Study On The Psychological Welfare For Older Single Men In Poor Rural Areas

[Background]Since the 1980s, the sex ratio at birth of China has been keeping a high level. With large scale population flow, esp. the "cascade migration" of female population in marriage, regional marriage squeeze is formed, making the underdeveloped rural areas in the mid-west part of China the gathering place for older single men.With the traditional Chinese concept, no marriage and offspring may cause impact on their self-esteem. This may further cause depression and other psychological problems, rendering negative impact on their psychological welfare. Meanwhile, studies also hold that "single men" may be aggressive and violent. Many scholars think that they might jeopardize the social stability, but we need to verify these hypotheses through empirical studies.Current studies on marital and psychological welfare mainly focus on the direct associations between marital states or the difficulty in getting married with the psychological welfare, and the impact of this group on the society, but seldom concern their own states.This study mainly focuses on older single men to study the impact on their psychological welfare caused by marriage squeeze under the background of gender imbalance.[Purpose]Through survey and measurement on the basic demographic characteristics of married and unmarried population above average age, and younger single people in poor rural areas, and the cognition in singleness above average age, commercial sexual behavior, self-esteem, depression, aggressiveness, etc., this article is to study the impact on the psychological welfare for older single men caused by marriage squeeze under the background of gender imbalance.[Significance]Study the impact of out-of-marriage on the psychological welfare of older men in rural areas at continuously high sex ratio at birth and under serious marriage squeeze. Reflect the impaired degree of older single men’s psychological welfare through comparing the older single men with younger single men and older married men. Using structural equation model to find out the path of interplay between social and economical variant, with self-esteem, depression and aggressiveness, is helpful for us to understand the clues of psychological welfare impairing, providing theoretical basis and decision reference for establishing policy for improving the psychological welfare of older single men.This study is to survey the psychological welfare of older single men in rural areas, so as to enrich the applicable crowd for the survey. At the same time, it carries out quantitative analysis on the self-esteem, depression and aggressiveness of the psychological welfare of older single men in west China of nowadays from the psychological perspective, enriching the research on psychological welfare theories, and innovating the theoretical research methodology.[Methodology]Questionnaire survey——Different from most studies, the final questionnaire is not determined in advance but through pre-survey.First, we formulate semi-structured interview questionnaire through literature research and group discussion. And then we carry out semi-structured interview on 45 men at the age of 20-39 from poverty-stricken areas in Guizhou. The survey is mainly for the purpose of learning the cause of older single men’s out-of-marriage, the opinions of the surrounding people on this, as well as the psychological conditions of older single men, its causes and their participation in commercial sexual behavior. Basing on the qualitative survey results, we initially design the corresponding questionnaire, which would be analyzed and revised after pre-survey to form the final and official questionnaire. The main contents of this questionnaire include:basic demographic characteristics, cognition in older single people, commercial sexual behavior, self-esteem survey, depression survey, and aggressiveness survey.In this study, we collect information by combining both qualitative and quantitative methods.We carry out statistical analysis with AMOS7.0, SPSS 16.0 and other statistical software, confirmatory factor analysis on the structure, dimension and validity of self-esteem, depression and aggressiveness survey using structural equation model, and reliability analysis using Cronbacha coefficient. There are also variance analysis, chi-square test, t-test, correlation analysis, regression analysis, etc.[Findings]1. Causes for the singlehood of older men:economic conditions (living in a too desolated place is often the synonym of poverty) is the main reason why older single men fail in finding a companion, which is followed by introversion (representing emotional factor), and then by "bad temper", "absence of desire to advance" and other personality characteristics.2. Source of and response to the pressure of older single men:In my own opinion, the pressure is mainly:being despised by the other people (41.2%), anxiety of their parents (20.5%), and being inclined to be teased (19.9%). The surrounding people’s opinions on older single men are:Their parents and seniority are anxious for them (27.6%); they think older single men are too picky (17.5%); they speculate that such a man may have bad personality (15.2%); they deem it as personal choice (14.3%). Facing pressure, older single men response it mainly with escapism:They smoke and drink even more than before (21.6%); they become more and more inner going (17.6%); they feel down and hate to go out (17.1%); they become more and more bad tempered (14.9%); they are imbalanced, with jealousy or revenge (10.4%).3. Commercial sexual behavior of older single men:55.2% of older single men say that their acquainted older single men have the experience of whoredom, and 29.2% of older single men recognize that they themselves have