| With the development of economy and the change of the family structure, the family structure of elderly empty nest has become popular, and more and more old people join this group. The material life of the most of the empty nest elderly in the community has already not been a problem, but the problems of their spiritual life and psychological comfort have become increasingly serious. That old people feel lonely of the soul is one of the characteristics of this group and become a social phenomenon. Loneliness becomes an invisible killer for empty nesters. More and more empty nesters suicides because of depression. Great challenges to the development of the aging industry in our country are put forward.. Therefore, the empty nest elderly loneliness problems not only arouse the attention of the family, but also get the attention of the social all circles. The society can actively create conditions and take effective measures to help empty nesters solve the problems appeared in the spiritual life.This study using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and the social support theory, analyses reality need of the loneliness of empty nest elderly and put forward how to help empty nesters theoretical support relieving the loneliness of the. From the perspective of demand theory, in the urban community, elderly empty nest are satisfied for the physiological needs and safety needs.Their children, government and other members of the society should pay more attention to the elderly empty nest in mental care, and try to take care of empty nest elderly so that elderly empty nest do not feel lonely. The government, community, family, as well as the subject can provide resources and assistance for the elderly empty nesters meet the higher levels of demand as much as possible to meet the basic needs of the empty nest elderly. In this study, through literature the study analyses loneliness and social support of the elderly empty nest, understands reasons of formation of the empty nest elderly, their living conditions, elderly empty nest loneliness status and social support. At last, based on general of the results of previous studies, the author launched an empirical research in the community.This study takes C community in Nanjing Jianye District as an example, uses the questionnaire surveies and the interview methods to carry out a social research on the empty nest elderly. The loneliness scale and Xiao Shuiyuan social support rating table are used to investigate the loneliness of the elderly empty nest and social support level, so as to provide a realistic basis for how to help empty nest elderly resolve loneliness to. The survey finds that empty nesters have different levels of loneliness and loneliness average score is 55.95 points. So empty nesters have high level of loneliness in overall. The main factors that impact of empty nest elderly loneliness are marital status, the relationship between parents and children, leisure conditions, health conditions and the elder’s own ideas. Survey found that spouses of empty nest elderly have relatively low loneliness than solitary nesters, filial piety, empty nesters empty nesters in frequent contact with their children have relatively low loneliness than family relationship is not harmonious, loneliness, the empty nest elderly having high social participation degree and taking part in all kinds of activities have relatively low loneliness than those do not often taking part in activities, the health and taking care of themselves have relatively low loneliness than half self-care or not taking care of themselves, the elder who have high sense of identity for themselves have relatively low loneliness than those have a low sense of identity for themselves their own identity with of empty nest elderly loneliness is relatively low.By Xiao Shuiyuan social support questionnaire and interview surveies, social support average score of the empty nesters is 28.50 points, which is in the middle lower side. Among them, the average objective support is divided into 9.10 points, the average subjective support is divided into 13.65 points, the average level of support for the use is 5.75 points. The main sources of social support are spouse, children, relatives, friends, colleagues, companies, union caucus, social organizations. Among them, companies, union caucus, social organizations belong to formal support. Spouse, children, relatives, friends, colleagues belong to informal support. Formal support mainly refers to the support from government, community and formal organization. The informal support mainly refers to the support of spouse, children, relatives, neighbors and other groups. Through the analysis of social support that the empty nest elderly get, there are the following problems:government lacking special policies and supporting for the empty nest elderly and spiritual comfort, lack of novelty for empty nesters spirit support in the community, community public infrastructure needing to be strengthened, the lack of the help from professional social work agencies, empty nest elderly lacking emotional exchange of children, empty nest elderly lacking the help from relatives and friends, low level of neighborhood contact degree and empty nesters on social support of the degree being not high. Finally, the author puts forward some feasible suggestions from the perspective of social work. Firstly, in social policy, social workers can play an active role of advocator of policy to promote relevant policy formulation and implementation about empty nesters and spiritual comfort. In the community, social workers can carry out a variety of community activities, enrich the amateur life. In case work, social workers can carry out service case for the elderly empty nest and their children to help empty nesters ease loneliness, and improve children’s consciousness of the spiritual support. In group work, social workers can carry out interest group and group about neighbor to help elderly empty nest people develop a wide range of interests, expand their social circle and relieve lonely spirit. |
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