Effect of Family Environment on Quality of life among Older Adults: the Mediating role of Attitudes to Ageing

With the improvement of living standards and medical technology, the older adults are living longer and healthier than ever before, ageing issue is gradually become a globe issue that concerned by people all over the world. Prompting the elderly integrated into the society actively, increasing their social participation and improving their life quality is one of the most important measures to reduce the burden of society. Our research is a quantitative and descriptive exploratory study of attitudes to ageing, family environment and quality of life among older adults in China. Three data measurement tools were used for data collection. Data measurement instruments in this study are the Family Environment Scale (FES), the Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire (AAQ) and the Quality of Life Instrument (QOL). The FES, QOL and AAQ were administered to 700 aged(>60 years) Chinese people who are in Sha’an Xi and Gan Su provinces. Conclusions: 1) It shows that the older adults’ QOL had a medium high level. The marital status, educational status, self-care abilityand economic are significant variables for overall QOL in this study. 2) The psychosocial loss, physical change and Psychological growth of attitudes to ageing have intermediary effect on family’s environment and QOL, the psychosocial loss and physical change have intermediary effect on family’s entertainment and QOL. According to the results, older adults’ life quality is influenced by external factor of the family environment and the internal factor of their attitudes to ageing. Two ways to improve elderly’s life quality, encouraging a harmonious family environment be formed; advocating the elderly to form a positive attitude to aging.