THE WELL-BEING OF OLDER PEOPLE IN ANHUI PROVINCE CHINA

本研究旨在探讨社会变迁对安徽省中国老人家庭功能的影响及其对身心健康的影响。在向自由市场经济转型的过程中，中国正经历着快速的经济发展和前所未有的从农村到城市的迁移。由于绝大多数流动人口是处于工作年龄的年轻成年人，人们担心，老年人正被留在农村地区自食其力，这违背了中国家庭中照顾年长亲属的强大家庭角色(通常由儿子承担)。伴随着经济变化和地理流动的是孝道的削弱，孝道长期以来是中国社会的基石，要求对年长的公民给予深切的尊重和责任。这些变化尤其关系到老年人的福利，因为中国没有为老年人提供全民社会保障或医疗保健。本项目旨在回答中国的经济、结构和规范变化是否使老年人面临心理痛苦和身体损伤的风险的问题。该项目将对生活在安徽省的3000名随机选择的老年人(60岁以上)进行纵向研究。安徽省以农村为主，但经历了前所未有的农村迁出。调查将分两个时间段进行，相隔18个月，以确定家庭和家庭结构、社会和经济支持的代际转移以及老年人的孝道规范如何影响他们的心理存在(抑郁、情感平衡、控制点和士气)和身体健康(功能健康、自我评估健康、疾病状态)。在收集第二波数据后，纵向分析将确定社会和家庭赤字是否会导致老年人幸福感的变化。这项研究的纵向设计对于理解家庭支持影响老年人生活质量的动态过程至关重要。这项研究汇集了南加州大学安德鲁斯老年学中心的一位学者(具有丰富的研究美国老年人代际关系的经验)和安徽大学人口研究所的一位学者(曾在中国进行过人口老龄化和家庭生活的研究)。这项调查将利用当代中国快速社会和经济变化的历史偶然性，加强调查员S资助的研究，以研究社会变化对美国老年人家庭功能和福祉的影响。中国的经济变化速度之快，使其成为一个出色的实验室，可以在相对较短的时间窗口内，在经历孝道侵蚀和家庭结构和功能根本性变化的老年人口中捕捉社会变化的影响。

The goal of this research is to investigate the effects of social change on family functioning and its consequence for the physical and psychological health of elderly people living in Anhui Province, China. As it makes the transition to a free-market economy, China is undergoing rapid economic development and unprecedented rural-to-urban migration. Since a large majority of migrants are young working-age adults, there is fear that the elderly are being left to fend for themselves in rural areas a violation of the strong familial role (usually occupied by the son) in caring for older relatives in Chinese families. Accompanying economic change and geographic mobility is the weakening of filial piety long a cornerstone of Chinese society that mandated profound respect and responsibility for older citizens. These changes are of particular concern for the welfare of the aged, as China does not have universal social security or health care available for its older citizens. This project seeks to answer the question of whether economic, structural, and normative changes in China have put the elderly at-risk of psychological distress and physical impairment. The project will consist of a longitudinal study of 3,000 randomly selected elderly (60+) Chinese living in Anhui Province a largely rural province, but one that has experienced unprecedented out- migration from its rural areas. Surveys will be conducted at two time periods, 18 months apart, to identify how household and family structure, intergenerational transfers of social and economic support, and norms of filial piety among the elderly influence their psychological being (depression, affect balance, locus of control and morale) and physical well-being (functional health, self-assessed health, disease states). After the second wave of data is collected, longitudinal analyses will identify whether social and family deficits cause change in the well-being of the elderly. The longitudinal design of the research is crucial for understanding the dynamic process by which family support affects the quality of life of older people. This research brings together a scholar from the Andrus Gerontology Center, at the University of Southern California (with extensive experience studying intergenerational relationships among the elderly in the United States) and a scholar from the Population Research Institute of Anhui University (who has performed studies on population aging and family life in China). This investigation will capitalize on the historical contingency of rapid social and economic change in contemporary China, enhancing the Principle Investigator s funded research to study the effects of social changes on family functioning and well-being of older people in the United States. The speed with which economic change is occurring in China make it an excellent laboratory for capturing the effects of social change within a relatively small window of time and within an older population experiencing the erosion of filial piety and radical change in family structure and function.