Effects of living arrangements of the urban elderly on their subjective wellbeing: A comparison between Korea and China

Figures & data

Table 1. Basic characteristics of elderly studies in Korea and China

Variables	Category	Incheon-Gyeonggi, Korea (N/%)	Shandong, China (N/%)
Age	65–69	287 (28.3%)	235 (26.4%)
	70–74	251 (24.8%)	232 (26.1%)
	75–79	230 (22.7%)	161 (18.1%)
	80+	245 (24.2%)	110 (12.4%)
Gender	Male	423 (41.7%)	425 (47.8%)
	Female	591 (58.3%)	462 (51.9%)
Marital	Currently married	535 (52.8%)	661 (74.4%)
	Currently unmarried	479 (47.2%)	227 (25.6%)
Education	No schooling	286 (28.2%)	135 (15.2%)
	Elementary school	322 (31.8%)	395 (44.6%)
	Secondary school	334 (32.9%)	311 (35.1%)
	College or higher	72 (7.1%)	45 (5.1%)
House	Owned by elderly	123 (34.9%)	680 (76.4%)
	Else	229 (65.1%)	210 (23.6%)
Health	Good	311 (31.0%)	404 (45.8%)
	Ordinary	264 (26.3%)	295 (33.4%)
	Poor	427 (42.6%)	183 (20.7%)
Total		1,014 (100%)	890 (100%)

Table 2. Living arrangement of elderly by gender

	Living arrangement	Male %	Female %	Total		χ^2-test
				N	%
Incheon-Gyeonggi, Korea (N, %)	Live alone	15.2	32.1	253	25.1	χ^2 = 103.8
	Live w. spouse only	53.6	24.6	370	36.7	p = 0.000
	Live w. unmarried child	15.0	13.2	141	14.0
	Live w. Married child	16.2	30.6	245	24.3
	Total	100.0	100.0	1,014	100.0
Shandong, China	Live alone	9.1	19.1	110	14.3	χ^2 = 35.9
	Live w. spouse only	69.0	48.3	447	58.1	p = 0.000
	Live w. unmarried child	3.3	3.7	27	3.5
	Live w. married child	18.7	29.0	186	24.1
	Total	100.0	100.0	770	100.0

Table 3. Desired forms of living arrangements of elderly by their current arrangements

	Incheon-Gyeonggi, Korea				Shandong, China
Desired	Living with (%)	Living apart (%)	Total		Living with (%)	Living apart (%)	Total
			N	%			N	%
Living separately	16.4	41.0	308	31.6	23.9	46.8	341	39.7
Living with	51.7	11.4	261	26.8	40.1	8.2	155	18.0
Living separately when healthy, living with when not healthy	20.2	25.4	229	23.5	16.3	23.9	185	21.6
Living separately when healthy, but in silver home when not healthy	10.8	20.0	160	16.4	14.8	17.2	141	16.4
Others	0.1	2.3	17	1.7	5.0	3.9	36	4.2
Total (persons)	100.0 (371)	100.0 (603)	975	100.0	100.0 (264)	100.0 (594)	858	100.0

Table 4. Effects of living arrangement on the feeling of loneliness and satisfaction with filial piety of children

Feeling	Degree	Living		Total		χ^2-test		p-values of logistic regression
		With (%)	Apart (%)	N	%	χ^2	p
(a) Incheon-Gyeonggi, Korea
Loneliness	Often	9.8	15.4	129	13.6	20.892	0.007	0.018^**
	Occasionally	32.4	22.9	256	26.4
	Not lonely	57.8	61.7	581	60.9
	Total	100.0 (367)	100.0 (598)	966	100.0
Children’s filial piety	Good	66.8	54.0	562	59.0	56.112	0.000	0.000^***
	Ordinary	25.1	31.8	278	29.2
	Don’t know	4.9	6.7	57	6.0
	Little	2.4	5.0	39	4.1
	Never	0.8	2.5	17	1.7
	Total	100.0 (371)	100.0 (581)	953	100.0
(b) Shandong, China
Loneliness	Often	8.0	5.2	29	6.1	1.472	0.479	0.536
	Occasionally	22.1	22.6	106	22.4
	Not lonely	69.9	72.2	338	71.5
	Total	100.0 (163)	100.0 (310)	473	100.0
Children’s filial piety	Good	76.3	84.0	374	81.3	7.790	0.168	0.254
	Ordinary	21.9	13.3	75	16.3
	Don’t know	1.3	1.3	6	1.3
	Little	0.	1.0	3	0.7
	Never	0.5	0.4	2	0.4
	Total	100.0 (160)	100.0 (300)	460	100.0

Notes: Numbers in parentheses are frequencies. The p-value of the logistic regression analysis above is of variable “living with/apart” , among 7 variables included in the analysis: age, gender, marital status, health status, house ownership, monthly income, and educational attainment.

^** p < 0.05.

^*** p < 0.005.

