Prof Maria Evandrou

Responsibilities:

Head of the Department of Ageing/Gerontology, Director of the Centre for Research on Ageing, Co-Director ESRC Centre for Population Change, Professor of Gerontology.

Research interests:

Professor Maria Evandrou’s research interests span three distinct but related areas of investigation: inequalities in later life; informal carers and employment; and the retirement prospects of future generations of elders. A unifying theme throughout much of her research is the use of a dynamic, life course perspective.

Contact:

Centre for Research on Ageing Social Sciences University of Southampton Southampton SO17 1BJ United Kingdom.

Room Number: 58/4101

Telephone: (023) 8059 4808

Facsimile: (023) 8059 4800

Email: maria.evandrou@soton.ac.uk

• Research at the University of Southampton is contributing to the evidence base in this area. Members of the Centre have been part of an international team on the ESRC-funded project entitled ‘Left behind? Assessing the impact of internal labour migration on patterns of intergenerational support and the health and well-being of children and older people: the cases of China and South Africa’, in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the University of Witwatersrand/ Agincourt DSS and the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies. The research has explored the impact of internal labour migration on the health and well-being of the household members who are ‘left behind’ in rural sending areas in China and South Africa, particularly children and older people. For further information see http://www.southampton.ac.uk/ageingcentre/research-projects/index.page
• A team from the Centre for Research on Ageing (Evandrou, Falkingham, Feng, Vlachantoni) is currently investigating inequalities in health amongst older people in China, with a particular focus on the role that inequalities in the provision of health services across provinces may play once differences in individual characteristics are taken into account. Research from the team has been presented at the Inaugural WUN Global China Conference on ‘Family Transition, Ageing, and Social Security’ held in Hong Kong in December 2013 and published in a number of papers (see http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353829214001269
• On-going research is investigating changes in living arrangements, sources of social support and survivorship amongst older people in China. In addition there are a number of PhD projects including:
• Mr Yekai Chen: ‘Social change and older people’s wellbeing in rural China: a mixed method perspective.’
• Miss Yajie Nie: ‘Modelling long-term care for older people in China.’
• Miss Ning Wang: ‘Social Change and Family Support in China -a Study of China’s 1940-1960 Cohorts from the Life Course Perspective .’
• Miss Maodi Xu: ‘Labour force participation of the Chinese elderly: evidence from the CHARLS data.’
• Miss Yazhen Yang: ‘Intergenerational Relations: The Changing Pattern of Economic, Social and Psychological Transfers in Chinese Families .’

Papers:

Evandrou, M., Falkingham, J., Feng, Z., and Vlachantoni, A. (2014) Individual and Province Inequalities in Health among Older People in China: Evidence and Policy Implications, Health & Place, 30, 134-144.

Falkingham, J. Social security in an ageing world: challenges and opportunities (Keynote speech at the Inaugural WUN Global China Conference on Family Transition, Ageing, and Social Security)

Zhixin Frank Feng. Social security inequality among elderly Chinese persons (presentation at the Inaugural WUN Global China Conference on Family Transition, Ageing, and Social Security)

Evandrou, M., Falkingham, J., Feng, Z., and Vlachantoni, A. Individual and province inequalities in health among older people in China: evidence and policy implications. (presentation at the Inaugural WUN Global China Conference on Family Transition, Ageing, and Social Security)

Feng, Z., Jones, K., and Wang, W., An exploratory discrete-time multilevel analysis of the effect of social support on the survival of elderly people in China, Social Science & Medicine, 130, 181-189.

Phillips, D.R. and Feng, Z. (2015) Influences on and challenges to the family in their support of older persons in the People’s Republic of China. Canadian Journal on Ageing, 34 (3), pp. 290-304.

Jordan, L. P., Ren, q. & Falkingham, J.  (2015) Youth Education and Learning in Twenty-First Century China Disentangling the Impacts of Migration, Residence, and Hukou, Chinese Sociological Review 09/2014; 47(1):57-83.

Feng, Z., Vlachantoni, A., Liu, X and Jones, K. (2016) Social trust, interpersonal trust and self-rated health in China: a multi-level study. International Journal for Equity in Health, 15: 180, DOI 10.1186/s12939-016-0469-7.

Lei, P., Feng, Z., and Wu, Z. (2016) The availability and affordability of long term care for disabled elderly people in China: the issues related to uneven social security benefits. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 67, 21-27.

Jing, W., Willis, R and Feng, Z. (2016) Factors influencing quality of life of elderly people with dementia and care implications: a systematic review. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 66, 23-41.

Feng, Z., Vlachantoni, A., Falkingham, J and Evandrou, M. (2016) Ethnic differentials in health: the additional effect of ethnic density. Population, Space and Place. DOI: 10.1002/psp.2030.

Vlachantoni, A., Feng, Z., Evandrou, M., and Falkingham, J. (2016) Ethnic elders and pension protection in the United Kingdom. Ageing and Society. DOI:10.1017/S0144686X16000143.

