Ageing in the context of accompanying migration: a leisure stress coping perspective

ABSTRACT

The migration of older adults is receiving increasing academic attention. Existing research, however, gives little attention to accompanying migrants who migrate for the purpose of intergenerational caring, which is particularly typical in China, and its impact on older adult immigrants’ well-being. Based on the leisure stress coping model, this study explores the leisure stress coping mechanisms of accompanying migrants in the Chinese cultural context. Data were collected through 42 in-depth interviews with Chinese accompanying migrants. The findings revealed that accompanying migrants perceived three dimensions of stress: adaptation stress, obligation stress, and role stress. Under the influence of leisure coping beliefs, migrants adopted coping strategies including seeking support, shifting focus, and self-adjustment. Consequently, the stress-coping process was realised through leisure activities such as exercise, social events, and sightseeing. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Accompanying migrants
• stress coping
• leisure activities
• ageing
• Chinese

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contribution

Jiaying Lyu led research design, data analyses, and manuscript review. Xueyu Wang led data collection, data analyses, conceptualisation, manuscript preparation and revision. Daisy X.F. Fan contributes to data analyses, manuscript preparation and revision.

Notes

1. ‘Hukou’ is a system of household registration used in mainland China. The hukou system assigns an agricultural (rural) or non-agricultural (urban) residency origin to each individual at birth, tying their rights to the entitlements (or lack thereof) inherent in their hukou status (Y. Zhu & Österle, 2017).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant number [71974173].

Notes on contributors

Jiaying Lyu

Jiaying Lyu is a professor at International School of Cultural Tourism, Hangzhou City University, China. Her research interests are rural tourism and digitalization, destination management, leisure and wellbeing.

Xueyu Wang

Xueyu Wang is a Ph.D student in the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management, at School of Management, Zhejiang University, China. Her research interests include ageing, leisure and tourism digitalization.

Daisy X. F. Fan

Daisy X. F. Fan is a Principal Academic in the Department of People and Organisations at Bournemouth University Business School, UK. Her research interests include tourist-host social contact, ageing and wellbeing, cultural distance and cruise travel.