A Study On The Choice And Social Support Of Rural Widowed Female Elderly Living Alone

"Having children around the knee and taking care of the elderly" is the ideal of many Chinese people’s life in old age,and this is also the preference of traditional values for old age.But nowadays,more and more elderly people are living alone in their old age,especially among the widowed elderly women in rural areas.What are the reasons for the special and vulnerable group of elderly women who are widowed and living alone in rural areas to make the choice of living alone in their old age?How are they living alone in old age at present?What are the difficulties and challenges they encounter?Can the existing social support meet their needs?What can be done to improve their existing social support and develop the level of living alone for the elderly in order to provide them with a happy life in their old age?This paper will focus on the above questions.Based on the above questions,this study takes the widowed female elderly who choose to live alone in M village of S city in Shandong province as object of study,adopts qualitative research method,and specifically uses field research method and literature research method.The author collects the data from 10 interviewees including rural widowed female elderly who live alone and their family members through semi-structured interviews and participatory observation,understand and analyze the reasons for the choice of rural widowed female elderly to live alone,the living situation of living alone and the social support status.The findings are as follows:(1)The choice of living alone for the aged of rural widowed female elderly is the result of a combination of factors.The reasons for their choice to live alone in their old age are not only the active choice based on their personal wishes,but also the passive acceptance due to the family conditions,and the rational consideration of the realistic factors behind.(2)The situation of this group who living alone is positive to some extent,but the overall situation is not optimistic.Among them,there are both those who are"contented" and those who are resistant to accept it;there are not only successful adaptations but also inevitable challenges;there are both optimistic views and confused about the future life.(3)Rural widowed female elderly people who living alone receive different degrees of financial support,life care and spiritual comfort support from family,community and society,these supports can meet some of the needs of elderly people,but at the same time,there are also problems such as weakened self-support,insufficient family support,limited neighbor support and lack of community support.To this end,this paper proposes policy recommendations to support rural widowed female elderly living alone in four aspects:promoting self-enhancement and actively coping with living alone;strengthening family functions and reconstructing family system;integrating community resources and providing community support;optimizing government protection and increasing policy support and financial support.