Socially engaged improve with age
Older people may remain active and vital members of the community as they age, despite the popular idea that they are more likely to become socially isolated as time goes by.
A University of Chicago research team found that despite older people often having fewer intimate relationships, they frequently respond to social loss by becoming more likely to volunteer, attend religious services, and spend time with their neighbours, than people in their 50s.
Researcher, Benjamin Cornwell, said that “a person’s social network will inevitably shrink a little as they retire and begin to experience bereavements. That is where the stereotype comes from, but the image of the ‘isolated elderly’ falls apart when we looked at other forms of social involvement as well, and found that older adults are more socially engaged in the community than we thought”.
The study discovered that 75% of people aged 57 to 85 socialised with their neighbours, attended religious services, and volunteered or attended meetings of other organised groups, with those in their early 80s more than twice as likely to mix with their neighbours as those in their 50s.
About 22% of people in their 70s and 80s volunteered on a weekly basis compared to about 17% of those in their 50s. About 50% of those in their 70s and 80s went to religious services on a weekly basis, compared to 40% of those in their 50s and 60s.
The study was based on in home interviews with 3,005 people aged between 57 and 85 during 2005 and 2006, as part of a project supported by the US National Institute of Health.
Benjamin Cornwell said that “far from being helpless isolates they (the older American) are actually extraordinary adaptive creatures. Not only are older adults exceptionally adapative to social losses but we speculate that they may also be more proactive than younger adults in establishing ties to the community”.