Table 5. Effects of living arrangement on the degree of satisfaction with children’s supports to parents and general life-satisfaction

	Degree^a	Living		Total		χ²-test	p-value of the logistic regression^c
		With	Apart	N	%
(a) Incheon-Gyeonggi, Korea
Children’s support	1	11.4	8.3	92	9.5	χ² = 27.472	0.001
	2	41.4	35.4	364	37.6	p = 0.007
	3	40.9	44.2	415	42.9
	4	6.3	19.6	86	8.9
	5	0.0	1.5	10	1.1
	Total	100.0 (36.7)^b	100.0 (599)^b	967	100.0		0.081
General life satisfaction	1	5.9	5.3	54	5.5	χ² = 5.334
	2	39.7	37.1	371	38.1	p = 0.868
	3	41.6	44.4	42.3	43.4
	4	12.2	11.8	116	11.9
	5	0.6	0.4	10	1.1
	Total	100.0 (370)^b	100.0 (603)^b	974	100.0
(b) Shandong, China
Children’s support	1	30.2	33.9	144	32.7	χ² = 1.965	0.659
	2	36.3	32.9	150	34.0
	3	26.8	24.0	110	24.9
	4	4.7	5.8	24	5.5
	5	2.0	3.4	13	2.9
	Total	100.0 (149)^b	100.0 (292)^b	441	100.0	p = 0.742
General life satisfaction	1	27.6	29.2	132	28.6	χ² = 5.452	0.564
	2	41.0	40.3	187	40.6
	3	19.2	22.6	79	21.5
	4	10.3	4.9	31	6.7
	5	1.9	3.0	12	2.6
	Total	100.0 (156)^b	100.0 (305)^b	461	100.0	p = 0.244

^a Degree: categorized in 5: (1) most satisfied; (2) satisfied; (3) normal; (4) unsatisfied; and (5) most unsatisfied.

^b The numbers in parentheses are frequencies.

^c The p-values of the logistic regression are the effect of the two different living arrangement variables on the degree of satisfaction with their own children’s support, care, and life in general, in addition to the other 7 variables such as age, gender, marital status, education, health status, monthly income, and ownership of their residential houses.

Table 6. Factors affecting life-satisfaction in general, by logistic regression analysis

Factors	Life satisfaction in general		Degree of loneliness		Feeling of filial piety		Satisfaction with children’s supports
	β	p-value	β	p-value	β	p-value	β	p-value
(a) Incheon-Gyeonggi, Korea
Constant		0.000		0.000		0.000		0.000
Gender	0.062	0.093	−0.057	0.114	0.132	0.000	0.097	0.010
Age	−0.023	0.503	0.049	0.135	−0.132	0.000	−0.062	0.072
Marital status	0.075	0.033	−0.288	0.000	0.128	0.000	0.105	0.004
Education	−0.096	0.009	0.043	0.222	−0.066	0.070	−0.008	0.839
Health	0.186	0.000	−0.163	0.000	0.047	0.155	0.085	0.011
Monthly income	−0.053	0.123	0.033	0.325	−0.090	0.009	−0.045	0.195
Living arrangement	0.053	0.100	−0.070	0.025	0.193	0.000	0.109	0.001
(b) Shandong, China
Constant		0.000		0.000		0.000		0.000
Gender	0.095	0.055	−0.045	0.335	0.134	0.010	0.137	0.009
Age	−0.308	0.000	−0.004	0.940	−0.043	0.435	−0.239	0.000
Marital status	0.158	0.002	−0.342	0.000	0.168	0.002	0.150	0.005
Education	0.006	0.912	−0.057	0.297	−0.22	0.715	−0.026	0.666
Health	0.239	0.000	−0.234	0.000	0.054	0.279	0.129	0.010
Monthly income	−0.173	0.001	0.042	0.406	−0.025	0.659	−0.081	−0.152
Living arrangement	0.024	0.598	−0.029	0.501	−0.045	0.353	0.023	0.632

Table 7. Degrees of general life satisfaction by three forms of living arrangements

	Degree living arrangement	Very much	Relatively	Normal	Unsatisfied	Very unsatisfied	Total % (N)	Pearson X	p-value
Incheon-Gyeonggi, Korea	Alone	3.17	27.0	44.0	21.4	3.17	100.0 (252)	84.373	0.000
	With spouse	7.11	39.63	44.30	8.33	0.60	100.0 (492)
	With children	4.19	40.83	42.36	11.45	0.76	100.0 (262)
		5.36	36.97	43.83	12.42	1.29	100.0 (1,006)
Shandong, China	Alone	19.04	40.47	33.33	3.57	3.57	100.0 (84)	25.679	0.059
	With spouse	33.18	41.36	16.81	6.36	2.27	100.0 (220)
	With children	27.64	42.27	16.26	11.38	2.43	100.0 (123)
		28.80	41.45	19.90	7.25	2.57	100.0 (427)