15.2 Activities in Late Adulthood

Many elders complain that they do not have enough time each day to do all they want to do. This might come as a surprise to younger adults, who see few grey hairs at sports events, political rallies, job sites, or midnight concerts. In fact, most college and university students consider the elderly to be relatively passive and inactive, with plenty of time on their hands (Wurtele, 2009). Wrong.

Paid Work

Developmentalists are aware of the significant physical and psychological impacts that employment has on individuals and their families (Moen & Spencer, 2006). Work provides social support and status, boosting self-esteem. For many people, employment allows generativity and is evidence of productivity, effectiveness, and independence—all cherished Western values (Tornstam, 2005). Many elders are reluctant to give that up (see Figure 15.6).

FIGURE 15.6 Along with Everyone Else Although younger adults might Imagine that older people stop work as soon as they can, this Is clearly not the case for everyone.

Of course, many elders work because they need the money, increasingly so as pensions and investments shrink or disappear in the economic recession. This shrinkage is global. For example, riots and strikes in France, aimed at stopping the government from changing the age at which French citizens are granted government pensions, were unsuccessful. The age had been 60; as of 2011, it is 62. French workers must stay on the job longer now.

Participation in the labour force after age 60 is higher among non-unionized low-wage workers (who need the income) and professionals (who welcome the status) than among those in between. Many older adults who have pensions work part time (Rix, 2011); some employers offer phased retirement (called “bridge work”). Older workers are also more likely to become self-employed, with small businesses or consulting work.

RetirementAre all older adults healthier and happier when they are employed? Not necessarily, although some people thought so, warning about “the presumed traumatic aspects of retirement” (Tornstam, 2005). In 2011, the Canadian Parliament passed the Keeping Canada’s Economy and Jobs Growing Act and amended the Canadian Human Rights Act to prohibit mandatory retirement. Now those Canadian workers older than 65 who wish to continue working may do so. If they are terminated, they must receive severance pay regardless of their age and pension eligibility (Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, 2012).

Canadian workers approach retirement in a number of ways. Some retire as soon as they can, while others keep working as long as they are able. Some choose a third path and ease their way into retirement by working part time for several years. One recent government survey found that those seniors who fully retired from work reported worse general health, with more chronic health issues and less physical activity, than seniors who continued to work either full or part time (Park, 2011).

Same Situation, Far Apart: Satisfying Work In Nice, France, two paleontologists (left) examine a skull bone, and in Tofino, on Vancouver Island a First Nations artist (right) carves an eagle from yellow cedar.

SEBASTIEN NOGIER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
BOOMER JERRITT/ALL CANADA PHOTOS

It is important to remember, however, that poor health may have influenced people’s decision to retire in the first place. For example, about 25 percent of full retirees stated that their health was the primary reason for retiring. About 40 percent of those who chose to keep working did so for financial reasons. More than one-third of these senior workers still had a mortgage on their homes, compared with one-quarter of the partially retired and only 11 percent of the fully retired (Park, 2011).

There is no doubt that employment and retirement can both cause distress. Planning and income are often inadequate; married couples may disagree as to who should retire, when retirement should begin, and how their lives should be restructured (Moen et al., 2005). Many retirees live longer than they expected, not having anticipated inflation, lost pensions, and increased health costs. After retirees’ initial activities—completing long-postponed projects (anything from travelling to China to painting the porch)—their goals need to be flexible to change with the aging process (Nimrod, 2007).

Volunteer WorkVolunteering offers some of the benefits of paid employment (generativity, social connections, less depression) and, consequently, is related to well-being in later life (Morrow-Howell & Freedman, 2006–2007). Is the connection between well-being and volunteering merely an “idea”? No; empirical data confirm the benefits. Longitudinal and cross-sectional research have found a strong link between health and volunteering (Cutler et al., 2011). It is true that volunteers are typically healthy and socially active before they volunteer as well as after, but helping other people itself aids well-being.

Even though Canadian seniors are less likely to volunteer than the younger cohort aged 15 to 24 (36 percent versus 58 percent), those seniors who do volunteer average far more hours annually (218 hours versus 130, respectively) (see Figure 15.7). As self theory would predict, volunteer work attracts older people who always were strongly committed to their community and had more social contacts (Pilkington et al., 2012). Those who volunteer earlier in adulthood are more likely to continue volunteering in old age, becoming “mentors, guides, and repositories of experience” for younger people (Settersten, 2002). Because of their age and experience, senior volunteers tend to be “top volunteers,” defined as the top 25 percent of volunteers who put in 171 hours or more a year; in 2007, they accounted for 78 percent of total volunteering hours in Canada (Hall et al., 2009).

