title: Socio-economic factors related with the subjective well-being of the rural elderly people living independently in China.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many Chinese elderly increasingly face the serious problem of the "empty nest" phenomenon. The elderly living independently, also called empty-nest elderly, refers to elderly people living alone whose children left home. However few studies concerned about the subjective well-being (SWB) of the elderly living independently.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study employs The Memorial University of Newfoundland Scale of Happiness (MUNSH) to explore the SWB of the elderly living independently in rural areas of Wenzhou, a relatively developed region in China. 536 sampled are randomly selected.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results indicate that participants obtained low scores in positive affect, positive experience, and the total SWB score, but high scores in negative affect and negative experience. Age, low education, poor health condition and little income were found to be negatively correlated with SWB. The SWB score of the elderly living with a spouse is higher than those who divorced or lost their spouse and the score of women is lower than that of men. In addition, the survey revealed that children's support has a positive influence on the SWB of the rural elderly living independently.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The elderly living independently in rural Wenzhou, China have unfavorable SWB. Poor socio-economic statuses are negative impact factors. But the children's support can help to improve. Special attention is needed to those with lower socio-economic status and less children's support.
authors.affiliation: School of Politics and Public Administration, Soochow University, Collaborative Innovation Center for New-type Urbanization and Social Governance of Jiangsu Province, Suzhou, China. scuzhouyicheng@163.com.
authors.forename: Yicheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: School of Stastistics and Mathemetics, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Kunming, China. zhoulinyi1017@163.com.
authors.forename: Linyi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: School of Management, Zhejiang International Studies University, Hangzhou, China. zjufuchangl@126.com.
authors.forename: Changluan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: School of Philosophy and sociology, Northwest University, Xi'an, China. nwwangyou@sohu.com.
authors.forename: You
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Government, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China. liuqlcufe@163.com.
authors.forename: Qingle
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: The first affiliated hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China. sdwuhongtao@163.com.
authors.forename: Hongtao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China. zhangrj1973@sohu.com.
authors.forename: Rongjun
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China. linfengzh@126.com.
authors.forename: Linfeng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zheng
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D059026:Diagnostic Self Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D057187:Independent Living / Q000191:economics*; D008297:Male; D012424:Rural Population; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires