Work, gender and social contact experienced in older age. A cross sectional comparison in Europe using the 2001 Internat

1. Work, gender and social contact experienced in older age.A cross sectional comparison in Europe using the 2001 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Phil Haynes Reader in Social and Public Policy HSPRC, University of Brighton p.haynes@brighton.ac.uk With Professor Michael Hill, and Laura Banks This work is supported by UK ESRC research grant: RES-000-22-2114

2. International Social Survey (ISSP) • 2001 ISSP focus on social networks • Our project uses a sub sample • aged >50 • 18 OECD countries, 13 in Europe

3. European countries/regions

4. Background • OECD (2001) research showed trend towards early retirement • Economic concerns about cost of early retirement (dependency ratio) • Social aspects • Historic retirement to protect older people from harmful consequences of work? (traditional working class employment) • Can work be combined with older age as part of a healthy and high quality of life experience? • The move from manufacturing to service sector employment? • Increases in part time employment? • Social networking has a positive influence on quality of life and health • Social class differences? – still relevant to explore?

5. Research Questions • What are the frequencies of paid work amongst those aged 50 plus? • What are the frequencies of alternative occupational status categories, such as retirement, unemployment and full time caring among those aged 50 plus? • What is the relationship between participation in paid work and other forms of social networks, such as involvement in community organisations and contact with family members and close friends? • What are the differences in gender patterns for the above?

6. Hypotheses • Does paid work decrease older middle aged and older people’s participation in community groups? • Does paid work decrease older middle aged and older people’s contact with close friends and family members?

7. Employment Status From an international sample of people living in 18 OECD member countries (n=9592) aged 50 and over 28% (2655) people were identified as in full time work and 7% (561) in part time work. (Non European part of the sample comes from USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand)

10. Social Networking (ISSP) • Participation in community organisations • Quantity of close friendships • Contacts with close family members other than immediate partners • Siblings and adult children • Surviving parents

11. Community Participation • Seven ordinal scores from questionnaire • Measuring participation in; unions, politics, sport, religion, community, and other local groups • Strong single factor when combined using PCA Factor Analysis • Separate measures developed for work and non work based participation

12. Community Participation

13. Work and Participation Scores In the European sample • Men’s mean participation scores are significantly higher than women’s (t=3.253 df=6946 p=0.001) • Overall the mean participation score is significantly higher for those working than those not working (t = -9.728 df=6733 p=0.000). • Part time work has a positive effect on participation scores, especially amongst men. • Those in full time work are also likely to have higher average participation scores. There is no evidence here that retirement increases community participation. • Women carers and unemployed men have the lowest average participation rates of the various sub groupings

14. Close Friends Score

15. Close Friends Score and Gender • In Europe, women’s close friend scores are on average higher than men’s. But the difference is very small and not statistically significant. • In general, within country differences, in mean scores between men and differences are also small and not statistically significant • In Norway, women’s mean scores are significantly higher than men’s (t = -4.401. df=586 p=0.000)

16. Work and Close Friends Score • Across employment categories, working categories have higher mean scores than non working categories (Kruskal Wallis Test W=77.037 df=5 and p=0.000). • But gender differences, when combined with employment categories, often remain insignificant

17. Work and Close Friends

18. Family Contact Scores

19. Family Contact Score and Gender • Women’s family contact mean scores are higher than men in all countries • Except in Hungary and Denmark, (where the small opposite differences are not statistically significant).

20. Work and Family Contact • There is no general association between work/no work and higher family contact scores • Women’s family contact remains greater than men’s in the largest sub category which is those retired (t = -4.957 df=3614 p=0.000). • Women also score higher in the part time work category (t = -2.826 df=320 p=0.05). • Men have slightly higher family contact scores when compared to women in full time work, but the differences are not statistically significant.

21. Overview of social networking variables and working status

22. Multivariate Analysis • Suggests that other factors are more directly influential on social networking than work • Region of Europe you live in • Social Class • Work and gender often appear as secondary influences on social networking when examined with these two variables

23. Region - explaining membership of High Participation Score Group

24. Conclusion • There is no evidence that working in older life substantially undermines the increased social networking that is often aspired to in retirement. • Regional patterns are strong • We need to examine more the interplay of social class • What are social network and work patterns amongst traditional working classes as compared with middle classes?