%0 Journal Article
%T The Effects of Sociodemographic Characteristics on Chinese Elders' Perception of the Image of Ageing
%A Nelson Chow
%A Xue Bai
%J International Journal of Population Research
%D 2011
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2011/642874
%X A positive image of elderly people is found to be contributive to successful ageing. This paper reports a study that aims at revising and validating Image of Ageing Scale in a modern Chinese context and finding out how socio-demographic factors have impacted the latter's perception of the image of ageing. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the five-factor model suggested from exploratory factor analysis which produced good psychometric properties. Based on the two-cluster solution from the two-step cluster analysis on the image of ageing, results of both the Chi-square and the one-way ANOVA tests confirmed that age, residence location, marital status, working status, living arrangement, neighborhood relationships, illness and daily activity were significant predictors of elders' image of ageing. Logistic results further indicated that some predictors were not statistically significant in the multivariate analysis, whilst being urban, lonely, suffering from severe chronic illnesses, and showing little interests in daily activities, were identified as potent factors resulting in a negative image of ageing. Other than suggesting the Revised Chinese Version of the Image of Ageing Scale (IAS-C) could be used in a Chinese society, our findings also led to a number of recommendations to promoting a positive image among the Chinese elderly. 1. Introduction The world's population is ageing rapidly. Declining fertility rates combined with steady lengthening of life expectancies over the latter half of the 20th century have tripled the number of elderly people all over the World; it is further projected that the number will triple again over the next 50 years [1]. As the most populous country in the world, China is also experiencing a dramatic change in its age structure. In 2008, the number of elderly people aged 65 and above in China reached more than 109.56 million, or eight percent of the population, with an annual growth rate of around three percent [2]. It is noteworthy that while modernization, together with population ageing, has happened in Western countries for more than a century, China would be confronted with the challenges of ageing in a much shorter period, and before she becomes ¡°rich¡± [3]. The challenges of fostering successful ageing among the growing elderly population in China include helping them to avoid diseases and disabilities, to maintain high physical and cognitive functions, and to sustain their interests in social and productive activities with a positive attitude towards life itself [4, 5]. Other than the wide array of biological
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijpr/2011/642874/