The demographic landscape of European countries is rapidly changing because of population ageing; in this context, societies are called to offer older people opportunities to age actively. Although ‘active ageing’ has been broadly explored, there is still room to further our knowledge on the individual conditions that may favour or hinder activity in later life. This study aims to contribute to the literature in this field by focusing on the role of social capital. Specifically, it explores, through logistic regression models, how social capital and changes in social capital are associated with engagement in, the initiation of and continued participation in various domains of activity: volunteering and charity work, active participation in political or community-related organisations, informal care-giving and paid work. The data analysed stem from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). We focused on people aged 55+ participating in Waves 4–6. The key findings are: (a) having a larger social network is positively associated with participation in and the initiation of activities; (b) receiving social support (rarely) may stimulate reciprocity and thus care-giving; and (c) an increase in social network size is positively associated with initiation and maintenance of activities during later life.

由于人口老龄化，欧洲国家的人口结构正在迅速变化；在这方面，呼吁社会为老年人提供积极变老的机会。尽管“积极老龄化”已得到广泛探索，但我们对可能有利于或阻碍晚年活动的个体条件仍有进一步了解的空间。本研究旨在通过关注社会资本的作用，为该领域的文献做出贡献。具体来说，它通过逻辑回归模型探索社会资本和社会资本的变化如何与参与、发起和继续参与各种活动领域相关联：志愿服务和慈善工作、积极参与政治或社区相关组织、非正式的照料和有偿工作。分析的数据来自欧洲健康、老龄化和退休调查 (SHARE)。我们专注于参与 Waves 4-6 的 55 岁以上人群。主要发现是：(a) 拥有更大的社交网络与参与和发起活动呈正相关；(b) 接受社会支持（很少）可能会促进互惠，从而促进照料；(c) 社交网络规模的增加与晚年活动的发起和维持呈正相关。