How Community Participation Promotes the Relocation Adjustment of Older Women: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

Abstract

With China’s rapid urbanization, more and more peasants are forced to relocate in urban communities. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of community participation in older women’s relocation adjustment and to further examine the moderated mediation mechanism with sense of community as a mediator and personal resilience as a moderator. Using a cross-sectional design, 205 older women relocatees (50–88 years old) in Chongqing, China, completed measures of community participation, sense of community, resilience, and relocation adjustment (well-being, depression, and loneliness). The results showed that community participation had a positive effect on adjustment. In addition, sense of community mediated the association between community participation and adjustment. Moreover, community participation’s indirect effect on adjustment through sense of community depended on older women’s personal resilience. Specifically, sense of community mediated the association between community participation and adjustment for older women with low resilience but not for older women with high resilience. This study highlighted the importance of community resources to older women’s relocation adjustment. Interventions focused on enhancing community participation and personal resilience should be combined to improve older women’s relocation adjustment.