IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i19p12360-d928257.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Psycho-Social Factors Associated with Intimacy Needs in Divorced and Widowed Older Chinese Women

Author

Listed:
  • Zhe Ji

    (Faculty of Social Sciences, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong 999077, China)

  • Elsie Yan

    (Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China)

Abstract

The rapidly ageing population, the growing rate of divorce, and the longer life expectancy of women compared with men have resulted in a large proportion of older Chinese women being alone. The sexual health and intimacy needs of this group of women are ignored due to traditional Chinese cultural values that undermine older adults’ needs for sex and intimacy, and the subordinate position of women in society. The present study used a quantitative survey method to investigate bio-psycho-social factors associated with divorced and widowed older Chinese women’s sexual health and intimacy needs in two cities in Shanghai and Wuhan. The conceptual framework of this study was guided by cognitive stress theory, attachment theory, gender theory, socioemotional selectivity theory, objectification theory, and activity theory. We adopted a model involving demographic, biological, psychological, and social factors to unearth the mechanism influencing divorced and widowed older Chinese women’s sexual health and intimacy needs. Data were collected between October 2020 and March 2021 via face-to-face surveys. A convenience sample of 278 (N = 278) divorced and widowed older Chinese women was recruited (166 in Shanghai and 112 in Wuhan). Sexual health and intimacy needs were associated with current relationship status, financial status, physical health, attachment style, neuroticism, mental health, social support, prior marital conflict, and gender norm attitude. Sexual behaviour was associated with age, number of children, financial status, physical health, attachment style, neuroticism, prior marital conflict, gender norm attitude, sexual knowledge, sexual attitude, and intimacy attitude as predictors. Most participants in this study seemed to have found new intimate partners with whom to continue participating in sexual activities after their divorce or widowhood. The present study is one of the first examples of empirical research to examine the sexual health and intimacy needs of older Chinese women who are divorced or widowed. The findings generated by this study will inform the design and implementation of appropriate social programs for this demographic, and provide invaluable insight for social workers, educators, sex therapists, healthcare professionals, community workers, and policymakers working with this population.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhe Ji & Elsie Yan, 2022. "Psycho-Social Factors Associated with Intimacy Needs in Divorced and Widowed Older Chinese Women," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-18, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12360-:d:928257
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12360/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12360/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Linda Waite & Aniruddha Das, 2010. "Families, social life, and well-being at older ages," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 47(1), pages 87-109, March.
    2. Glenn Firebaugh, 2008. "The First Rule, from Seven Rules for Social Research," Introductory Chapters, in: Seven Rules for Social Research, Princeton University Press.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jo Mhairi Hale, 2017. "Cognitive Disparities: The Impact of the Great Depression and Cumulative Inequality on Later-Life Cognitive Function," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(6), pages 2125-2158, December.
    2. Das, Aniruddha, 2021. "The relational genomics of cognitive function: A longitudinal study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    3. Beate Völker, 2021. "Network Thinking in Human Geography: Musings of a Newbie," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 112(4), pages 474-481, September.
    4. Oliver Lipps & Daniel Oesch, 2017. "The Working Class Left Behind? The Class Gap in Life Satisfaction in Germany and Switzerland over the Last Decades," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 940, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    5. Hui Liu & Shannon Shen & Ning Hsieh, 2019. "A National Dyadic Study of Oral Sex, Relationship Quality, and Well-Being among Older Couples," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 74(2), pages 298-308.
    6. Glenn Firebaugh, 2007. "Replication Data Sets and Favored-Hypothesis Bias," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 36(2), pages 200-209, November.
    7. Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez & Eva Cristina Manotas & Luciano Ciravegna, 2016. "International SMEs from emerging markets—Insights from the Colombian textile and apparel industry," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 9-31, March.
    8. Fabrizio Bernardi & Gabriele Ballarino, 2011. "Participation, equality of opportunity and returns to tertiary education in contemporary Europe," Working Papers 10, AlmaLaurea Inter-University Consortium.
    9. Chiara Comolli & Fabrizio Bernardi, 2015. "The causal effect of the great recession on childlessness of white American women," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-24, December.
    10. Carlos J. Gil-Hernández & Pablo Gracia, 2018. "Adolescents' educational aspirations and ethnic background: The case of students of African and Latin American migrant origins in Spain," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 38(23), pages 577-618.
    11. Hwang, Sean-Shong & Cao, Yue & Xi, Juan, 2010. "Project-induced migration and depression: A panel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1765-1772, June.
    12. Aniruddha Das & Deborah Carr, 2021. "Transpersonal Genetic Effects Among Older U.S. Couples: A Longitudinal Study [Convoys of social relations: Past, present, and future]," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 76(1), pages 184-194.
    13. Daniel Oesch & Oliver Lipps & Patrick McDonald, 2017. "The wage penalty for motherhood: Evidence on discrimination from panel data and a survey experiment for Switzerland," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 37(56), pages 1793-1824.
    14. Das, Aniruddha, 2019. "Genes, depressive symptoms, and chronic stressors: A nationally representative longitudinal study in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    15. Houle, Jason N., 2014. "Mental health in the foreclosure crisis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 1-8.
    16. Wade Jacobsen, 2015. "Punished for their Fathers: School Discipline Among Children of the Prison Boom," Working Papers wp14-08-ff, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    17. Gregory Mitchell & John Monahan & Laurens Walker, 2011. "The ASA’s Missed Opportunity to Promote Sound Science in Court," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 40(4), pages 605-620, November.
    18. Guangyu Tong & Guang Guo, 2022. "Meta-analysis in Sociological Research: Power and Heterogeneity," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 51(2), pages 566-604, May.
    19. Jessica Yiu, 2013. "Calibrated Ambitions: Low Educational Ambition as a Form of Strategic Adaptation Among Chinese Youth in Spain," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 573-611, September.
    20. Andrew K Jorgenson & Brett Clark, 2013. "The Relationship between National-Level Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Population Size: An Assessment of Regional and Temporal Variation, 1960–2005," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(2), pages 1-8, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12360-:d:928257. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.