Introduction

How to do a good job of old age, old age and old age are the three major challenges that the aging society needs to face. One of them is residence, which is directly related to the survival and welfare status of the elderly.

In China, family old age has long been regarded as the main form of rural old age. However, with the economic and social development of rural areas and the increase of children’s migration mobility, the residential intentions of rural elderly people have changed, such as more and more rural elderly people living independently or alone with their spouses, which poses a challenge to the traditional family elderly care in China. In this context, it is important to study the residence intention of the elderly.

Older people’s intention to live is closely related to their economic status, physical health, as well as psychological and emotional aspects, and older people’s intention to live can largely affect their quality of life.

Although there are many existing studies on elderly people’s willingness to live, there are few studies specifically on elderly people’s willingness to live in rural areas, and the previous studies on the current situation and changes of elderly people’s willingness to live have some limitations. First, most of them use data before 2006 or regional data, which are not very representative.

Secondly, most of the previous studies investigated the correlation and significance of these factors in terms of gender, age, education level and marital status of the elderly in influencing their willingness to live with their children, but rarely addressed the willingness of the rural elderly to live in elderly care institutions.

This paper examines the latest characteristics and trends of the willingness of rural elderly to live in institutions by using data from the “Tracking Surveys on the Status of China’s Urban and Rural Elderly Population” conducted by the China Research Center on Aging in 2000, 2006 and 2010, respectively, to provide basic data and empirical evidence for future research and policy formulation on family and social elderly care in rural areas. The study will provide basic data and empirical support for future research and policy formulation in the areas of family and social retirement.

Characteristics and changes of elderly people’s intention to live in rural areas in China (2000-2010)

Many domestic and foreign scholars have found that older people are increasingly reluctant to live with their children, and the proportion of independent living and living with spouses is increasing. This is mainly because as social competition intensifies, the elderly fear that continuing to live with their children will add to their children’s burden, and that living separately is conducive to avoiding conflicts between the two generations due to differences in lifestyles.

When they can take care of themselves, the elderly mainly live with their families, and the proportion of those who want to live independently or with their spouses is higher; when they cannot take care of themselves, the proportion of those who want to live with their children or go to an institution is higher.

1.The willingness of the rural elderly to live with their children is gradually decreasing

In the past ten years, the proportion of rural elderly people who are willing to live with their children decreased from 59.2% in 2000 to 53.6% in 2010, a decrease of 6.6 percentage points. The proportion of those who are not willing to live with their children rose from 15.4% in 2000 to 24.9% in 2010, an increase of 9.5 percentage points, while the proportion of those who do not care is slowly decreasing.

This reflects on the one hand that the independence of rural elderly people is gradually increasing, and more and more rural elderly people are willing to live separately from their children and enjoy their own life in their old age.

On the other hand, we can see that from 2000 to 2010, the proportion of rural elderly who are not willing to live with their children increased more than the proportion of those who are willing to live with their children decreased at the same time, which indicates that with the development of rural society and economy and the change of rural elderly’s concept of old age, the trend of rural elderly living separately from their children is more and more obvious and faster.

Meanwhile, the proportion of rural elderly who are willing to live with their children is higher for those who actually live with three generations and those who live with their children for two generations, which is more than 75.0%. In contrast, the proportion of rural elderly people who live alone or with their spouses only are willing to live with their children is lower, neither of which exceeds 40.0%.

Longitudinal analysis shows that from 2000 to 2010, the proportion of rural older adults living with three generations and those living with two generations of children who are willing to live with their children both increased slightly, and both exceeded 65.0% in 2010. On the contrary, the proportion of rural elderly people who live alone or with their spouses only willing to live with their children has slightly decreased, and in 2010, both were below 35.0%.

This shows that rural elderly people’s willingness to live is still largely a continuation of the current form of living arrangement. For rural elderly people who currently live with two generations or their children, most of them are still willing to live with their children; while rural elderly people who only live with their spouses or live alone now are still not willing to live with their children, and these elderly people are often financially independent and in good health, thus choosing to live separately from their children.

2.The proportion of rural elderly people willing to live in elderly care institutions has also decreased

Over the past ten years, the proportion of rural seniors willing to live in an institution dropped from 14.4% in 2000 to 12.5% in 2010, a decrease of 1.9 percentage points, indicating a slight downward trend in the willingness of rural seniors to live in an institution.

