'Aging without growing old': Identity reconstruction and individualization among rural older adults in China.

The erosion of older adults' authority within families and the transition from filial obligation-based caregiving to a reciprocity-based care model have become widely recognized realities among rural older adults in China.

• The study used both observational and semi-structured interview methods to examine how rural older adults navigate these challenges.
• Traditional family caregiving responsibilities are eroding while the socialized care system for older adults remains inadequately resourced.
• The shift represents a move from a caregiving model based on filial obligation to one based on reciprocal exchange.

Rural older adults actively endeavor to sustain their status within the family by redistributing relational resources through both market and household labor.

• Older adults seek opportunities for reciprocal exchanges as a strategy to maintain family standing.
• Both market labor and household labor are used as mechanisms for redistributing relational resources.
• This strategy represents an instrumental form of agency in response to structural precarity.

Rural older adults redefine their perceptions of 'support' and adjust their identities through practices such as 'digital inclusion'.

• Digital inclusion is identified as a specific practice through which older adults reconstruct their identities.
• The redefinition of support perceptions represents a moral dimension of agency alongside instrumental strategies.
• These identity adjustments are active responses to the transformations in family caregiving structures.

The study reveals a dual mode of agency—both instrumental and moral—through which rural older adults manage structural precarity and reconstruct dignity, identity, and meaning in later life.

• Instrumental agency involves practical strategies such as labor contribution and resource redistribution.
• Moral agency involves the reconstruction of dignity and meaning in response to changing family and social structures.
• This dual agency framework contributes to theories of individualization and aging.
• The study characterizes this process as 'aging without growing old,' reflecting active identity reconstruction.

China's specific path toward greater individualization places rural older adults in a dual predicament involving both eroding traditional family support and inadequate formal care provision.

• Traditional family caregiving responsibilities are described as eroding under individualization processes.
• The socialized care system for older adults in rural China remains 'inadequately resourced.'
• This dual predicament is presented as a structural context specific to China's form of individualization.
• The rural context is emphasized as distinct from urban aging experiences in China.