Identity Crisis in the Life Stories of Rural Chinese Older Adults

Abstract

This qualitative study investigated how rural Chinese older people construct identity crises in their life-story telling. Challenging life experiences of 20 older adults from a village in southwest China were collected through in-depth interviews. The older adults were identified to have gone through crises brought on by both social upheavals and destructive interpersonal interactions. Adaption to the challenges contributes to their identity development. Identity crisis for the participants represents a process of disconnecting the bonds with significant others that transfer from parents to spouses and then to children across their lifespan. Study limitations and contributions are discussed.

Keywords:

• Rural Chinese older adults
• identity crises
• interpersonal bonds

Acknowledgments

This study has been approved by the College of Teacher Education, Honghe University.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the 2016 National Social Science Foundation General Program in Education [BBA160043] and the Honghe University under Grant [BS2010].

Notes on contributors

Yanping Liu

Yanping Liu is a lecturer of psychology at Honghe University, Mengzi, Yunnan, China. He received his PhD from University of Macau in 2018.

Jianhong Zheng

Jianhong Zheng is a professor of psychology at Lingnan Normal University, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, China. He is the Editor-in-Chief at Psychobiography and Qualitative Psychology.

Wenyi Zhu

Wenyi Zhu is an associate professor at Honghe Health Vocational College, Mengzi City, China.