Age profiles of membership in sixteen types of voluntary associations.
Several trends are noted which may lead future cohorts of older persons to belong to voluntary associations to a greater extent than current cohorts. Because the best previously available data which could be used to monitor changing membership levels are not two decades old, this study presents detailed age profiles of membership in 16 types of associations. Based on data from the 1974 and 1975 NORC General Social Surveys of the adult population of the USA (N = 2,974), various patterns of age differences in belonging to associations are identified and discussed for both the total sample and by sex. A rank order of the types of associations to which older persons are most likely to belong in 1974-1975 is compared with a similar rank order based on a 1955 survey. The paper concludes by specifying additional research questions which replicate studies should address.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007899:Leisure Activities; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009938:Organizations; D012919:Social Behavior