The proportion of urban seniors willing to be institutionalized fell from 18.6% in 2000 to 11.3% in 2010, with a larger decline of 7.3 percentage points. Because most elderly people in both urban and rural areas own their own houses, they are generally willing to live in a family environment, and the willingness to age at home always dominates.

For the elderly, living with children can play a good role in the elderly care, as children can provide material resources to support the elderly, as well as provide assistance in living care for those who are in poor health or even unable to take care of themselves.

More importantly, living with children can provide spiritual comfort, and children and other family members can give the elderly the kind of affection that they cannot enjoy in an elderly care institution. With the development of social economy and the change of the concept of old age, the behavior and willingness of the rural elderly to live alone will become more and more common, and the willingness to age at home will become stronger and stronger.

With the increased migration and mobility of the younger generation and the miniaturization of houses, it will be difficult for parents in rural families to live together with their few children when they enter old age in the future, which will create more demand for home care services.

Conclusion and Recommendation

1、Conclusion

Firstly, the willingness of rural elderly to live with their children has shown a small decreasing trend in the past ten years, and the awareness of independent living is increasing. The proportion of rural seniors who are willing to live with their children is higher for those who actually live with three generations and those who live with their children for two generations, which shows that the willingness of rural seniors to live is still to a large extent a continuation of the current form of living arrangement.

Secondly, the willingness of both rural and urban elderly people to live in institutions has been declining over the past decade, and the willingness to age at home has always been the mainstream. Finally, with the development of social economy and the changing concept of elderly people’s old age, the willingness of rural elderly people to age at home will become stronger and stronger.

In the future, when parents in rural families enter old age, it will be difficult to live together with few children, which will create more demand for home care services. 　　

2.Suggestions

Some scholars point out that although the elderly couple living together is conducive to the mutual support and support of the old couple, it is conducive to promoting the psychological health of the elderly and making their later life more free and happy.

However, at the same time, this living arrangement will accelerate the weakening of the traditional family elderly care function, which will pose a serious challenge to the social services for the elderly in China, especially the life care and spiritual comfort service system.

In this regard, the government should introduce corresponding policies to promote the development of home care services, introduce community services into families, and establish a long-term care system as soon as possible as a supplement to family care.

First, increase the financial support for rural aging services.

For example, tax exemptions and policy preferences should be given to the opening of community nursing homes or rural professional nursing institutions; direct financial subsidies should be given in their operation so that they can lower their fees to ensure that the elderly in need can afford the related costs. At the same time, children who take care of the elderly can be rewarded with direct allowances or paid leave to solve the practical difficulties encountered by family members in the process of caring for the elderly, so as to ensure the sustainability of family care.

Secondly, we should speed up the legal construction of rural elderly care from the institutional level and improve the policy support efforts.

First, the status of the family elderly care function should be raised in the legal system so that the role of home care can be valued.
Second, we should adopt multi-faceted policy instruments to actively encourage family members to live near each other. We can learn from the preferential housing policies of Singapore, Japan and other countries and regions to encourage children and other family members to live close to the elderly so as to facilitate care, and advocate the intergenerational living model of “the distance of a bowl of soup” and “separate but not separate”.

Again, we should develop elderly services in multiple levels and directions, and actively develop rural community elderly care and institutional elderly care.

For example, we should actively develop community elderly care in rural areas as a village collective, and improve the construction of multi-level elderly care system from material life to spiritual support. On the one hand, the community medical service system should be improved as soon as possible and community elderly service institutions should be established. On the other hand, psychological guidance and spiritual comfort services should be provided to elderly people living alone in poor psychological condition to reduce their negative emotions such as loneliness.

Finally, the coverage of rural elderly welfare should be expanded, while the development of personal reserve elderly care should be actively encouraged.

It is important to face up to the plight of family care, moderate inclusiveness, and expand the coverage of rural old-age benefits. At the same time, the government should also widely promote the concept of personal reserve retirement and encourage families in a position to do so to purchase appropriate commercial insurance for their aging parents. Eventually, a diversified pension pattern based on family pension, social pension as the main body and self-pension as a supplement will be formed, so that rural elderly people can lead a healthy and happy life in their old age.