FIGURE 15.7 Older Volunteers As you can see, older adults volunteer with non-profit and charitable organizations less often than do those younger than them (a); however, the average number of volunteer hours is higher among seniors than in any other cohort (b).

Seniors tend to focus their volunteer efforts in particular areas. In 2007, they logged more volunteering hours than any other age group working with religious organizations, hospitals, and social services organizations. In a government survey, they mentioned many reasons for volunteering their time, but the most common was that they believed it made a significant contribution to their community. They also reported that volunteering motivated them to build their social networks, that their friends volunteered, and that they wanted to meet people. Many also wished to continue using the skills and experience that they had spent years acquiring at work and at home (National Seniors Council, 2010).

Culture or national policy affects volunteering: Nordic elders (in Sweden and Norway) volunteer more often than Mediterranean ones (in Italy and Greece), differences that persist when illness is taken into account (Erlinghagen & Hank, 2006). The microsystem also has an effect. Being married to a volunteer makes it more likely that a person will volunteer also.

In light of the benefits, why are more elders not volunteering? Four possible explanations:

1. Social culture. Ageism may discourage meaningful volunteering. Many volunteer opportunities are geared toward the young, who are attracted to intense, short-term experiences. A week of building a house during reading week or two years of teaching in a developing nation are not designed for older volunteers (Morrow-Howell & Freedman, 2006–2007).
2. Organizations. Institutions lack recruitment, training, and implementation strategies for attracting older volunteers. For instance, they may have systemic language and culture barriers that prevent people from volunteering; they may not be located in barrier-free buildings; there may be a lack of access to public transportation for those older adults who no longer drive; or the organizations may not allow the flexible schedule that older adults require in order to accommodate travel, health concerns, medical appointments, and so on (Cook & Speevak Sladowski, 2013).
3. The elderly themselves. Older people may find it difficult to identify volunteer opportunities that suit their skills and circumstances. They may be reluctant to ask for accommodations to address their changing abilities. If they are not comfortable with technology, they may be intimidated by technology that they would use to carry out their volunteer work (Cook & Speevak Sladowski, 2012).
4. The science. The problem may lie not with the people but with the definitions used in the research that tracks volunteerism. Surveys of volunteer work ignore daily caregiving and informal helping. Activities such as babysitting grandchildren, caring for an ill relative, and shopping for an infirm neighbour are not counted. If they were, the rates of volunteering among elders would be shown to be much higher.

Home Sweet Home

One of the favourite activities of many retirees is caring for their homes. Typically, both men and women do more housework and meal preparation (eating less fast food and more fresh ingredients) after retirement (Luengo-Prado & Sevilla, 2013). Both sexes also do yard work, redecorate, build shelves, and rearrange furniture. Challenging hobbies, home repair projects, and gardening activities all correlate with less neurocognitive disorder and longer life (E. Kröger et al., 2008; Paganini-Hill et al., 2011).

Gardening is popular: Tending flowers, herbs, and vegetables is particularly beneficial during late adulthood because it is a productive activity that not only involves exercise but often promotes social interaction (Schupp & Sharp, 2012). Even the oldest-old benefit from caring for a plant on a windowsill.

In keeping up with household tasks and maintaining their property, many older people demonstrate that they prefer to age in place, rather than moving to another residence. That is the preference of most baby boomers as well: 83 percent of those aged 55 to 64 prefer to stay in their own homes when they retire (Koppen, 2009). If they must move, most older adults want to remain in their familiar neighbourhood, perhaps in a smaller apartment with an elevator, but not in a different city or province/territory. In fact, they are wise: Elders fare best when they are surrounded by friends and acquaintances, people who are difficult to replace. Gerontologists recognize that disrupting or altering social connections may be detrimental, particularly for women and those who are the frailest (Berkman et al., 2011).

In a 2011 review, Herbert Northcott and Courtney Petruik from the University of Alberta examined the geographic mobility of elderly Canadians. They found that most Canadian seniors do age in place, choosing not to move for long periods of time in their older years. Statistics indicate that in 2006, more than 70 percent of the older population had not moved in the last five years. Of the small percentage of Canadian seniors who did move, many moved locally, to neighbouring cities, towns, or villages (Northcott & Petruik, 2011).

Many seniors own their homes outright, having paid off their mortgages. For them, home ownership is a powerful motivator to stay in place. At least one Canadian researcher has found that older adults are generally not motivated to use their house for equity, either for moving to another place or for general spending (Ostrovsky, 2004). This finding agrees with research on elders in the United States and Europe. Seniors who do move may move for other reasons, such as poor health.

With the aging population increasing, houses are being built or remodelled to suit people with obvious visual, hearing, or motor difficulties as well as those for whom age has made it more difficult to reach high shelves, climb steep stairs, or respond to the doorbell. Universal design, which is the design of physical space and common tools (from computer screens to screwdrivers) so that people of all ages and all levels of ability can use them, is an emerging field.

Sometimes a neighbourhood or an apartment complex becomes a naturally occurring retirement community (NORC), a neighbourhood where people who moved in as young adults never move out. Many elderly people in NORCs are content to live alone. They stay on after their children have moved away or their partners have died, in part because they know the community and have friends there (C. C. Cook et al., 2007).

To age in place successfully, elderly people need many community services (K. Black, 2008). Aging in place does not mean seniors need to be left alone; it means that care should come to them (Golant, 2008).

Religious Involvement

Older adults attend fewer religious services than do the middle-aged, but faith and praying increase with age. The elderly are more likely than younger adults to believe in God and an afterlife. This may be part of a universal process that benefits their development.

In his later years, Maslow reassessed his final level, self-actualization. He suggested a sixth, more spiritual level, which he called self-transcendence (Koltko-Rivera, 2006)—not usually attained until late in life. This stage is echoed in the views of at least one gerontologist, who believes that an “increasing feeling of cosmic communion” comes with age and that older people are better able to see beyond their own immediate needs and to care about other people, ask enduring questions, and emphasize spiritual needs (Tornstam, 2005).

Standing Up for His Rights Most of the elderly avoid political demonstrations, but at an all-candidates meeting in Calgary in 2013, a group of seniors takes the time to question mayoral hopefuls on everything from a lack of seniors’ housing to the city’s plans for a $52 million tax surplus.

DARREN MAKOWICHUK/CALGARY SUN/QMI AGENCY

Religious practices of all kinds are linked with physical and emotional health (Idler, 2006). Social scientists have found several reasons for this: (1) religious prohibitions encourage health (e.g., less drug use); (2) beliefs give meaning to life and death, thus reducing stress; and (3) joining a faith community increases social relationships (Atchley, 2009). In fact, a nearby house of worship, where not only their volunteer efforts but also their mere presence is valued, is one reason why elders prefer to age in place.

One Canadian study followed more than 12 000 people over the course of 14 years to track the connection between spirituality—specifically, attendance at religious services—and major depression. The researchers found that those who went to services on a monthly basis tended to be older, female, and married, and that they had a 22 percent lower risk of depression than those who did not attend. Their conclusion? Attending religious services at least once a month served as a protective factor against major depression (Balbuena et al., 2013).

Religious identity and religious institutions are especially important for older members of minority groups, many of whom feel a stronger commitment to their religious heritage than to their national or cultural background. For example, elderly Ethiopians, Iraqis, and Turks tend to focus on their Muslim, or Christian, or Jewish faith rather than on their nationality (Gelfand, 2003). For all elderly people, no matter what their particular faith or ethnicity, psychological health depends on feeling that they are part of traditions that were handed down by their ancestors and will be carried on by their descendants.

Political Activism

In some respects, elderly people are not politically active. Few older people turn out for massive rallies, sign petitions, search for information on a political issue, or boycott or choose a product for ethical reasons (Turcotte & Schellenberg, 2006), and only about 8.6 percent of Canadians aged 55 and older reported being involved in political parties and campaigns. However, the performance rate for younger adults in this regard is even worse. Only 5.1 percent of people aged 25 to 54 were involved with a political party or group (Statistics Canada, 2011d).

By other measures, however, elder adults are more politically active than people of any other age. In Canada’s 2008 general election, only 58.8 percent of registered voters cast a vote. But according to that year’s General Social Survey, 89.4 percent of respondents aged 55 and older reported that they had voted in the election, compared with 75.8 percent of respondents aged 25 to 54, and 55.9 percent of those aged 18 to 24 (Statistics Canada, 2011d).

The elderly are also more likely than younger adults to keep up with the news. In 2003, 89 percent of seniors reported that they followed news and current affairs daily, compared to 68 percent for those between 25 and 54 years of age. This was true regardless of seniors’ education levels (Turcotte & Schellenberg, 2006).

CARP (formerly the Canadian Association of Retired Persons) is a national, nonpartisan, non-profit organization that is committed to helping older adults in Canada. Founded in 1985 by Lilian and Murray Morgenthau, CARP’s mission is based on the three ABCs: advocacy, benefits, and community. CARP promotes social change by protecting the interests, rights, and quality of life for Canadians as they age. Over the years, the organization has advocated on behalf of seniors for financial security, equitable accessibility to health care, and freedom from discrimination (CARP, 2014).