Evandrou, M., Falkingham, J., Feng, Z., and Vlachantoni, A. (2016)Ethnic inequalities in limiting health and self-reported health in later life revisited. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. 70, 653-662.

Feng, Z., Vlachantoni, A., Evandrou, M., and Falkingham, J. (2016) Neighbourhood effects and pension protection amongst ethnic minorities in England and Wales. Population, Space and Place. 22, 317-331.

Book Chapters

Phillips, D.R. and Feng, Z. (forthcoming in 2017) Demographics and Aging, In W Wu & M Frazier (Eds.), Handbook on Contemporary China. London: SAGE. (Accepted on 1/10/2016)

Phillips, D.R. and Feng, Z. (forthcoming in 2017) Global ageing, In M Skinner, G Andrews & M Cutchin (Eds.),  Geographical Gerontology: Concepts and Approaches. Oxford: Routledge. (Accepted on 25/10/2016)

• 5-6 December 2013: Members of the CRA participated at the Inaugural WUN Global China Conference on Family Transition, Ageing, and Social Security

Professor Evandrou and Dr Vlachantoni presented a joint paper (with Prof. Falkingham and Dr Feng) on “Individual and Province Inequalities in Health among Older People in China: Evidence and Policy Implications” ; Professor Falkingham gave a plenary talk on “Social Security in An Ageing World: Challenges and Opportunities”, while Dr Zhixin Frank Feng presented on “Social Security Inequality among Elderly Chinese Persons”.

http://www.southampton.ac.uk/ageing/news/2014/02/03_members_of_the_cra_participated_at_the_inaugural_wun.page

Professor Jane Falkingham at Inaugural WUN Global China Conference

Dr Athina ConferenceVlachantoni at the Inaugural WUN Global China 

Dr Frank Feng at  Inaugural WUN Global China Conference

• 30th-31st Oct, 2014, Urbanization and Development in China, Southampton, UK

Paper: Evandrou, M., Falkingham, J., Feng, Z., and Vlachantoni, A. Individual and province inequalities in health among older people in China: evidence and policy implications.

Paper: Zhixin Feng.  Social trust, interpersonal trust and self-rated health in China-A multilevel study.

• 5th-9th, Novermber, 2014: The Gerontological Society of America, Washington D.C

Paper: Zhixin Feng. Social security inequality among the elderly Chinese persons

Poster: Zhixin Feng. An exploratory discrete-time multilevel analysis of the effect of social support on the survival of the elderly in China

Dr Feng at The Gerontological Society of America, Washington D.C, 2014

• 21st -24th May, 2015: Interdisciplinary Research on Long-term Care and Healthy Aging, Hangzhou, China.

Paper: Zhixin Feng, Jones, Kelvyn, & Winnie Wang. An exploratory discrete-time multilevel analysis of the effect of social support on the survival of the elderly in China

Dr Feng at Interdisciplinary Research on Long-term Care and Healthy Aging, Hangzhou, China,2015.

• Engagement with Chinese academics:

International delegation visits CPC

CPC, along with the Centre for Research on Ageing and the Care Life Cycle Project were delighted to host a delegation of ageing specialists from China during on Monday 17 April 2015.

A series of meetings were held to discuss research on ageing and how the University of Southampton might collaborate with academics from China to support them in addressing the challenge of an ageing population.

The delegation included;

• Prof Du Peng, Director of Renmin University’s Gerontology Institute;
• Mr. Zhao Baohua, acting president of Gerontological Society of China; and
• Professor Han Buxin, a leading scholar on the psychology of ageing from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Link: http://www.cpc.ac.uk/latest_news/?action=story&id=414

• PhD student from CRA join the Research Mobility Programme (RMP) to visit our WUN (Worldwide Universities Network) partners Zhejiang University in China

Miss Yajie Nie – Social and Human Sciences/Business and Law: ‘Modelling long-term care for older people in China’ – Keywords: Ageing, long-term care, China – Host University: Zhejiang University

This research develops and uses a Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) model (SIMCARE-CHINA) to map the long-term care (LTC) system for older people in China, to project LTC needs and receipt of care for older people, and discuss the implications of the results for future planning and policies

Link: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/research/research-funding/researcher-mobility.page

Miss Wang Ning – Faculty of Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences – Gerontology: ‘Social change and family support in China – a study of China’s 1940 – 1960 cohorts from a life course perspective’ Host University: Zhejiang University

This research uses mixed methods to investigate the impacts of social and demographic change on family support amongst three cohorts of chinese elders, born in the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s. The results will shed light on the future old-age family support situations and inform reform of social support system in China.

