Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T15:32:26.719Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Participation in socially-productive activities, reciprocity and wellbeing in later life: baseline results in England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2009

ANNE McMUNN ,
JAMES NAZROO ,
MORTEN WAHRENDORF ,
ELIZABETH BREEZE  and
PAOLA ZANINOTTO
ANNE McMUNN*
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London.
JAMES NAZROO
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
MORTEN WAHRENDORF
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Sociology, University of Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, Germany.
ELIZABETH BREEZE
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London.
PAOLA ZANINOTTO
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London.
*
Address for correspondence: Anne McMunn, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 6BT, UK. E-mail: a.mcmunn@ucl.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines whether participation in social activities is associated with higher levels of wellbeing among post-retirement age people in England, and, if so, whether these relationships are explained by the reciprocal nature of these activities. Cross-sectional analysis of relationships between social activities (including paid work, caring and volunteering) and wellbeing (quality of life, life satisfaction and depression) was conducted among participants of one wave of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) who were of state pension age or older. Participants in paid or voluntary work generally had more favourable wellbeing than those who did not participate in these activities. Caring was not associated with wellbeing, although female carers were less likely to be depressed than non-carers. Carers, volunteers and those in paid work who felt adequately rewarded for their activities had better wellbeing than those who were not participating in those activities, while those who did not feel rewarded did not differ from non-participants. These results point to the need to increase the rewards that older people receive from their productive activities, particularly in relation to caring work.

