed for both children and caregivers. Encourages co-participation instead of passive supervision. Combines learning, interaction, and entertainment.
→ Turning caregiving into a collaborative and engaging process
Knowledge
→ reduces misunderstanding
Tools
→ support daily behavior
Community
→ supports emotional well-being
Interaction
→ strengthens relationships
Outcome
Early-stage evaluation suggests positive impact across engagement, usability, and emotional experience.
226
subscribers — content platform reach
512
avg views per article, 8 articles published
11
users in usability testing — found system clear and easy to navigate
10
participants in play-based intervention — enhanced intergenerational communication
"While the sample size is limited and findings are exploratory, the project demonstrates how design interventions can meaningfully support overlooked caregivers. Supporting caregiving is not about efficiency — it is about restoring balance in a system where care has become invisible."