Relationship between Family Interaction and Residential Preferences of Upper Middle Class Elderly Chinese in Bandung : Explorative Study of New Elderly Residential Typology

• Main Author: Dharma, Andri
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Bangunan
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/33340
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The increasing number of elderly people always associated with the increasing dependency ratio on the productive population. Efforts to improve elderly quality of life is one way to reduce the level of dependence. A study revealed that one factor that affect the quality of life is family interaction. House is a place where family interaction accurs regularly in everyday life. Study on this case is rarely done before, so this thesis aims to explore interaction between the elderly and the children and how is the residential criteria that facilitate the daily activities. Furthermore, this thesis will identify the relationship between elderly and the children interaction and the residential criteria. There area two phases approach used, qualitative and quantitative phase. Grounded theory method is used in qualitative phase. Data collected from twenty middle to upper economic class of elderly Chinese in Bandung, which is selected by purposive and snowball sampling with age limit between 45 untill 74 years old. Data analysis was done by sorting, coding, and compare the category revealed to the theory. Forms of interaction between elderly and the children of Chinese people in Bandung at least divided into seven, namely: assertive, agresive, cohesion, appreciation, emphaty, practical, and educative. Residential criteria for the elderly at least divided into eleven category, namely: spaces that ensure safety, security, and comfortability; ease of access elderly support services; spaces that support personal territory; the proximity of residential space in the elderly; interrelated elderly community; ease access to the natural surroundings; and spaces that gives sensitivity and orientation understanding of the elderly. In order to avoid biased result, finding of the qualitative phase needs to be verified. Thus, quantitative method are used with questionnaire form as the instrument. Questions used in this quasteionnaire derived from keywords that appear in qualitative phase. Pilot phase involves twenty elderly respondents from middle to upper classes live in Bandung and then the evaluated questionnaire distributed to other 157 respondents. Crombach alpha analysis showed all variables used are trustworthy. Varimax rotation analysis revealed that there are six categories of interaction of elderly and the children, and five elderly residential criteria. Interaction of elderly and the children are: appreciation, motivation, participation, existence, identification, and financial. Elderly residential criteria are: features that correspond to the elderly residential design standards, appropriate distance of supporting environment for the elderly, a good social environment for the elderly, suitable housing typologies for the elderly, the proximity of living among the elderly and children. From all the criteria revealed, it turns out that living closeness between the elderly and children is one thing that has not been appointed yet as the design criteria of the previous elderly residential. The living closeness (proximity) of elderly and the children have three scales: very close, close, and not adjacent. Very close scale used on the condition which elderly live with the child on the same floor at same house. Close scale used on the condition which: elderly live at same house on a different floor, adjacent to, and contiguous although not side by side to their children. Not adjacent scale used on the condition which: elderly live at the same district, the different districts, different cities and different countries. Apparently when a respondent selects a certain living conditions proximity, there is always a reason about the desired interaction form. Through stepwise correlation analysis, it was found that seniors who want to stay very close to their children hope to interact in the form of participation and financially. The elderly who want to stay close to their children hope to interact in the form of appreciation. The elderly who do not want to stay close to their children do not hope any interaction with their children. Does not mean the quality of the relationship is not good, even with the intensity of a meeting that is not too often, the quality of relationships will increase. It was revealed that a condition of proximity dwelling elderly and children which are ideal according to their individual preferences will contribute to the creation of the ideal interaction of the elderly and children. At the end, this thesis brings some new challenges in planning and design of the elderly residential for housing developers, practitioners, and also the government. New challenges for developers of housing is how the planning and design of housing need to start seeing the market as a multigenerational with the provision of facilities for children, young age, and old age. The new challenge for practitioners is how the planning and design of a residential typology which can facilitate live together between elderly and children, while still supporting their personal territory. The new challenge for the government is how to create new policies for the elderly, not just planning a nursing home, but providing public facilities that are friendly to the elderly. In addition, the government also plays an important role in determining the direction of development of private residential housing that need to consider facilities to improve the quality of life of the elderly and their families.