Problems of Family Elderly Care

In the process of rapid socio-economic development, the number of children is less, children are not around, the pressure of children's careers, children also have to take care of their own children, and children no longer support their parents as the highest value of life ...... All of these changes have made the traditional old-age function of the family, which is centered on the children, face an All these changes have caused the traditional function of family old-age care centered on children to face impact and weakening. The problems of the elderly living alone, the elderly left behind, the empty-nested elderly, and the elderly in old age, which are common in society, are all related to the weakening of the family's old-age function to varying degrees. Old-age care has become a burden that families cannot bear.

1, the old before the rich, the aging of the population and the level of socio-economic development does not match.

According to the standard of aging society announced by the United Nations, the census data in 2000 showed that China has entered an aging society. It is predicted that starting from 2020, China will step into a serious stage of aging; in 2050, China will step into the ranks of ultra-high aging countries. However, compared with other developed countries with serious aging problems, China's aging faces more difficult problems. While China's economy is growing rapidly, its per capita GDP is still at a low level, less than 20 percent of that of developed countries, a situation known as "aging before getting rich," which is a hidden worry for society.

Statistics show that at the end of 2008, China had 160 million elderly people over 60 years old, accounting for one-fifth of the world's elderly population, ranking first in the world, and continue to increase at an average annual rate of 3.2 percent. 18.05 million elderly people over 80 years old have reached the age of 18.05 million, and at an average annual rate of more than 1 million people. 2009, China has already been into the population of the ageing society for 10 years, this decade, at an annual rate of 31.1 million, the elderly population has increased by more than 10 percent, and the number of elderly people has increased by more than 10 million. In 2009, China has entered a 10-year aging society, with the elderly population growing at an annual rate of 3.11 million, and China's aging population has entered a stage of rapid development. In the next decade, the number of elderly people over 80 years of age will increase rapidly at a rate of 5 percent. It is expected to enter the stage of heavy aging by 2050, the elderly population will reach 437 million, accounting for about 30% of the total population.

From this, it can be seen that China's elderly population presents the following characteristics:

(1) a large base of elderly population;

(2) a rapid growth rate of the elderly population;

(3) an obvious trend of seniorization.

2. The number of children is decreasing, and the burden of family old age is increasing.

Declining fertility rate and lengthening life expectancy directly lead to a decrease in family support resources, and the per capita burden of children's old-age care grows exponentially. Today, the parents of China's first generation of only children have begun to enter old age. The "421" family model, as the mainstream family model in China for the next few decades, is a risky family structure, and even more so for old age. The reality of the one-child policy not only makes parents enter the empty-nest stage earlier and experience the empty-nest period longer, but also puts them on a more fragile foundation of family old age, in terms of financial resources, life care, and especially parent-child interactions, and spiritual comfort, which they can get from their only child is very limited. It can be said that one important impact of the implementation of the one-child policy is that it has weakened the foundation of the "family culture" of traditional society to the maximum extent possible, which has eclipsed many countermeasures for family old-age care, and the old-age care practice established on the basis of multiple children in the Chinese society may not be able to provide experience for the old-age care problem of one-child families in many important aspects. The old-age problem of the one-child family may not provide experience in many important aspects.

3. The traditional concept of old age has been affected by various bad values.

Since the reform and opening up, China's economy and society have undergone major changes, recognizing the individual value of citizens in many ways, and morally affirming the reasonableness of the pursuit of personal happiness, the establishment of individual value has shaken the foundation of traditional family ethics. China's transportation and communication are becoming more and more developed, and information channels are becoming more and more extensive, people, especially young people, in the more and more in-depth understanding of the outside world at the same time, their concepts and lifestyles are constantly changing consciously and unconsciously, in the pursuit of a modern way of life in the process of generating a preference for the small family and indifference to the extended family, they have changed the concept of old age, and began to get out of the "raising children to protect the elderly". They have changed their concepts of old age and have begun to move out of the circle of "raising children for old age". Coupled with the influence of bad values such as egoism, money worship, individualism, consumerism, etc., people's concepts of family responsibility and family obligations are constantly being renewed and transformed, with some refusing to take on the obligation to support the elderly, and even abusing and abandoning them. On the other hand, in modern society, due to the development of social division of labor and the rapid changes in science and technology, the elderly are in a lower position in terms of economic resources, cultural resources, etc., coupled with the effects of mobility, frailty and disease, etc., and gradually, several generations of the same family has less centripetal force and cohesion, all of which has led to the weakening of the function of the family pension in contemporary China.

4, the rural family old-age pressure.

The rural elderly population accounts for 75% of the country's total, and is the main body of China's elderly. A survey by the China Aging Science Research Center shows that the current degree of aging in rural areas is 1.24 percentage points higher than that in cities and towns, and it is expected that this situation will continue until 2040. It can be seen that, compared with the city, the rural areas of the old age pressure is greater.

At the same time, rural old-age pension is also facing a series of challenges brought about by urbanization, miniaturization of family structure, family planning and changes in population values. The large number of rural people going out has led to the detachment of support, and it is difficult to raise children to prevent old age, which is a common problem faced by the tens of millions of elderly people left behind in the countryside with empty nests. In terms of future development, as the fertility rate of the rural population declines, the problem of elderly people in rural areas being unable to provide for their old age will become even more pronounced.

Surveys by the China Aging Research Center show that nearly half of the elderly in urban areas across the country do not have children with them, while the proportion of "empty-nest" elderly in rural areas also accounts for about 40%. If you take into account the large number of rural labor force to go out to work, the rural "empty nest" is even more serious.