A geographical multivariable multilevel analysis of social exclusion among older people in China: Evidence from the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey ageing study

Abstract

Social exclusion is increasingly considered to be a multi‐faceted concept involving more than simply material disadvantage among older people. The process of social exclusion may be driven by various factors and at different levels, including individual, household, group, community, country and global levels. Using data from the 2014 China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey focusing on respondents aged over 60, we employed multivariate multilevel models to simultaneously estimate four dimensions of social exclusion among older people. The results show that the social exclusion of older people varies not only among individuals but also among provinces. From an individual perspective, older people with lower educational attainment (often illiterate), in the lowest quintile of personal income and in poor health were the most likely to be excluded. From a geographical perspective, although there are no province‐level characteristics (social, economic and social security development) significantly related to the four dimensions of social exclusion, there is nevertheless significant unexplained variation for all dimensions of social exclusion at the province level. The negative relationships between exclusion from social relationships and exclusion from financial products, between subjective feeling of exclusion and social activities, and between subjective feeling of exclusion and exclusion from financial products at the provincial level indicate that a province may do well on one dimension of social exclusion but it will not automatically do well on the other dimensions.