China is grappling with a growing issue of aging, where a significant demographic group, elderly women, often has unmet educational needs. This study explores learning and development pathways for elderly individuals within lifelong educational frameworks, aiming to identify the learning needs of urban elderly women in family, health, and leisure domains; examine barriers and facilitating factors influencing their learning; and propose development recommendations from a lifelong education perspective. Using simple random sampling, 385 elderly women aged 60+ from Yuelu District, Changsha City, were selected. Data collection employed questionnaires with frequency and percentage analyses for demographic information, five-point Likert scales for learning ability assessments, and multiple response analyses for exploring factors affecting learning engagement. Results showed that elderly women demonstrated high demand for family-related learning, while communication skills deficits and learning anxiety were primary barriers, and community-organized learning activities and specially designed courses served as key supportive factors. The study concludes that urban elderly women demonstrate the highest learning demand in family domains (average score: 3.79) despite lacking familial support, with health and leisure learning needs remaining moderate. Most participants identified low learning confidence, learning anxiety, and poor communication skills as major obstacles, highlighting multiple challenges in both familial support and personal development for this population.
Liu et al. (Wed,) studied this question.