Research On Social Support For The Elderly In Rural Empty-Nesters

The degree of aging in China is increasing,and the number of empty nesters is increasing under many social backgrounds,such as aging,social transformation and family structure change,which has aroused attention from all walks of life.The empty-nesters living in rural areas are faced with more severe social support dilemma in terms of pension,and their demand for social support is more intense than that of non-empty-nesters.Compared with the urban elderly,there is an obvious gap between the rural elderly in terms of income level and access to medical services.The elderly in rural areas usually make a living by farming and lack stable income channels.Once they are unable to farm due to old age and infirm,they will face the risk of income interruption.In terms of medical treatment,the service level of rural medical services and rehabilitation services can not be compared with that of urban areas,and the rural elderly’s access to medical rehabilitation services is greatly limited.In terms of social services,there are many housekeeping services and moving services in cities,while the old people living in rural areas can hardly enjoy the convenient services provided by such social support.In addition,with the development of urbanization,it is more and more common for the elderly in rural areas to find companionship,care and comfort from the younger generation.It can be seen that the insufficient supply of social support is one of the important reasons for the difficult life of the elderly in rural areas,and the problems faced by the empty-nesters in rural areas are more serious.Therefore,it is an important topic with both theoretical value and practical significance to deeply study the social support of rural empty-nesters and its causes,and explore how to further improve the corresponding social support system.In order to deeply study the social support of rural empty-nesters,this paper takes the empty-nesters in D Village,X County,Shanxi Province as the object of investigation to collect cases,and adopts case interview method,participatory observation method and literature analysis method to start from two aspects of informal support and formal support.This paper studies the current situation of different subjects such as family,neighborhood,relatives and friends,community and government providing social support for rural empty nesters,in order to sort out the plight of social support for rural empty nesters in China,and explore the influencing factors of insufficient social support for rural empty nesters.The study found that the rural elderly living dilemma and empty-nesters is closely related to the lack of social support to resolve problems,such as unstable family provide economic support and living care,life care and spiritual support provided by the neighborhood limited,lack of rural community service consciousness,community hospital can’t satisfy the elderly medical demand and the low level of security provided by the government,and so on.The reason for these problems lies in the shortage of informal support and formal support for the elderly in rural areas.In terms of informal support,the supply level of social support is affected by such factors as the absence of children’s support,the limited support ability of peers and relatives,and the weak strength of nongovernmental organizations.In terms of formal support,the supply level of social support is affected by such factors as the low level of old-age security,the lack of rural community services,and the improvement of the medical security department.Under the combined effect of the above influencing factors,the old-age social support in rural areas is of low level,poor quality and poor continuity,which seriously affects the old-age security level and the quality of old life of rural empty nesters.In view of the above problems,on the basis of studying and drawing lessons from the experience of pension social support construction in typical areas in China,this study puts forward some suggestions from the perspective of improving formal support,such as raising the standard of rural pension security,speeding up the reform of rural medical system and establishing rural empty-nesters archives.From the perspective of strengthening informal support,the author puts forward some measures,such as carrying forward the culture of filial piety,setting up the rural happiness courtyard with neighborhood mutual assistance as the core,and attaching importance to non-governmental organizations.Social support for the elderly in rural emptynesters is related to social harmony and stability at the rural grass-roots level.Only by fully integrating the power of the government,community,neighborhood,family and other multi-support providers,can long-term support be provided from different levels and perspectives,and a multi-level long-term social support system be constructed.In order to provide rural empty-nester elderly care services home,the implementation of social support.