The Ecological Characteristics of the Communities and Social Interactions of the Elderly in rural Korea

As the proportion of the elderly population in rural Korea has increased rapidly, the quality of life of the rural elderly has become a major public and policy concern. In this regards, most of the researches on rural elderly have focused mainly on the 'risk factors or problems' of rural areas, ignoring the 'positive or protective aspects' of rural community on the quality of life of elderly. This study attempts to explore the possible positive influence of rural community on the quality of life of elderly and to examine the linkage among ecological characteristics of the communities, social interaction and quality of life of rural elderly. To achieve this goal, a community case study was conducted in four Korean rural villages. The data were collected using participant observation method and in-depth interviews (person-to-person, group interviews). All the interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim for the analysis. The data was analyzed using the reflective qualitative analytic technique. The major findings of this study are as follows : All of the four villages have strong community ties and provide contexts which make it possible for older people to share their everyday life with neighbors and to actively participate as a community member. Although the four villages were geographically not far from each other, the pattern of social interaction and the nature of everyday-life of the elderly were nevertheless different depending on the ecological environment of each community, the relationship history among the community members, and the shared experience of historical events in recent Korean history. Elderly men have smaller networks and have less frequent contact with community members than elderly women. The political and practical implications of this study are discussed.