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

McMunn, A; Nazroo, J; Wahrendorf, M; Breeze, E; Zaninotto, P; (2009) Participation in socially-productive activities, reciprocity and wellbeing in later life: baseline results in England. Ageing and Society , 29 (5) 765 - 782. 10.1017/S0144686X08008350. Green open access

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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 riot participate in these activities. Caring was not associated with wellbeing, although female carers were less likely to he depressed than noncarers. 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.

Type: Article
Title: Participation in socially-productive activities, reciprocity and wellbeing in later life: baseline results in England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1017/S0144686X08008350
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X08008350
Language: English
Additional information: © 2009 Cambridge University Press.
Keywords: Socially productive activities, Wellbeing, Reciprocity, Effort-reward imbalance, Coronary heart disease, Self-reported health, Negative Affectivity, WHITEHALL-II, Work characteristics, Early retirement, Older adults, Population, Predictors
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/178296
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