Keywords

socially productive activitieswellbeingreciprocity
Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 29 , Issue 5 , July 2009 , pp. 765 - 782
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blundell, R., Meghir, C. and Smith, S. 2001. Pension Incentives and the Pattern of Retirement. Institute for Fiscal Studies, London.Google Scholar
Borgonovi, F. 2008. Doing well by doing good: the relationship between formal volunteering and self-reported health and happiness. Social Science and Medicine, 66, 2321–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bosma, H., Peter, R., Siegrist, J. and Marmot, M. 1998. Two alternative job stress models and the risk of coronary heart disease. American Journal of Public Health, 88, 68–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burke, M. J., Brief, A. P. and George, J. M. 1993. The role of negative affectivity in understanding relations between self-reports of stressors and strains: a comment on the applied psychology literature. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 3, 402–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chandola, T., Siegrist, J. and Marmot, M. 2005. Do changes in effort-reward imbalance at work contribute to an explanation of the social gradient in angina? Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 62, 223–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, P. Y. and Spector, P. E. 1991. Negative affectivity as the underlying cause of correlations between stressors and strains. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 398–407.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Vaus, D., Wells, Y., Kendig, H. and Quine, S. 2007. Does gradual retirement have better outcomes than abrupt retirement? Results from an Australian panel study. Ageing & Society, 27, 5, 667–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J. and Griffen, S. 1985. The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 171–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ekerdt, D. J. and DeViney, S. 1993. Evidence for a preretirement process among older male workers. Journals of Gerontology, 48, 35–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilleard, C. and Higgs, P. 2000. Cultures of Ageing: Self, Citizen and the Body. Prentice Hall, London.Google Scholar
Glass, T. A., Mendes de Leon, C. F., Bassuk, S. S. and Berkman, L. F. 2006. Social engagement and depressive symptoms in late life: Longitudinal findings. Journal of Aging and Health, 18, 604–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glass, T. A., Mendes de Leon, C., Marottoli, R. A. and Berkmam, L. F. 1999. Population based study of social and productive activities as predicators of survival among elderly Americans. British Medical Journal, 319, 478–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gouldner, A. W. 1960. The norm of reciprocity. American Sociological Review, 25, 161–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Government Actuaries Department 2002. Populations Projections: Population of Great Britain in Five-year Age Bands (http://www.gad.gov.uk/Population/2002/gb).Google Scholar
Harewood, R. H., Pound, P. and Ebrahim, S. 2000. Determinants of social engagement in older men. Psychololgy, Health and Medicine, 5, 1, 75–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, L., Edwards, G., Myers, L., Saeed, Z., Dunn, S. and Fisher, K. 1999. Social Focus on Older People. Stationery Office, London.Google Scholar
Hirst, M. 2005. Carer distress: a prospective, population-based study. Social Science and Medicine, 61, 3, 697–708.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoge, T. and Bussing, A. 2004. The impact of sense of coherence and negative affectivity on the work stressor-strain relationship. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 9, 3, 195–205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hyde, M., Ferrie, J., Higgs, P., Mein, G. and Nazroo, J. 2004. The effects of pre-retirement factors and retirement route on circumstances in retirement: findings from the Whitehall II study. Ageing & Society, 24, 279–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyde, M., Wiggins, R. D., Higgs, P. and Blane, D. B. 2003. A measure of quality of life in early old age: the theory, development and properties of a needs satisfaction model (CASP-19). Aging and Mental Health, 7, 186–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kikuzawa, S. 2006. Multiple roles and mental health in cross-cultural perspective: The elderly in the United States and Japan. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 47, 62–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kivimaki, M., Leino-Arjas, P., Luukonen, R., Riihimaki, H., Batear, J. and Kirjonen, J. 2002. Work stress and risk of cardiovascular mortality: Prospective cohort study of industrial employees. British Medical Journal, 325, 857–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuper, H., Singh-Manoux, A., Siegrist, J. and Marmot, M. 2002. When reciprocity fails: Effort-reward imbalance in relation to coronary heart disease and health functioning with the Whitehall II study. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 59, 777–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laczko, F. and Phillipson, C. 1991. Changing Work and Retirement. Open University Press, Buckingham, UK.Google Scholar
Laslett, P. 1996. A Fresh Map of Modern Life. Macmillan, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lennartsson, C. and Silverstein, M. 2001. Does engagement with life enhance survival of elderly people in Sweden? The role of social and leisure activities. Journals of Gerontology, B Series: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 56, 6, S335–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luoh, M.-C. and Herzog, A. R. 2002. Individual consequences of volunteer and paid work in old age: health and mortality. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 43, 490–509.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lynch, K. 2007. Love labour as a distinct and non-commodifiable form of care labour. Sociological Review, 55, 3, 550–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marmot, M., Siegrist, J. and Theorell, T. 2006. Health and the psychosocial environment at work. In Marmot, M and Wilkinson, R. (eds), Social Determinants of Health. Second edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 97–130.Google Scholar
Meier, S. and Stutzer, A. 2008. Is volunteering rewarding in itself? Economica, 75, 39–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mein, G., Martikainen, P., Stansfeld, S. A., Brunner, E. J., Fuhrer, R. and Marmot, M. 2000. Predictors of early retirement in British civil servants. Age and Ageing, 29, 529–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mendes de Leon, C. F., Gold, D. T., Glass, T. A., Kaplan, L. and George, L. K. 2001. Disability as a function of social networks and support in elderly African Americans and whites: the Duke EPESE 1986–1992. Journal of Gerontology B Series: Psycholological Sciences and Social Sciences, 56, 3, S179–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mendes de Leon, C. F., Glass, T. A. and Berkman, L. F. 2003. Social engagement and disability in a community population of older adults: the New Haven EPESE. American Journal of Epidemiology, 157, 7, 633–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menec, V. H. 2003. The relation between everyday activities and successful aging: a 6-year longitudinal study. Journals of Gerontology B Series: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58, 1, 74–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moen, P. 1996. A life course perspective on retirement, gender, and wellbeing. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1, 2, 131–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrow-Howell, N., Hinterlong, J., Rozario, P. A. and Tang, F. 2003. Effects of volunteering on the wellbeing of older adults. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58, S137–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Musick, M. A., Herzog, A. R. and House, J. S. 1999. Volunteering and mortality among older adults: findings from a national sample. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 54, S173–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Niedhammer, I., Tek, M. L., Starke, D. and Siegrist, J. 2004. Effort-reward imbalance model and self-reported health: cross-sectional and prospective findings from the GAZEL cohort. Social Science and Medicine, 58, 1531–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parry, J. and Taylor, R. F. 2007. Orientation, opportunity and autonomy: why people work after state pension age in three areas of England. Ageing & Society, 27, 4, 579–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillipson, C. 1990. The sociology of retirement. In Bond, J. and Coleman, P. (eds), Ageing in Society: An Introduction to Social Gerontology. Sage, London, 144–60.Google Scholar
Pikart, H., Bobak, M., Pajak, A., Malyutina, S., Kubinova, R. and Topor, R. 2004. Psychosocial factors at work and depression in three countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Social Science and Medicine, 58, 1475–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piliavin, J. and Siegl, E. 2007. Health benefits of volunteering in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 48, 4, 450–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Santed, M. A., Sandin, B., Charot, P., Olmedo, M. and Garcia-Campayo, J. 2003. The role of negative and positive affectivity on perceived stress-subjective health relationships. Acta Neropsychiatrica, 15, 4, 199–216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schnall, P. L., Belkic, K., Landsbergis, P. and Baker, D. 2000. The workplace and cardiovascular disease. Occupation Medicine: State of the Art Reviews, 15, 1–334.Google ScholarPubMed
Siegrist, J. 1996. Adverse health effects of high-effort/low-reward conditions. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1, 1, 27–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Siegrist, J. 2005. Social reciprocity and health: new scientific evidence and policy implications. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 30, 1033–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Siegrist, J. and Marmot, M. 2004. Health inequalities and the psychosocial environment: two scientific challenges. Social Science and Medicine, 58, 1463–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Siegrist, J., von dem Knesebeck, O. and Evan Pollack, C. 2004. Social productivity and wellbeing of older people: a sociological exploration. Social Theory and Health, 2, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegrist, J., Wahrendorf, M., von dem Knesebeck, O., Jurges, H. and Borsch-Supan, A. 2007. Quality of work, wellbeing, and intended early retirement of older employees: baseline results from the SHARE Study. European Journal of Public Health, 17, 1, 62–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spector, P. E., Chen, P. Y. and O'Connell, B. J. 2000. A longitudinal study of relations between job stressors and job strains while controlling for prior negative affectivity and strains. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 2, 211–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stansfeld, S. A., Bosma, H., Hemingway, H. and Marmot, M. 1998. Psychosocial work characteristics and social support as predictors of SF-36 health functioning: the Whitehall II study. Psychosomatic Medicine, 60, 247–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stansfeld, S. A., Fuhrer, R., Shipley, M. J. and Marmot, M. G. 1999. Work characteristics predict psychiatric disorder: prospective results from the Whitehall II Study. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 56, 302–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steffick, D. E. 2000. Documentation of Affective Functioning Measures in the Health and Retirement Study. HRS Health Working Group, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thoits, P. A. and Hewitt, L. N. 2001. Volunteer work and wellbeing. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 42, 115–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorensen, C., Kaplan, S. A., Barsky, A. P., Warren, C. R. and de Chermont, K. 2003. The affective underpinnings of job perceptions and attitudies: a meta-analytic review and integration. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 6, 914–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Townsend, P. 1981. The structured dependency of the elderly: a creation of social policy in the twentieth century. Ageing & Society, 1, 1, 5–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Willigen, M. 2000. Differential benefits of volunteering across the life course. Journals of Gerontology B Series: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 55, 5, S308–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wahrendorf, M., von dem Knesebeck, O. and Siegrist, J. 2006. Social productivity and wellbeing of older people: baseline results from the SHARE study. European Journal of Ageing, 3, 1, 67–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed