Volunteering among Japanese older adults: how are hours of paid work and unpaid work for family associated with volunteer participation?

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (11) ◽  
pp. 2420-2442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Kobayashi ◽  
Yoko Sugihara ◽  
Taro Fukaya ◽  
Jersey Liang

AbstractAs the population ages, older adults are increasingly expected to play multiple productive roles. This study examined how hours of paid or unpaid work were associated with volunteering among older Japanese. Data came from the 2012 National Survey of the Japanese Elderly, a nationwide survey of Japanese aged 60 and older (N = 1,324). We performed multinominal logistic regression analyses to predict volunteering (regular or occasional versus non-volunteer) based on hours of paid work and unpaid work for family consisting of sick/disabled care, grandchild care and household chores. Those who worked moderate hours were most likely to be a regular volunteer while working 150 hours or more per month had a lower probability of volunteering, regardless of whether the work was paid or unpaid. Thus, full-time level work competed with volunteering for both paid and unpaid work for family, but it was more so for paid work. By types of activities, doing household chores and substantial grandchild care were positively associated with volunteering, and the latter complementary relationship was explained by a larger community network among grandparents. Our findings indicate that delaying retirement from full-time paid work may reduce the supply of regular volunteers in the community. Thus, policies to increase part-time work for older adults as well as the types of volunteer work in which paid workers can participate are necessary.

2012 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. C. Carr ◽  
B. L. Kail
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeka Takabayashi ◽  
Takumi Hirata ◽  
Wenjing Zhao ◽  
Takashi Kimura ◽  
Shigekazu Ukawa ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Dietary diversity is thought to reduce risk of malnutrition although it is also linked to obesity. We examined whether dietary diversity is associated with all-cause mortality in Japanese elderly by body mass index (BMI). Methods The current study included 2,944 people aged 64-65 years who participated in the NISSIN project in 1996-2005. Dietary diversity was measured by the Food Variety Score (FVS) which calculates frequency of all food items consumed daily using a self-administered food frequency questionnaire. Participants were divided into tertiles according to their FVS (1st: low, 2nd: middle, 3rd: high). Multivariate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using the Cox proportional hazard regression model. In stratified analysis, BMI was used to divide the participants into 3 groups: lean (BMI <20), normal (BMI 20–24.9), and overweight/obese (BMI ≥ 25). Results Overall, 454 (30.7%) men and 222 (15.2%) women died over the median follow-up period of 16.6 years. No significant association between FVS and all-cause mortality was observed overall. However, when grouped by BMI, in the lean, multivariate adjusted HRs were 0.32 (CI: 0.17-0.59) in the middle FVS and 0.41 (CI: 0.19 -0.91) in the high FVS, compared with the low FVS. No significant association was found for normal and overweight/obese. Conclusions These findings indicate dietary diversity should be promoted for lean older adults. Key messages BMI should be considered when promoting dietary diversity.


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Baines ◽  
Ian Cunningham ◽  
John Shields

Unpaid work has long been used in nonprofit/voluntary social services to extend paid work. Drawing on three case studies of nonprofit social services in Canada, this article argues that due to austerity policies, the conditions for ‘pure’ gift relationships in unpaid social service work are increasingly rare. Instead, employers have found various ways to ‘fill the gaps’ in funding through the extraction of unpaid work in various forms. Precarious workers are highly vulnerable to expectations that they will ‘volunteer’ at their places of employment, while expectations that students will undertake unpaid internships is increasing the norm for degree completion and procurement of employment, and full-time workers often use unpaid work as a form of resistance. This article contributes to theory by advancing a spectrum of unpaid nonprofit social service work as compelled and coerced to varying degrees in the context of austerity policies and funding cutbacks.


2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 643-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pródromos-Ioánnis K. Prodromídis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the allocation of time to paid work, unpaid work and non-work by women in Britain in 1998-1999. To infer the labor supply from the other time-use expressions. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses weekly diary data to estimate the unpaid work and non-work functions. It infers the (residual) paid work expression. As the latter is recovered from uncensored regressions, it makes direct use of the complete set of observations. Hence, it contains more information than the conventional labor supply functions that are estimated from the data obtained from paid work participants via the Tobit and Heckit or selection-bias correction (SBC) techniques. Findings – The women surveyed generally allocated 69 percent of their time toward non-work, 18 percent to unpaid work, and 13 percent to paid work. The non-work function is dominated by the autonomous component, and all three functions depend on subjects’ age, wage, non-labor income, household composition, the unpaid work contributions of adult relatives and region of residence. The unpaid work and non-work functions are more consistent with the SBC rather than the Tobit version of the labor supply. Moreover, the Tobit predicts unrealistic paid work allocations for women engaging in very little non-work. Research limitations/implications – The unpaid work and non-work functions are regressed separately, as often the case in the literature. Their consideration within a seemingly unrelated regression framework necessitates a reduction in the number of observations to match those considered in the Tobit and SBC versions of the labor supply. Nuances may arise when the time reported in the diaries does not add up to 24 daily hours for all respondents. Knowledge of the recovered regional, age, household member and other effects on women time allocation might had come handy to economic development authorities who sought to attract women out of the household into market production, and from part-time to full-time employment in the context of the 2000-2010 Lisbon Strategy. Similar lessons may be valid today. Originality/value – The data set derives from a survey that has not been used before. It relies on week-long diaries in order to avoid the occurrence of many zeros in a good number of activities (which is the norm in short diaries), and to ensure the study of a censored time-use function through its uncensored complements. The findings are compared to those of a weekly diary survey conducted in 1987 that solicited similar information. Hence, the study fills a gap in time-use analysis. Identifying the factors which influence the number of hours that women engage in work (both paid and unpaid) and non-work is useful for economic policy purposes. The study exposes a limitation in the conventional estimation of the labor supply which, in turn, casts doubt on the reliability of empirical results for policy making.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Lawrence B. Sacco ◽  
Laurie M. Corna ◽  
Debora Price ◽  
Karen Glaser

