Tibet's Urban Elderly Life Satisfaction And Its Influencing Factors

With the increase of the aged, ethnic minority areas have already or about to enter the aging society in China. Many elderly people will face health care, retirement and other issues, and the quality of life is also may be at risk. Life satisfaction is an important content of the assessment of quality of life. The concerned about the life satisfaction of the aged in minority areas help to improve their quality of life.This study selects Tibet's urban elderly as the object, and collects data by questionnaire, interview.It reveal the status of the life satisfaction of Tibetan elderly, explore the factors of life satisfaction of Tibet's urban elderly, and explain the life satisfaction of Tibetan urban elderly from the social change and religious belief.The results show that Tibetan urban elderly hold high level of life satisfaction, the life satisfaction as high as 91.2%. The life satisfaction of Tibetan urban elderly is different with different age, educational level and income level. The proportion of life satisfaction of Tibetan urban elderly is highest from 60 to 64 years old, and it is lowest among the elderly more than 80 years old; At various educational levels, the old people who never go to school are most dissatisfied with their present life, but others whose educational level is above college are most satisfied with life.The life satisfaction of Tibet's urban elderly declines when they become older, and increase when the level of education and income rise. There is no significant difference about the life satisfaction of Tibet's urban elderly with different gender.Six potential areas exist among living elements of Tibet's urban elderly. They are:health status, activities of daily living, living conditions, social support, social participation and leisure activities. The life satisfaction of Tibet's urban elderly is influenced by health status, activities of daily living, living conditions, social support, social participation and leisure activities. These factors can explain 39.4%changes of life satisfaction of Tibet's urban elderly. The living environment of urban elderly has the greatest impact on the life satisfaction, and the leisure activities have the least impact on life satisfaction. The life satisfaction of Tibet urban elderly is higher when their body is healthier, their activities of daily living are stronger, their living environment is better, their degree of social participation is higher, and their leisure activities are richer.The higher evaluation of life satisfaction of Tibet's urban elderly is mainly affected by the social change and religious beliefs. This social change consists of two parts:First, change of the political system and the fate of individuals which is caused by the change of the political system; Second, people's living standards have greatly improved because of the economic and social rapid development after democratic reform. So, when the Tibet's urban elderly access their life satisfaction, they tend to compare their present life with the past life, and thus they have higher satisfaction with the present life.In addition, the life satisfaction of Tibet's urban elderly has been impacted by religious belief. The doctrine "quit greed" and "contentment" in Tibetan Buddhism has a profound influence on Tibetan values and attitude toward life. Compared with the objective conditions in real life, Tibet's urban elderly attach more importance to spiritual pursuits, and they often hold satisfaction attitude to life. Therefore, although the Tibetan urban elderly is worse than other persons in many aspects of the actual living conditions and their quality of life is not high, there is higher life satisfaction.