Social Participation across Mid- and Later-life: Evidence from a Longitudinal Cohort Study

2021 ◽  
pp. 073112142199239
Author(s):  
Eric M. Vogelsang
Keyword(s):  
Cohort Study ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Social Participation ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Later Life ◽  
School Activities ◽  
Wisconsin Longitudinal Study ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Life Course

Despite the benefits of social participation for individuals and communities, little is known about how social participation varies over the life course. Drawing upon data collected between 1957 and 2011 by the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (22,023 observations from a cohort of 6,627), this study provides four valuable results. First, I find evidence of five distinct social participation trajectories; the majority of which demonstrate social disengagement as individuals age. Second, these decreases were primarily attributable to declines in meeting friends and group exercise. Third, the activities most likely to predict being a part of more-desirable trajectories were cultural event attendance, voluntary group membership, and joining charity groups. Last, I find that seven different types of high school activities were each associated with greater social activity counts, decades later. In total, these results highlight systematic differences in social participation trajectories and suggest that age-graded participation changes are highly dependent on the underlying social activities.

scholarly journals Social Participation Across Midlife and Later Life: Evidence From the Silent Generation

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 408-408
Author(s):  
Eric Vogelsang
Keyword(s):  
Social Participation ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Silent Generation ◽  
School Activities ◽  
Wisconsin Longitudinal Study ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Exercise Activity ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Made In

Abstract Despite the well-established benefits of social participation for individuals and communities, little is known about how it varies throughout the life course. Drawing upon data collected between 1957 and 2011 by the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (22,023 observations from a cohort of 6,627), this study provides four valuable results. One, I find evidence of five distinct social participation trajectories between the ages of 35 and 71; the majority of which demonstrate social disengagement over time. Two, these participation declines are primarily attributable to changes in meeting friends and group exercise activity. Three, the most pronounced activity differences separating those in more favorable and unfavorable participation trajectories are cultural event attendance and voluntary group membership. Lastly, I identify particular high school activities that are associated with social participation decades later. In total, these results highlight heterogeneity among different types of social activities, and underscore the possible consequences of membership decisions made in early adulthood.

scholarly journals Childhood Socioeconomic Status and Later Life Cognition: Evidence From the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (9) ◽  
pp. 1589-1615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily A. Greenfield ◽  
Sara M. Moorman
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Occupational Status ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Socioeconomic Differences ◽  
Wisconsin Longitudinal Study ◽  
Childhood Socioeconomic Status

Objectives:This study examined childhood socioeconomic status (SES) as a predictor of later life cognition and the extent to which midlife SES accounts for associations. Methods: Data came from 5,074 participants in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. Measures from adolescence included parents’ educational attainment, father’s occupational status, and household income. Memory and language/executive function were assessed at ages 65 and 72 years. Results: Global childhood SES was a stronger predictor of baseline levels of language/executive function than baseline memory. Associations involving parents’ education were reduced in size and by statistical significance when accounting for participants’ midlife SES, whereas associations involving parental income and occupational status became statistically nonsignificant. We found no associations between childhood SES and change in cognition. Discussion: Findings contribute to growing evidence that socioeconomic differences in childhood have potential consequences for later life cognition, particularly in terms of the disparate levels of cognition with which people enter later life.

College Selectivity and Later-Life Memory Function: Evidence From the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-24
Author(s):  
Sarah Garcia ◽  
Sara M. Moorman
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Later Life ◽  
College Attendance ◽  
Achievement Level ◽  
Selective College ◽  
College Selectivity ◽  
Memory Functioning ◽  
Wisconsin Longitudinal Study

Research has shown a consistent association between college completion and laterlife cognition. We extend this work by examining whether college selectivity—the achievement level required to gain admission to a college—is associated with memory functioning more than 50 years later. We analyze data from 10,317 participants in the 1957–2011 Wisconsin Longitudinal Study to examine the relationship between college selectivity and later-life memory. Models control for childhood, midlife socioeconomic status, and later-life health and adjust for selection bias. Selective college attendance was associated with small benefits in memory at age of 72 even after accounting for socioeconomic status in both childhood and midlife and later-life health. The results of this study suggest that college selectivity may be an important component of the education–cognitive functioning relationship that has modest implications for intracohort differences in later-life cognition.

scholarly journals A Longitudinal Study of Allostatic Load in Later Life: The Role of Sex, Birth Cohorts, and Risk Accumulation

