中国的老年人是否真是离群索居的——基于中国和欧洲居民时间利用调查数据的对比分析

Does Chinese Elderly Stay Away from Social Life and Live Solitary——Based on the TUS Data from China and Europe

目前中西方学者们普遍认同进入老年期后人们更容易选择待在家中,而较少参加社会活动,这种"老年人离群索居"的论调广泛存在甚至成为各种老龄化问题存在的归因。本文以中国和欧洲14个国家的居民生活时间利用为分析对象,以非经济领域作为研究范围,将居民自由时间分为"个体性活动"、"外出性活动"和"社会性活动"三类,通过单因素分析和Wilcoxon(Mann-Whitney)两样本秩和检验方法发现:第一,虽然中国老年人在"个体性活动"的时间花费在"量"上比青壮年群体多,然而其在自由活动当中的比重却比青壮年群体少;第二,"个体性活动"在自由时间当中比重较高是一个在生命每个阶段都具有的共性特征,而非老年人的普遍性特征;第三,中国老年群体相对于青壮年群体花更多时间参加"外出性活动"和"社会性活动"。由此本文认为,尽管欧洲数据表明老年人是离群索居的,然而中国的老年人并非如欧洲事实和以往研究所认为的那样"离群索居",相反对于年轻人而言,他们更愿意参加社会活动而非愿意待在家里独自打发时间。

At present, there is a point of view generally agreed by the Chinese and Western scholars that eld-erly prefer to stay at home, and more reluctant to participate in social activities.Based on the survey data from Chi-na and 14 European countries, this paper uses people’s living time as analysis object, non economic activities as research scope, dividing free time into three kinds with“individual activities”,“outside activities”and“social ac-tivities”.Using One-way ANOVA and Wilcoxon（Mann-Whitney） test as method, comparing different groups, this research finds：Fist, Chinese elderly spend more time on individual activities than young adults, but the pro-portion of individual activities is less than younger group.Second, that high proportion of individual activities in free time exists in each age stage, rather than in the elderly.Third, Chinese elderly spend more time to go outside and participate social activities than young adults.This paper considers that the phenomenon of elderly stay at home and do not go out just exists in Europ, but Chinese old people are more willing to participate in social activities rather than stay at home to spend time alone.