title: Productive engagement among older Americans: prevalence, patterns, and implications for public policy.
abstract: This study estimates the prevalence of productive engagement among adults aged 60 and over residing in the United States over a nine-year period. We analyze three waves of data from the Americans' Changing Lives Study, which allows the findings to describe the non-institutionalized older American population. Focusing upon five activities--formal paid employment, irregular paid work, unpaid volunteerism, caregiving, and informal assistance to others--we identify changes in the engagement rates, examine the extent to which engagement occurs through single or multiple concurrent activities, and document intra-individual patterns of engagement within and across forms of productive activity, including the continuity, initiation, and cessation of involvement. The findings reveal that late-life productive engagement is widespread, with the majority of older individuals involved in multiple forms of activity concurrently. Non-market-based activities such as caregiving, informal assistance, and volunteering are most prevalent. Initiation and cessation of activities are common and yield more complex patterns and lower rates of non-participation than are revealed in cross-sectional analyses. Time spent in productive engagement is highly variable and exhibits an overall decline across time. We conclude by highlighting policy strategies to increase the availability and quality of opportunities for productive engagement and promote planning for engagement in late life.
authors.affiliation: Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy, Department of Sociology, College of Social Work, Tallahassee 32306-2570, USA. jhinterlong@fsu.edu
authors.forename: James E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Hinterlong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000375:Aging; D017028:Caregivers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006379:Helping Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011640:Public Policy; D012944:Social Support; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States; D014838:Volunteers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data