Abstract: Advancing the development of rural elderly support is not only a requirement of population aging but also a necessary step in implementing the rural revitalization strategy. Funding is the primary issue facing elderly support. This article defines individuals' comprehensive views on the primary funding sources for future elderly support as the pension awareness. Although pension awareness does not refer to actual funding sources for elderly support, it represents people's cognition and planning for their elderly lives, reflecting a clear preference for a specific elderly support pattern. Guiding rural residents to establish an independent pension awareness can help ensure their living standards in old age and reduce the burden on their children.
Based on first-hand data from the 2021 “Thousand-Village Survey” conducted by Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, this article first analyzes rural residents' pension awareness and pension insurance participation under the background of rural revitalization. It finds that rural residents' current pension awareness is still traditional, relying heavily on their children for support, and they have not yet formed a consciousness of relying on pension insurance to secure their income in old age. Then, four main funding sources for elderly support are assigned values based on their modern characteristics. Considering that the choice of funding sources for elderly support may be diverse, indicators are constructed to comprehensively evaluate the modernization level of rural residents' pension awareness. The Dagum Gini coefficient is used for differentiated decomposition, revealing that differences in pension awareness mainly stem from intra-group differences, or individual differences. Lastly, this article explores the personality traits that influence pension awareness. The analysis results indicate that rural residents who perceive stronger village organizational capacity and have higher financial literacy tend to have more modern pension awareness, while those with stronger family values tend to have more traditional pension awareness. Overall, the top five factors that have the greatest impact on pension awareness are village organizational capacity, political status, financial literacy, regional living standards, and age.
Compared to previous studies, the marginal contributions of this research are as follows: (1)This study is based on first-hand data from the “Thousand-Village Survey”, ensuring more authentic data analysis and convincing research results. The “Thousand-Village Survey” focuses on rural areas, covering 31 provincial administrative units across the country. It adopts a random survey method, encompassing adult groups of all ages, eliminating sample selection issues. (2)Considering the diversity of elderly support providers and patterns, unlike those studies which only focus on a single provider or pattern, this study assigns weights to multiple-choice ranking questions using commonly used methods in sociological surveys, providing a more reasonable measure of rural residents' comprehensive pension awareness and depicting the modernization level of their pension awareness. (3)This study focuses on the impact of individual characteristics and personal experiences on pension awareness, delving deeply into the roots of personality differences and sorting out the key factors influencing pension awareness.
The research findings of this paper have certain policy implications for promoting the modernization of pension awareness and enhancing the participation depth of rural residents in pension insurance in China. The identification and trust of villagers towards village collectives can be leveraged to guide rural residents in shifting their traditional mindsets. Village cadres and social security departments should strive to explain and communicate the contents of the pension insurance system to address rural residents' doubts and misunderstandings, leveraging pension insurance to increase sources of income for the elderly. Additionally, there should be a conscious effort to strengthen financial education and interpretation of financial knowledge for rural residents, improving their financial literacy and encouraging them to transfer personal savings to pension insurance personal accounts. The revitalization of “rural areas” involves not only the villages themselves but also “rural residents”. Only when rural residents undergo a change in mindset, improve their qualities, and adopt advanced ideas can rural areas truly achieve revitalization.

Key words: Rural Area, Pension Awareness, Personality Difference, Survey Research

摘要： 推进农村养老事业发展不单是人口老龄化的要求,也是实施乡村振兴战略的必要环节。本文基于2021年上海财经大学“千村调查”研究了乡村振兴背景下农村居民的养老意识及养老保险参与情况,发现养老意识仍倾向于传统,农村居民对养老保险的参与深度不够。进而,基于养老资金来源的多元化构建指标,综合评价了养老意识的现代化水平。采用基尼系数进行差异化分解发现,养老意识的差异主要来源于组内差异,即个性差异;影响因素的分析则表明,主观感知村庄组织能力越强、金融素养越高的农村居民具有越为现代的养老意识,而家庭观念越重养老意识越传统。整体上对养老意识影响最大的前五大因素分别为村庄组织能力、政治面貌、金融素养、地区生活水平和年龄。研究结果有助于政府有针对性地引导农村居民树立现代的养老意识,自发运用多种工具增强自我养老能力,从而从根本上解决农村地区的养老问题。

关键词: 农村地区, 养老意识, 个性差异, 调查研究