Abstract
This Chapter presents a personal interview survey . The key instrument is a questionnaire that seeks to find out older adults’ (aged 55 and older) experiences and perceptions about growing older in Singapore, their housing and neighbourhood spaces . It explores issues relating to housing satisfaction and mobility aspiration, self-reported housing modification and housing needs, frequency of outdoor activities and satisfaction with neighbourhood public spaces as well as desired facilities and service clusters.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
To address this, focus group discussions were conducted to offer respondents an opportunity to further discuss their personal feelings, perceptions and views. See Chap. 2.
- 2.
Based on the Department of Statistics (2012) there are approximately 865,000 Singaporeans and Singapore permanent residents aged above 55 years. With a 95% confidence level and ±1.8% sampling error, we arrived at a target sample of 3000.
- 3.
At national population level, female residents outnumber male with a sex ratio of 963 male per 1000 female.
- 4.
This is a uniquely Singaporean common space in public housing . It refers to the ground floor of public housing blocks that has been purposefully left open (void) since the 1970s as a sheltered space for residents’ common use, e.g. as a venue to meet friends or for block parties, funerals or weddings. See National Heritage Board (2013) for further details about its history, importance, common features and programming.
- 5.
HDB is the abbreviation for Housing and Development Board, the public housing authority in Singapore. Public housing is popularly referred to as HDB housing/block/flats.
- 6.
The ethnic composition of Singapore’s resident population includes 74.3% Chinese, 13.4% Malay, 9.1% Indian and 3.2% Others. See Department of Statistics (2016).
- 7.
- 8.
Even though the survey dealt with all four demographic variables, only age will be considered in this Chapter. A more comprehensive analysis that will include the remaining variables will be published separately.
- 9.
Even though retirement village is a common housing typology for older people in Western developed countries (e.g. UK, USA, Australia), there is no development in Singapore at time of writing. The elderly studio apartment is one housing option that has been developed by Singapore’s public housing agency in recent decades. See Yuen and Soh (2017).
- 10.
This is another unique local amenity. Located all over Singapore, hawker centre is established in every public housing and near large private housing estate as a hygienic alternative to street food hawking. It provides a one-stop indoor venue of multiple cooked food stalls, up to some 200 stalls each. There are over 100 hawker centres in Singapore. Coffee shops or kopi tiam in local parlance exist among the ground floor shops of many public housing blocks, providing drinks (e.g. coffee (kopi), tea (teh), soft drinks and sometimes even beer) and some 6–8 food stalls (like noodle, rice, breakfast items such as kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs). The bigger kopi tiam may have more food stalls. See Kong (2007), Lai (2010).
References
Andres, L. (2012). Designing and doing survey research. London: Sage.
Bengtson, V. L., Gans, D., Putney, N. M., & Silverstein, M. (Eds.). (2009). Handbook of theories of ageing. New York: Springer.
Blair, J., Czaja, R. F., & Blair, E. A. (2014). Designing surveys: A guide to decisions and procedures. London: Sage.
Buckingham, A., & Saunders, P. (2004). The survey methods workbook: From design to analysis. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Department of Labor. (2013). American time use survey summary, bureau of labor statistics 2013. http://www.bls.gov/tus/. Accessed September 29, 2015.
Carifio, J., & Perla, R. J. (2007). Ten common misunderstandings, misconceptions, persistent myths and urban legends about Likert scales and Likert response formats and their antidotes. Journal of Social Sciences, 3(3), 106–116.
Carr, S., Francis, M., Rivlin, L. G., & Stone, A. M. (1992). Public Space. New York: Cambridge University Press.
De Vaus, D. (2014). Surveys in social research. New York: Routledge.
Department of Statistics, Singapore (2012). 2012 population trends. Singapore: Department of Statistics. http://costofhealthyliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/population2012.pdf. Accessed July 14, 2017.
Department of Statistics, Singapore. (2016). Population trends 2016. Singapore: Department of Statistics.
Furstenberg, A. L. (2002). Trajectories of aging: Imagined pathways in later life. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 55, 1–24.
Gehl, J., & Svarre, B. (2013). How to study public life. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Help the Aged. (2006). Older people. Decent Homes and Fuel Poverty, London: Help the aged.
Housing and Development Board. (2014). Sample household survey 2013. Singapore: Housing and Development Board.
Kong, L. (2007). Singapore hawker centres: People, places, food. Singapore: National Environment Agency.
Lai, A. E. (2010). The Kopitiam in Singapore: An evolving story about migration and diversity. Asia Research Institute Working Paper Series No. 132. Singapore: Asia Research Institute.
Lascu, D., Manrai, L. A., & Manrai, A. K. (1996). Value differences between Polish and Romanian consumers: A caution against using a regiocentric marketing orientation in East Europe. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 8, 145–167.
Levy, B. R. (2003). Mind matters: Cognitive and physical effects of aging self-stereotypes. Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58, 203–211.
Likert, R. (1932). A technique for the measurement of attitudes. Archives of Psychology, 140, 5–55.
Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (1995). 1995 National survey of senior citizens. Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. https://www.msf.gov.sg/publications/Documents/Materials_SC_NationalSurvey1995.pdf. Accessed July 14, 2017.
Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, Singapore. (1999). 1999 Survey of transitions in health, wealth and welfare of elderly Singaporeans. Singapore: Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.
Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, Singapore (2008). 2008 Survey on the learning needs of seniors in Singapore. Singapore: Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. https://www.moh.gov.sg/content/dam/moh_web/Publications/Reports/2008/MCYS%20Survey%20on%20the%20Learning%20Needs%20of%20Seniors%20in%20Singapore.pdf. Accessed July 14, 2017.
Ministry of Health, Singapore. (2016). I feel young in my Singapore! Action plan for successful ageing. Singapore: Ministry of Health.
Moser, C. A., & Kalton, G. (2016). Survey methods in social investigation. New York: Routledge.
National Heritage Board. (2013). Void decks, community heritage series III. Singapore: National Heritage Board.
Pew Research Centre. (2009). Growing old in America: Expectations vs. reality. Washington D.C.
Rea, L. M., & Parker, R. A. (2014). Designing and conducting survey research: A comprehensive guide. New York: Wiley.
Rokeach, M. (1968). Beliefs, attitudes and values. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Sarkisian, C. A., Prohaska, T. R., Wong, M. D., Hirsch, S., & Mangione, C. M. (2005). The relationship between expectations for aging and physical activity among older adults. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 20, 911–915.
Singapore Sports Council. (2011). National sports participation survey 2011, final report. Singapore: Singapore Sports Council.
Sneed, J. R., & Whitbourne, S. K. (2005). Models of the aging self. Journal of Social Issues, 61, 375–388.
Yuen, B., & Soh, E. Y. S. (2017). Housing for older people in Singapore: An annotated bibliography. Springer Briefs in Ageing. Cham: Springer.
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the many people who have helped us with the survey presented in this chapter: Mayor Dr. Teo Ho Pin, Northwest Community Development Council (CDC), for facilitating access to various community and grassroots seniors events and activities; Member of Parliament (MP) Dr. Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State in the Ministries of Health and of Manpower, for facilitating access to seniors groups in Hong Kah North constituency; MP Desmond Lee, Minister of State for National Development, for facilitating access to seniors community clubs in Jurong Spring constituency; MP Sam Tan, Minister of State, Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Culture for facilitating access to the Radin Mas Active Ageing Council and seniors community groups in Radin Mas constituency; MP Dr. Lily Neo, Tanjong Pagar GRC, for facilitating access to Senior Activity Centres in the Kreta Ayer/Chinatown area; Mrs. Yu-Foo Yee Shoon for introducing us to Active Contributive Engaged Seniors (ACE Seniors); Siti Habibah Siraj, Director, Malay Heritage Foundation for connecting us to the elderly Malay community; Prabha Seth and Thomson Community Centre Indian Activity Executive Committee for helping us to connect with their local Indian community and administering the Survey in Tamil, where needed; South-east Community Development Council, Community Outreach Programme for the Elderly (COPE), various Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs) who work with seniors to reach the older population within the Southeast Community Development Council; Eurasian Association for assisting us to connect with the Eurasian older community; Staff of Sunlove Senior Activity Centres , NTUC SilverAce Senior Activity Centres , Tung Ling Community Services , Goodlife! Family Services , Kreta Ayer/Chinatown Senior Activity Centres , Presbyterian Community Services Sarah Seniors Activity Centre, Radin Mas Active Ageing Council, Active Contributive Engaged Seniors (ACE Seniors), Jia Ying Community Services Society, Jalan Kukoh Senior Activity Centre, Jamiyah Ar-Rabitah Mosque, Joo Seng Neighbour Ring Community Services , Telok Blangah Seniors Activity Centre, Thye Hua Kuan Moral Charity Senior Activity Centres for granting us access to conduct the survey ; constituency directors and staff of the various constituencies and community centres for facilitating access to the seniors communities in their constituencies/centres; the many individuals who facilitated access to private housing estates, country/community clubs, elderly interests, qigong, wellness, theatre and cultural groups; our colleagues, Debbie Loo, Laura Jasmine, our student interviewers, seniors interviewers from ACE Seniors Club and other adult interviewers for helping us conduct such an extensive number of interviews; Dinusha Senanayake for data compilation and digitising the completed questionnaires; Cheong Sue Wei, student intern Lim Aunn Ning and other part-time helpers for data entry and verification; Cheong Sue Wei and Emily Soh Yongxu for their inputs to the writing of the “Summary of Key Findings”; all residents who participated in our interview and generously shared with us their responses and experiences of their ageing, homes and neighbourhoods.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Yuen, B., Withanage, C., Nair, P. (2019). Surveying Older Adults’ Perceptions and Aspirations. In: Yuen, B. (eds) Ageing and the Built Environment in Singapore. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92444-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92444-1_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-92443-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-92444-1
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)