Activities and well-being in older age: Effects of self-concept and educational attainment.

Abstract

The positive effect of activities on well-being is proposed to be mediated by self-conceptualizations and facilitated by socioeconomic status. The hypothesized processes were estimated with LISREL VIII using data from a large cross-sectional survey with a sample of 679 adults aged 65 and older who were representative of older adults living in the Detroit area. Findings indicate that the frequency of performing both leisure and productive activities yields an effect on physical health and depression and that these effects are mediated in part by a sense of self as agentic, but less clearly by a sense of self as social. Furthermore, socioeconomic status, operationalized as formal educational attainment, facilitates the effect of leisure to a greater extent than that of productive activities.

Does Working Longer Make People Healthier and Happier?

“…20 These effects are both similar and contrasting to cross-sectional effects reported in Herzog et al (1998). Job satisfaction -understood as the most intrinsic non-economic job reward -positively affects psychological well-being.…”

“…22 Previous studies also suggest that overall wellbeing is likely to be impaired for those forced into retirement (Bender and Jivan, 2005;Herzog et al, 1998;Gallo et al, 2000;and Kim and Moen, 2002). People are forced into retirement mainly due to health reasons and job displacement (Prudential, 2005).…”

“…4 Volunteerism is an expression of self-efficacy, mastery, self-directedness, self-agency, autonomy, selfdetermination, and other forms of sense of control that are paralleled by biological responses that buffer stress reactions. Similarly, the degree of voluntariness in the work/retirement decision partially mediates the well-being outcomes of either work or retirement (Bender and Jivan, 2005;Herzog et al, 1998;Gallo et al, 2000;and Kim and Moen, 2002 12 The effect of work on these six measures of wellbeing (given the set of control variables) was estimated using probit regression models for each well-being outcome. Probit regressions fit maximum-likelihood models, allowing the estimation of the probability of each well-being outcome, conditional on a set of independent variables.…”

Social productivity and well-being of older people: baseline results from the SHARE study

“…However, results of the Berlin Aging Study indicate that the effect diminishes after adjustment for important confounders (Maier and Klumb 2005). In terms of other health measures, Herzog et al (1998) observed that frequency of productive and leisure activities improves physical health and reduces the risk of depression in older people. Using the American Changing Lives data base associations of volunteering with lower mortality (Musick et al 1999) and with higher self-perceived health and life satisfaction (van Willigen 2000) were found.…”

Life Span Theory in Developmental Psychology

“…With increasing age, however, people define themselves more and more in terms of health and physical functioning, life experiences, and hobbies (Dittmann- Kohli, 1991;Freund & Smith, 1999). Another aspect of this adaptation to aging seems to be that activity and agency become important parts of the selfdefinition in old age, as they are no longer self-evident (Freund & Smith, 1999;Herzog, Franks, Markus, & Holmberg, 1998).…”