Characteristics and Predictors of Productive Ageing Involvement Among Older Chinese in Hong Kong
Description: “Productive ageing” was introduced as a concept and practice in several developed societies to counter the dominant perception that older people are dependents of society rather than economically productive members. It has been adopted as a policy initiative to advocate for elderly-friendly employment policies and practices. Productive ageing differs from other related concepts (e.g. “successful ageing”), as it focuses on older individuals’ production of goods and services – paid and unpaid work. Most often, these contributions occur through volunteering, caregiving, working, and life-long learning roles. Older people who engage in productive ageing roles interact with society and generate products and services that create economic value, thereby serving as more than mere dependents of their communities.
While there is strong evidence to support the benefits of productive ageing engagement for older adults, we know little about how or why older people allocate their time between different activities (family, social, productive), and most research on productive ageing is static. However, productive engagement is a dynamic process, waxing and waning in response to the nature of family and social role obligations and circumstances. Most studies focus on just one or two active commitments (e.g., volunteering or working), ignoring the reality that individuals engage in multiple roles and activities in their lives. Older adults’ decision-making and selection processes in terms of their level of commitment to competing roles (e.g., productive roles, family roles, and other social roles) remain unclear. Based on psychological and economic theories, a person’s expected longevity is an important factor influencing time commitment in various roles; however, no previous studies have attempted to investigate whether expected longevity mediates productive role engagement. Before we can maximize the untapped human capital within this age group, we need to understand how older people invest their time in various dynamically changing roles.
The proposed study aims to investigate (1) variations of productive ageing in older persons of different age, gender, socioeconomic status and health conditions; (2) the effect of expected longevity on engagement in productive roles in relation to other roles and activities; and (3) the goodness of fit of a theoretically driven explanatory model with the effects of age and health mediated by expected longevity and other role engagement in predicting productive role engagement among elderly in Hong Kong.
Amount: HKD 491,700
Funding type: research
Funder scheme: General Research Fund
End date: 2016-12-31
Investigators: Terry Yat Sang Lum, Sheung-Tak Cheng, Nancy Morrow-Howell, Ada C Mui, Gloria Hoi Yan Wong
Institution: The University of Hong Kong
Funded outputs count: 1
Funder award ID: 17406514
OpenAlex ID: G1940868271