Abstract Policy responses to population ageing have focused on lengthening working lives, overlooking inequalities in older adults’ participation in unpaid activities. This paper examines participation in paid and unpaid activities between the ages of 55 and 70 to answer two questions: how do people navigate pathways of paid work, informal care, volunteering, civic participation and housework in mid to later life?; and how do these pathways relate to gender, socio-economic and health inequalities? Two-staged latent class analysis was used to identify activity pathways using data from the British Household Panel Survey (1996–2008). Multinomial logistic models assessed associations between latent pathways and socio-demographic and health characteristics. Three pathways were observed: full-time work to low activity (49%), part-time and in-home work (34%) and multiple activities (16%). Aside from retirement from full-time work, the pathways of participation in paid and unpaid activities were characterised by continuity; substitution between different forms of paid and unpaid work was not observed. Participation in multiple paid and unpaid activities was more common for respondents in better health and of higher socio-economic status. Since the promotion of paid work and volunteering in later life may mainly benefit individuals in advantaged circumstances, policies should avoid taking a blanket approach to encouraging participation in multiple activities, a key component of active ageing.


Author(s):  
Hanna Vangen ◽  
Tale Hellevik ◽  
Katharina Herlofson

AbstractA key issue in policy debates on active ageing is how to increase older people’s participation in both paid and unpaid work. This combined goal raises the question of whether the different activities compete for seniors’ time and energy or whether it is possible to achieve both, since such activities may instead complement one another. To address this issue, we examine associations between paid work, informal help provision and formal volunteering among 62- to 75-year-olds by using longitudinal data from the Norwegian Life Course, Ageing and Generation Study (2007, 2017). Our analyses show that both work exit and part-time work are associated with a higher probability of doing unpaid work in senior years compared with full-time work. However, previous engagement in unpaid activities matters considerably, regardless of paid work status. Individuals involved in informal help or formal voluntary work in 2007 were far more likely to do unpaid work 10 years later than those who were not involved. Since seniors who are already engaged in unpaid activities before leaving the labour market are likely to continue to provide informal help and volunteer, we argue that initiatives to stimulate combinations of paid and unpaid work in late careers may be advantageous.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089124322110012
Author(s):  
Meir Yaish ◽  
Hadas Mandel ◽  
Tali Kristal

The economic shutdown and national lockdown following the outbreak of COVID-19 have increased demand for unpaid work at home, particularly among families with children, and reduced demand for paid work. Concurrently, the share of the workforce that has relocated its workplace to home has also increased. In this article, we examine the consequences of these processes for the allocation of time among paid work, housework, and care work for men and women in Israel. Using data on 2,027 Israeli adults whom we followed since the first week of March (before the spread of COVID-19), we focus on the effect of the second lockdown in Israel (in September) on the gender division of both paid and unpaid work. We find that as demand for housework caused by the lockdown increases, women—especially with children—increase their housework much more than men do, particularly when they work from home. The consequences of work from home and other flexible work arrangements for gender inequality within the family are discussed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 003335492110181
Author(s):  
Richard J. Martino ◽  
Kristen D. Krause ◽  
Marybec Griffin ◽  
Caleb LoSchiavo ◽  
Camilla Comer-Carruthers ◽  
...  

Objectives Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer and questioning (LGBTQ+) people and populations face myriad health disparities that are likely to be evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. The objectives of our study were to describe patterns of COVID-19 testing among LGBTQ+ people and to differentiate rates of COVID-19 testing and test results by sociodemographic characteristics. Methods Participants residing in the United States and US territories (N = 1090) aged ≥18 completed an internet-based survey from May through July 2020 that assessed COVID-19 testing and test results and sociodemographic characteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). We analyzed data on receipt and results of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and antibody testing for SARS-CoV-2 and symptoms of COVID-19 in relation to sociodemographic characteristics. Results Of the 1090 participants, 182 (16.7%) received a PCR test; of these, 16 (8.8%) had a positive test result. Of the 124 (11.4%) who received an antibody test, 45 (36.3%) had antibodies. Rates of PCR testing were higher among participants who were non–US-born (25.4%) versus US-born (16.3%) and employed full-time or part-time (18.5%) versus unemployed (10.8%). Antibody testing rates were higher among gay cisgender men (17.2%) versus other SOGI groups, non–US-born (25.4%) versus US-born participants, employed (12.6%) versus unemployed participants, and participants residing in the Northeast (20.0%) versus other regions. Among SOGI groups with sufficient cell sizes (n > 10), positive PCR results were highest among cisgender gay men (16.1%). Conclusions The differential patterns of testing and positivity, particularly among gay men in our sample, confirm the need to create COVID-19 public health messaging and programming that attend to the LGBTQ+ population.


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