Does social capital influence preferences for aging in place? Evidence from urban China

ABSTRACT

Objective: This study investigated the relationships between social capital and preferences for aging in place among older urban adults in eastern China.

Method: Quota sampling was used to recruit 456 respondents aged 60 and older from Gusu District, Suzhou City, in 2015. Random-effects logistic regression was used to test the proposed model.

Results: Respondents who had better quality family social capital, a higher level of social trust, and more organization memberships were more likely to choose to live in local communities, even after we controlled for individual characteristics.

Discussion: The findings highlight the important role of both family and community social capital in influencing preferences for aging in place among older adults in urban China. This is particularly important for developing long-term care systems for older adults living in naturally occurring retirement communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Social capital
• aging in place
• older adults
• urban China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and the Research Funds of Renmin University of China [grant number 14XNF033].