Study On The Patterns And Willingness Of The Senior Cohousing For The Urban Empty-nesters

With the acceleration of aging population and family miniaturization in our country, pension issues of empty-nesters is becoming increasingly serious. It is quite worthy for the nurses to think about how to help empty-nesters spend their twilight years happily and healthily. On the one hand, Empty-nesters, particularly the urban empty-nesters, have higher requirements on life quality, they have a more urgent demand on the pursuit of high quality life in their twilight life. On the other hand, our government advocates active aging, and encourages the old people to play their own potential and resources to reduce the burden of the society. Senior cohousing is a supplement to current pension models, providing a realistic option for the senior. Through the mutual cooperation between the seniors and their self-management, senior cohousing meets the senior’s demands on daily life care, health care and psychological comfort, and thus, delays the aging process of their bodies, reduces the suffering of all kinds of physical and mental diseases, and eventually improves empty-nesters’life quality. It provides a way to solve the pension problem for our country. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to explore senior cohousing in foreign countries, discuss Chinese empty-nesters’willingness to choose senior cohousing, and provide references for the formulation of the relevant policies of our government.Throughout the literature review and theoretical study, five key elements of senior cohousing are put forward in this study, namely, location of residence, members of residents, financial support, health care and operational management. Based on the above analysis, questionnaire was self-designed by the interview with empty nesters and experts’brainstorming. Then face-to-face questionnaires were conducted among480empty-nesters from6communities in Hangzhou, hoping to know their willingness to choose senior cohousing. At the same time, focus group interview was conducted among major stakeholders to collect their opinions and suggestions on senior cohousing. At last, according to the results of the study and the actual, several initial schemes on senior cohousing were put forward to meet the needs of different groups. The tulou-alike cohousing, the quadrangle-alike cohousing, intergenerational cohousing, age-targeted cohousing, the old and young cohousing were included.