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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
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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 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

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