Successful Aging: A Life-Course Perspective on Women's Multiple Roles and Health

Abstract

Successful Aging such difficulties quite early in life. Most important, many people deal well with particular afflictions, while others with the same difficulties become functionally impaired. While there are diverse definitions of health, we prefer to consider health as a multidimensional continuum, rather than a dichotomy, and in terms of functional abilities and the absence of chronic disease in addition to subjective assessments of one's fitness (Antonovsky 1987). One promising corollary, and possible precursor, of health in later adulthood is social integration in the form of involvement in multiple roles. Occupying multiple roles-such as worker, club member, and churchgoer-has been positively linked to health and to longevity (Berkman and Breslow 1983; House, Landis, and Umberson 1988; Moen, Dempster-McClain, and Williams 1989). Such multiple-role occupancy may be especially important in later adulthood, a time when role reduction, rather than role accumulation, becomes increasingly common in our culture (Morgan 1988). However, cross-sectional research linking health with social integration, defined as "the existence or quantity of social ties or relationships," is problematic because the direction of effects is unclear (House, Umberson, and Landis 1988, p. 302). As Verbrugge (1983) points out, the issue is one of social causation versus social selection. Social causation assumes that social integration (occupying multiple roles) influences health.2 By contrast, social selection assumes that healthy people are the ones most likely to take on and maintain multiple social roles. But the social causation versus social selection argument is less crucial than an understanding of the pathways to health and social integration in later adulthood. Causation and selection are probably both operating simultaneously and interactively in a dynamic cascade of events over the life course. Successful aging probably encompasses both social integration (multiple roles) and health in the later years of life. What is required is a dynamic approach to health and social integration, to examine the extent to which experiences throughout the life course shape physical abilities and involvement in multiple roles later in life (e.g., Riley and Riley 1989; Rowe and Kahn 1987). Such an approach is especially important when looking at women's lives, since women's social integration into the larger society has been circumscribed by the primacy of their family obligations (Hughes and Gove 1981). Women are also more likely than men to spend their later adulthood alone, without the presence (and support) of a spouse. Aging women are particularly susceptible to social isolation as they leave or lose

Effects of Social Activities outside the Home on Life Satisfaction among Elderly People Living Alone

“…Many social gerontologists have labeled the period of old age as that of role loss, with the elderly living alone having few family roles that are formed through interaction with family members. Previous studies have found that having various social roles, including family roles, increase subjective well-being (Adelman, 1994;Greenfield & Marks, 2004;Moen, Dempster-McClain, & Williams, 1992;Rushing, Litter, & Burton, 1992;Sugihara, Sugisawa, Shibata, & Harada, 2008). We predict that elderly people living alone will have lower subjective well-being than elderly people living with their families.…”

Engaging Older Adults in High Impact Volunteering that Enhances Health: Recruitment and Retention in the Experience Corps® Baltimore

“…2,[4][5][6] Volunteering appears to confer substantial benefits to the older adults themselves. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] The benefits range from the opportunity to be productive and to be socially engaged and generative, 16 to known health benefits of regular, structured activities and remaining physically and cognitively active. These individual benefits, if organized on a larger scale, could have substantial public health benefits if senior volunteer roles were carefully designed to double as a social model for health promotion for an aging society.…”

The Nature of Roles on Health and Well-Being of Older Adults in Congregant Living

“…Moen et al, 1992) [2]. But are healthy people more likely to possess more roles, or are they likely to be engaged in more roles because they are healthier (Wethington et al, 2000) [1]?…”

“…Expanding on the work of Elder (1985) [3] Moen et al, (1992) [2] submits that there are three life course themes: timing, process, and context. As mentioned, Verbrugge (1983) [25] found that women who are employed have better health outcomes.…”