Department of Education and Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath, Bath, UK.
Gerontologist. 2022 Aug 12;62(7):974-983. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnab164.
This study sought to qualitatively explore the lived experiences of 80 older people living in retirement villages across the United Kingdom and Australia. We focused on residents' narratives around the themes of independence/dependence.
Qualitative semistructured interviews permitted in-depth exploration of how older people understood and experienced issues related to independence/dependence in the context of retirement living.
Core themes identified strikingly different and often competing needs and narratives around independence/dependence. Of note was the fact that narratives and needs around independence/dependence frequently collided and conflicted, creating a sense of "us" and "them" in the retirement community. The primary source of such conflict was reflected by the fact that residents seeking a "prolonged midlife" often felt that frailer and more dependent residents were a burden on them and were not suited to an "independent living community."
Our findings are discussed in relation to the challenges such competing narratives create for retirement villages as living environments for a group of people who are far from homogenous.
本研究旨在定性探讨英国和澳大利亚各地退休村内 80 名老年人的生活体验。我们关注的是居民围绕独立/依赖这两个主题的叙述。
采用定性半结构式访谈的方法深入探究了老年人在退休生活背景下如何理解和体验与独立/依赖相关的问题。
确定了独立性/依赖性方面截然不同且经常相互竞争的需求和叙述。值得注意的是，独立/依赖的叙述和需求经常发生冲突和碰撞，在退休社区中形成了一种“我们”和“他们”的感觉。这种冲突的主要根源在于，那些寻求“延长中年”的居民常常觉得脆弱和依赖性更强的居民是他们的负担，不适合“独立生活社区”。
我们的研究结果与退休村作为一群远非同质人群的生活环境所面临的挑战进行了讨论。
