A Study On The Social Support System For The Empty-nest Elderly In Countryside

The 21st century is an ageing century and the ageing of population is one of the most important trends around the world. Nowadays, our country also has already become the Old Age Society. In fact, with the further degree of ageing population, the number of elderly population has been gradually increasing. Worse still, the miniaturization and centralization characters of modern families have caused that the number of empty-nest elderly has been raised rapidly, which is a special group among the elderly. It is worth to be mentioned that endowment problems of the rural empty-nest elderly are becoming increasingly conspicuous. The focus of this paper is the social support system of the empty-nest elderly in the countryside. Actually, the main reason of the phenomenon of the empty-nes elderly is the comprehensive action of individual, family and social factors, among which the influence power of social factors is stronger and stronger. In addition, the endowment problem can be regarded as a dynamic development process and it seems that although family members are the main important nursing resources of empty-nest elderly the nursing function of families has been weakened to a certain degree. Actually, the reason lies on the family centralization, rapid social mobility, people's changing sense of worth and other factors. In other words, it is impossible to solve the endowment problem of empty-nest elderly only by relying on the power of families. So, it must be enforced to research on the social support system of empty-nest elderly. On one hand, it is good for accelerating the perfection of social safeguard system in the new countryside and the construction of socialist new countryside; on the other hand, it is quite helpful in accelerating the modernization process, safeguarding the stable and harmonious society and building a well-off society in an all-round way.The research object of this paper is the empty-nest elderly in Y Village. In detail, the researcher mainly gets interview materials according to the on-the-spot survey and analyzes the present state and existing problems of the social support system of the empty-nest elderly. In addition, the researcher also summarizes the reason why problems of the social support system of empty-nest elderly exist. Most importantly, the researcher puts forward some suggestions on building the social support system of empty-nest elderly in the countryside. Actually, this paper can be divided into five parts:In Chapter One, the researcher mainly briefly analyzes the background, significance and method of this paper. Of course, it also concludes the explanation of some main theories, which can be regarded as the preparation of this whole paper. The combination of austere aging situation, centralized scale of families and rising amount of empty-nest elderly in the countryside makes it quite necessary that our society and country should pay more attention to the existing endowment problem. During the writing process, the researcher gains interview materials through the on-the-spot survey to make sure that they are totally authentic. It is worth to be mentioned that in order to avoid the phenomenon of blurry concepts, the researcher explains them very clearly, the theoretical basis of which is the social support theory.In Chapter Two, the researcher lays focus on the selected Y Village and the basic introduction of the interviewed elder, which is the foundation of the analysis of their features. Afterwards, the researcher analyzes the reason why the phenomenon of empty-nest elderly exists from the individual, family and social aspects. In fact, the analyses foundation includes some acquired materials through the interview and some referred relative literatures.In Chapter Three, the researcher focuses on investigating the existing situation of social support of empty-nest elderly. According to the demand, the social support of empty-nest elderly can be divided into three parts:economic support, life support and emotion support. And, according to the differences of supporters, social support can also be divided into two parts:the macroscopically formal support and microcosmically informal support. Actually, in this chapter the researcher briefly explains how these two support systems operate on the empty-nest elderly in the countryside in economic, social and life aspects at present.In Chapter Four, the researcher analyzes existing problems of this social support system of empty-nest elderly, and then summarizes the reason of existence of social support system of empty-nest elderly in the countryside. Firstly, this paper shows existing problems of the social support system of empty-nest elderly in financial, life-care and emotional aspect. And then, it analyzes the reason from some aspects including the lawmaking, social organization, family endowment and individual consciousness of the empty-nest elderly.In Chapter Five, aiming at existing problems of the social support system of the empty-nest elder, the researcher puts forward some corresponding suggestions. Firstly, the financial support system should be perfected through building new endowment insurance system and bringing the new medical care into effect and other,methods. Secondly, the support on empty-nest families should be strengthened and children should be urged to fulfill their obligations to build the life care system. Finally, people should help the empty-nest elderly become one member of the family even the whole society to meet their emotional demands to a certain extent. In a word, the construction of social support system of the empty-nest elderly should be gradually improved by building the financial support, life care and emotional support system.