中国老年人的主观年龄及影响因素分析

随着中国老龄化进程的加快,越来越多的研究开始探讨老年的定义和标准,但很少有研究直观地描述和分析老年人对自身进入老年的年龄标准的看法以及其主观年龄的差异。本研究使用2014年至2018年中国老年社会追踪调查的三期数据,比较分析不同队列在不同实际年龄(日历年龄)下认定的自身进入老年的年龄标准的变化以及不同实际年龄老年人的主观年龄的差异。数据分析结果显示受访者自我认定的老年的年龄标准平均为70岁,远高于社会上通常认定的60岁或65岁的标准;主观年龄和主观外表年龄平均在68岁左右,低于受访者的平均实际年龄(71岁),超过六成的受访者的主观年龄与主观外表年龄比实际年龄“更年轻”。进一步的统计模型分析结果显示健康状况越好、与子女同住、有广泛的朋友支持网络以及更愿意参与村居委会投票的老年人所认定的自己进入老年的年龄标准也更高。更多的社区娱乐场所或设施和室外活动场地也能显著地提高受访者认定的进入老年的年龄标准。更高的受教育程度以及更好的健康状况是促使老年人的主观年龄和主观外表年龄小于实际年龄的重要因素。本文直观地描述了不同实际年龄的老年人所认定的自身进入老年的年龄标准以及其主观年龄与实际年龄的差异,为与年龄相关的老龄政策的制定提供了参考。

Differences in the Subjective Age of Chinese Older Adults and Its Determinants

Recent Chinese studies start to discuss how to define“getting old”and“elderly”,while limited research focuses on Chinese older adults’self-defined age of becoming elderly and their subjective age.Us?ing three-wave data from China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey conducted between 2014 and 2018,this study compares the reported self-defined age of becoming older adults across different cohort groups at dif?ferent chronological ages,and also differences in subjective age by personal characteristics.The results sug?gest that the respondents’self-defined age of becoming elderly,on average,is around age 70,much higher than the conventional standard as age 60 or 65.The mean subjective age is around 68 years old,lower than the mean chronological age of the respondents(age 71).More than sixty percent of the respondents think they are younger or look younger than their chronological age.Further analysis shows that older adults who are healthier,co-residing with children,having more friend network support and involving more in voting tend to have older self-defined age of becoming elderly.Older adults living in communities with more enter?tainment or outdoor facilities also tend to believe their age of becoming elderly should be older.The proba?bility of having younger subjective age than chronological age is associated with higher educational attain?ment and better health conditions.