The Effect Of Social Support On The Subjective Well-Being Of Elderly Migrants

Under the background of the era of continuous urbanization,the family structure of urban and rural areas in China has gradually changed.The number of elderly migrants is quietly increasing.Compared with young people,the elderly no longer need to face the pressure of life such as employment and childbirth;compared with the middle-aged and young migrants,the proportion of elderly migrants is relatively small,easily ignored by us.At the same time,elderly migrants need to reconstruct their social support system and face problems such as off-site medical treatment,mental health,and social integration due to geographical mobility.This situation will affect their happy life in their later years.The data used in this paper is the 2017 data of the Chinese General Social Survey（CGSS）,which selected the elderly aged 60 and above who are not residents as the study subjects.I establish a social support system from the three aspects of the social system,social networks,and intimate relationships.Also,I study how social support impacts the happiness of elderly migrants,explore the urban and rural differences in the happiness of elderly migrants,the gender difference,and the mechanism between social support,social integration,and satisfaction.This paper uses the Ordered Logit model for empirical analysis,using statistic software for Stata15.1.This paper mainly draws the following conclusions: First,elderly migrants are generally happy,but there are apparent urban-rural and gender differences between happiness.Second,a well-reconstructed social support system can enhance the happiness of elderly migrants.Elderly migrants with medical social security（including urban basic medical insurance,new rural cooperative medical insurance,and publiclyfunded medical insurance）and participating in commercial medical insurance feel happier,and participating in commercial medical insurance is a more important factor affecting the happiness of elderly migrants;Establishing good neighborhoods and kinship can enhance the happiness of elderly migrants,especially elderly migrants in the urban population;Having a mate can make elderly migrants feel happier;The greater the number of children,the more the elderly migrants feel happy.Third,when the economy,culture,and identity are fully integrated into the unfamiliar land,the happiness of elderly migrants will gradually increase.The reconstruction of social networks will directly affect their sense of social integration,which is the intermediary mechanism for social support to affect the happiness of elderly migrants.Based on this paper,the following four suggestions are proposed: First,strive to equalize essential public health services and comprehensively enhance the happiness of elderly migrants.Reduce the economic pressure on elderly migrants and protect their legitimate rights and interests in off-site employment.Second,actively implement health security,deepen the overall level of basic medical security in China,and orderly incorporate elderly migrants into the local public service system.Third,encourage elderly migrants to participate in community activities actively.Fourth,call on children to accompany the elderly,reduce the loneliness and sense of loss of the elderly,and enhance their sense of happiness.