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 419-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioana van Deurzen ◽  
Bram Vanhoutte
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The Body ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Birth Cohorts ◽  
Wear And Tear ◽  
The Life Course

Are challenging life courses associated with more wear and tear on the biological level? This study investigates this question from a life-course perspective by examining the influence of life-course risk accumulation on allostatic load (AL), considering the role of sex and birth cohorts. Using biomarker data collected over three waves (2004, 2008, and 2012) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing ( N = 3,824) in a growth curve framework, AL trajectories over a period of 8 years are investigated. Our results illustrate that AL increases substantially in later life. Men have higher AL than women, but increases are similar for both sexes. Older cohorts have both higher levels and a steeper increase of AL over time. Higher risk accumulation over the life course goes hand in hand with higher AL levels and steeper trajectories, contributing to the body of evidence on cumulative (dis)advantage processes in later life.

Le dinamiche del reddito nella terza etŕ

2009 ◽  
pp. 139-156
Author(s):  
katherine Hill
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Older People ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Personal Resources ◽  
Financial Situation ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Insight Into

- Later life can be seen as period of income stability compared to other stages of the life course, and a key issue for older people in low income households is that they have limited means of pro-actively improving their financial situation. This article draws on a qualitative longitudinal study which explored how older people experienced changes in their financial circumstances across a two year period. The findings demonstrate that even where people did not feel that their financial circumstances had changed overall, this did not necessarily indicate a steady state. The study explored the interrelationship between changes in income and outgoings, as well as changing needs, and this article provides an insight into how social and personal resources are drawn on to help manage financial change and maintain stability. In doing so, it illustrates the extent of work that can be involved in maintaining a steady state in constrained circumstances.

scholarly journals Going Online to Stay Connected: Online Social Participation Buffers the Relationship Between Pain and Depression

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (6) ◽  
pp. 1020-1031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Ang ◽  
Tuo-Yu Chen
Keyword(s):  
Social Participation ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Online Social Network ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Compensatory Mechanism ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Lagged Dependent Variable

Abstract Objectives Maintaining offline social participation (i.e., face-to-face social interaction) is key for healthy aging, but older adults who experience pain tend to restrict their social activity outside of the home. The onset of pain may set off a downward spiral where lowered social participation increases the risk of depression and vice versa. This study thus assesses whether online social participation (i.e., the use of online social network sites) moderates the effect of pain on depression, possibly functioning as a compensatory mechanism for reduced offline social participation for those in pain. Method Logistic regression models with a lagged dependent variable were used with panel data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study. An interaction term was included to assess the moderating effect of online social participation. Results We find that online social participation buffers the detrimental effect of pain on depression. However, the effect of pain on online social participation was not statistically significant. Discussion Findings show that online social participation can alleviate the negative effects of pain on mental well-being, and suggest that online social participation can supplement attempts to maintain offline social participation in later life, especially for those whose social activity may be limited by pain.

scholarly journals Life Course Pathways From Childhood Socioeconomic Status to Later-Life Cognition: Evidence From the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily A Greenfield ◽  
Sara Moorman ◽  
Annika Rieger
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Executive Functioning ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Standardized Test ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Status Attainment ◽  
Scholastic Performance ◽  
Wisconsin Longitudinal Study

Abstract Objectives A growing body of research indicates that older adults are at greater risk for poorer cognition if they experienced low socioeconomic status (SES) as children. Guided by life course epidemiology, this study aimed to advance understanding of processes through which childhood SES influences cognition decades later, with attention to the role of scholastic performance in adolescence and SES in midlife. Method We used data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), which has followed a cohort of high school graduates since they were 18 years old in 1957. Childhood SES was measured prospectively in adolescence, and measures of memory and language/executive functioning were based on neurocognitive assessments at age 72. We used participants’ scores on a statewide standardized test in high school as an indicator of scholastic performance in adolescence. The measure of SES in midlife included years of postsecondary education, income, and occupation status at age 53. Results Findings from structural equation models indicated that scholastic performance in adolescence and midlife status attainment together fully mediated associations between childhood SES and both memory and language/executive functioning at age 72. Adolescent scholastic performance was directly associated with later-life cognition, as well as indirectly through midlife status attainment. Discussion Findings provide support for both latency and social pathway processes when considering how SES in childhood influences later-life cognition. Results contribute to growing calls for social policies and programs to support optimal brain health at multiple phases throughout the life course, especially among individuals with lower SES as children.

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