You Jin, Fung Helene, Vitaliano Peter
Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Eur J Ageing. 2020 Jan 1;17(3):341-348. doi: 10.1007/s10433-019-00550-w. eCollection 2020 Sep.
The current study used a nationally representative sample to investigate how older adults in China with different socio-demographic characteristics proactively sought support when social support of different sources and types was available; and whether the pattern of social support seeking varied with age, gender and regions. We found that older adults in China tended to seek social support from family members rather than from non-family members. Moreover, we observed a hierarchically ordered pattern of social support seeking within the family such that older adults preferred to first seek social support from a spouse and then turn to sons only when their spouse was unavailable or incapable of providing social support. We also observed a strong trend for son preferences in social support seeking, which was even more salient among old-old adults and older adults from rural China. The findings have implications for elder care and intergenerational support exchanges in Chinese societies.
本研究采用全国代表性样本,调查了中国具有不同社会人口学特征的老年人在有不同来源和类型的社会支持时如何主动寻求支持;以及社会支持寻求模式是否随年龄、性别和地区而变化。我们发现,中国老年人倾向于从家庭成员而非非家庭成员那里寻求社会支持。此外,我们观察到家庭内部社会支持寻求存在分层有序的模式,即老年人更愿意首先从配偶那里寻求社会支持,只有当配偶无法提供或无能力提供社会支持时才会转向儿子。我们还观察到在社会支持寻求方面强烈的儿子偏好趋势,这在高龄老年人和中国农村的老年人中更为明显。这些发现对中国社会的老年护理和代际支持交流具有启示意义。