such experience. Family economic condition is an influencing factor of commercial sexual behavior of older single men, as those who with better economic conditions are more likely to have commercial sex.4. Structure study of measuring tools:Cronbach a coefficient of Rosenberg self-esteem survey is 0.743; a coefficient of Beck depression survey is 0.909; a coefficient of Buss & Perry aggressiveness survey is 0.732. All self-esteem, depression and aggressiveness surveys are of high reliability and validity.5. Self-esteem:The self-esteem score of older single men is 23.64±3.42, the self-esteem score of younger single men is 25.81±3.70, and the self-esteem score of older married men is 25.63±3.05. The self-esteem score of older single men is lower than the other two groups of people, and such difference is of statistical significance. With adjusted age, education, economic condition, and other social demographic characteristics, the self-esteem score of older single men is still lower than the other two groups of people. Education level and family economic condition are the influencing factors for the self-esteem of older single men.6. Depression:The depression score of older single men is 17.48±11.17, the depression score of younger single men is 11.98±10.29, and the depression score of older married men is 10.70±10.37. The classification of depression score of older single men shows that 16.3% of them are not depressed,24.7% are slightly depressed,19.1% are moderately depressed, and 40% are seriously depressed. With adjusted age, education, economic condition, and other social demographic characteristics, the depression score of older single men is still higher than the other two groups of people. The number of siblings, self-esteem and the feeling of being single are the influencing factors for the depression of older single men.7. Suicide idea:Among the older single men,62.5% have never thought of suicide, which is far lower than the 80.0% of younger single men and the 86.1% of older married men.26.2% of them have thought of but will not really conduct suicide,6.8% want to conduct suicide very much, and 4.5% will seek the chance of suicide, which are far higher than the percentages of respectively 15.9%,1.8% and 2.2% of younger single men and 10.5%,1.1% and 2.3% of older married men. Depression is the influencing factor for the suicide idea of older single men.8. Aggressiveness:The score of older single men is 36.68±6.89, the score of younger single men is 34.12±7.65, and the score of older married men is 33.71±8.34. The average score of older single men is higher than the other two groups of people, and such difference is of statistical significance. With adjusted influence from self-esteem, depression and education level, the aggressiveness of older single men is still higher than the other two groups of people. In the regression model of total aggressiveness score of older single men, the regression coefficient of feeling, self-esteem and depression for being single is of statistical significance.9. Path analysis of older single men’s psychological welfare:The path model of older single men’s self-esteem, depression and aggressiveness is of goodness of fit. The education and economic level of older single men influence indirectly their depression and aggressiveness through self-esteem, and the feeling for being single. The gross effect on aggressiveness from self-esteem is greater than that from depression. But the direct effect of self-esteem on aggressiveness is lower, which is realized mainly through depression and the feeling of being single and other indirect paths. The depression of older single men can directly affect the level of their aggressiveness.[Conclusion 1Older singe men from rural areas are of lower personal or family income and education level. Inferior social economic state makes them the direct victim of marriage squeeze under the background of sex rate imbalance in China. Economic and emotional factors are the main causes for the singleness of older men.Because of being single at an older age, rural men bear pressure from their parents and the communities:Their parents’anxiety for their marriage increases their psychological pressure. And they have to face the speculation, talk and the eyes of looking at a freak from the neighbors in the community. Facing the pressure, older single men give the negative response.Being single for a long term, older men can hardly obtain stable sexual life, which impairs their sexual welfare and may trigger unsafe sexual behavior, such as commercial sex. Economic condition is the main factor of commercial sex.The measuring tools for older single men’s psychological welfare are of high reliability, validity and structural dimension. The self-esteem level of older single men is lower than that of younger single men and older married men; and their depression degree, suicide idea and aggressiveness are higher than the other two groups of people.Older single men from rural areas with lower social economic reputation are facing a variety of pressure due to the marriage squeeze caused by high sex ratio, enjoying the psychological welfare far lower that of older married men and younger single men.[Policy Suggestion]Public policy:Continue to deal with the high sex ratio at birth and establish the social security system benefiting the entire population.Social support:Incorporate the marriage assistance for older single men from poor rural areas into the general plan of poverty-relief work; establish a social support network to integrate the older single men into commuity life; respect the life style selected by the older single men and create relaxing and harmonious social environment.Health promotion:Implement health education on risky sexual behavior and enhance the service of psychological interference.