Link: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/research/research-funding/researcher-mobility.page

Staff

• Professor Maria Evandrou
  Professor Maria Evandrou is the Head of the Department of Ageing/Gerontology, Director of the Centre for Research on Ageing, Co-Director ESRC Centre for Population Change, Professor of Gerontology. Her research interests span three distinct but related areas of investigation: inequalities in later life; informal carers and employment; and the retirement prospects of future generations of elders. A unifying theme throughout much of her research is the use of a dynamic, life course perspective. Prof. Evandrou is part of an international team on the ESRC-funded project entitled ‘Left behind? Assessing the impact of internal labour migration on patterns of intergenerational support and the health and well-being of children and older people: the cases of China and South Africa’.
  University web page:http://www.southampton.ac.uk/ageing/about/staff/evandrou.page?
• Professor Jane Falkingham
  Professor Jane Falkingham is Dean of the Faculty of Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Southampton. She is currently the Director of the ESRC Centre for Population Change and also the University of Southampton based associates for Centre for Research on Ageing. Her research interests are: The drivers and consequences of population change, both in the UK and internationally; Ageing, intergenerational relations and the changing life course; Population ageing and social security, in particular the design of pensions systems and their impact upon resources in later life; The redistributive effect of the welfare state, in particular how it varies both across the life-cycle for an individual and also between cohorts with changes in the life course. Prof. Falkingham is part of an international team on the ESRC-funded project entitled ‘Left behind? Assessing the impact of internal labour migration on patterns of intergenerational support and the health and well-being of children and older people: the cases of China and South Africa’.
  University web page: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/demography/about/staff/jcf1.page?
• Professor Asghar Zaidi
  Professor Asghar Zaidi is the Professor in International Social Policy, Visiting Professor at London School of Economics; and Senior Advisor, European Centre Vienna. His research interests are in Population ageing and its social and economic consequences; Active and healthy ageing; Pension policy and its impact on fiscal and social sustainability of welfare states; Labour market status and social exclusion of persons with disabilities; Poverty and social exclusion among older people and Dynamic microsimulation modelling. During 2015-2016, he will be the Principal Investigator of the newly funded ESRC project ‘Understanding quality of life and well-being of older people – Case studies of China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh’, in partnership with HelpAge International.
  University web page: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/ageing/about/staff/az1y11.page?
• Dr Athina Vlachantoni
  Dr Athina Vlachantoni is the Associate Professor in Gerontology and the Head of Teaching Programmes. Her research interests broadly combine the areas of ageing, gender and social policy. She was involved, with colleagues from Southampton, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the University of Witwatersrand/Agincourt DSS and the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, in a project exploring the impact of internal labour migration on intergenerational support and wellbeing of children and older people in China and South Africa. For more information visit ageingcentre website. http://www.southampton.ac.uk/ageingcentre/research-projects/index.page?
  University web page: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/ageing/about/staff/av1w07.page?
• Dr Zhixin Frank Feng
  Dr Zhixin Frank Feng is Research Fellow within Social Sciences: Ageing/Gerontology at the University of Southampton. His research interests are on Social security, aging, health, geography effects. Dr Feng’s PhD thesis is about “A Longitudinal Multilevel Study of the Health Outcomes for the Elderly in China” in the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol (2013) and he has a series of publications on ageing and health in China.
  University web page: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/ageing/about/staff/zf1f12.page?
• Dr Qian Xiong
  Dr Qian Xiong is Teaching Fellow within Social Sciences: Ageing/Gerontology at the University of Southampton. She got her PhD in the Department of Sociology at the Texas A&M University and her research focuses on the impacts of social and demographic changes on fertility, health and longevity across countries. Her dissertation concentrated on changes in fertility and fertility attitudes of people who migrate from rural to urban areas and she examined the effects of migration and urbanization on marital fertility as well as the changing fertility preferences in China.
  University web page: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/ageing/about/staff/qian-xiong.page?

PhD students

• Mr Yekai Chen: Yekai is a MPhil/PhD student supervised by Professor Maria Evandrou and Dr Athina Vlachantoni. His PhD research is using a mixed method perspective to investigate Social change and older people’s wellbeing in rural China.
• Miss Yajie Nie: Yajie is Joint MPhil/PhD in Operational Research and Gerontology, supervised by Professor Sally Brailsford and Professor Maria Evandrou. Her PhD research is about modelling Long-Term Care (LTC) system for old people in China, which is focused on building and using a discrete-event simulation model and Markov model to facilitate policy-makers to plan LTC service for old people in China.
• Miss Ning Wang: Ning is a MPhil/PhD student supervised by Professor Maria Evandrou and Professor Jane Falkingham. Her current PhD program is using the life course perspective, to investigate the changing life course of China’s three cohorts and the impacts on their later life family support.
• Miss Maodi Xu: Maodi is a MPhil/PhD student supervised by Professor Maria Evandrou and Professor Jane Falkingham. Her PhD research is about ‘Retirement behaviours of the older people in China-evidence from CHARLS.’
• Miss Yazhen Yang: Yazhen is a PhD student supervised by Professor Maria Evandrou and Dr Athina Vlachantoni. Her PhD research is investigating the changes of monetary, social and psychological support in Chinese families based on the longitudinal analysis of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) data.