Table 2.

Three themes and related subthemes

Theme	Subthemes
1. Desire for independence, despite hardship	1. Difficulties associated with living alone
	2. Not asking for help, despite the inconvenience of living alone
	3. Working out how to solve problems in order to avoid the risks of living alone
2. Desire to not overburden jiaren	1. Not wanting to disturb jiaren
	2. Not wanting to burden children with caring stress
	3. “No expectation, no disappointment”
3. Desire to not bother wairen	1. Not familiar enough with wairen to ask for help
	2. Insufficient trust in wairen to ask for help
	3. Concerns about not being able to pay wairen for help
	4. Not wanting to waste resources and feeling embarrassed to ask for help