Abstract
As the global population ages, expectations around socially-productive engagement in work, volunteer, and caregiving activities in later life are rapidly changing. Several streams of research to date inform our understanding of meaningful engagement in later life, but these bodies of research tend to be siloed in their approaches with few integrative frameworks. Further, advancing the national conversation around the AASWSW’s grand challenge to “Advance Long and Productive Lives” will require that social workers and other professionals have an understanding of what productive aging is at every level of social work practice, from micro to macro, and how these levels interact so that they have the tools they need to carry out the vision of this grand challenge. The goals of this paper are: (a) to further define the conceptual space of engagement, (b) to introduce subjective quality of engagement (SQE) as an important concept in the aging literature and present a conceptual model for it; (c) to integrate SQE into a broader conceptual model of engagement; and (d) to describe implications for clinical and mezzo social work practice. This more integrative approach focuses attention on the ways in which social work practitioners at the clinical and mezzo levels can best support older adult’s continued engagement in socially-productive activities that support health and well-being. We also propose that it will contribute to the discovery of more effective and targeted individual and public health interventions that facilitate the successful/healthy aging of individuals and our society.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, N. D., Damianakis, T., Kröger, E., Wagner, L. M., Dawson, D. R., Binns, M. A., et al. (2014). The benefits associated with volunteering among seniors: A critical review and recommendations for future research. Psychological Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037610.
Avery, D. R., McKay, P. F., & Wilson, D. C. (2007). Engaging the aging workforce: The relationship between perceived age similarity, satisfaction with coworkers, and employee engagement. Journal of Applied Psychology,92(6), 1542–1556. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.6.1542.
Bakker, A. B., & Bal, P. M. (2010). Weekly work engagement and performance: A study among starting teachers. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology,83, 189–206.
Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2007). The job demands-resources model: State of the art. Journal of managerial psychology,22(3), 309–328.
Baltes, P. B., & Baltes, M. M. (Eds.). (1990). Successful aging: Perspectives from the behavioral sciences. New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press.
Barnett, R., & Hyde, J. (2001). Women, men, work, and family. American Psychologist,56(10), 781–796. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.10.781.
Bolger, N., DeLongis, A., Kessler, R., & Wethington, E. (1989). The contagion of stress across multiple roles. Journal of Marriage and the Family,51, 175–183.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments in nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Calvo, E. (2006). Does working longer make people healthier and happier? (Work opportunities for older Americans No. 2). Chestnut Hill, MA: Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
Carlson, M. C., Seeman, T., & Fried, L. P. (2000). Importance of generativity for healthy aging older women. Aging (Milano),12(2), 132–140.
Carolan, K., Gonzales, E., Lee, K., & Harootyan, B. (2018). Institutional and individual factors affecting health and employment among low-income women with chronic health conditions. Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gby149.
Carr, D., Kail, B. K., Matz-Costa, C., & Shavit, Y. (2018). Does becoming a volunteer attenuate loneliness among recently widowed older adults? The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences,73(3), 501–510. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbx092.
Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Health Statistics. (2016). Health, United States, 2015: With special feature on racial and ethnic health disparities. Hyattsville, MD. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus15.pdf.
Center for Health Communication. (2004). Reinventing aging: Baby boomers and civic engagement. Boston, MA: Harvard School of Public Health.
Christian, M. S., Garza, A. S., & Slaughter, J. E. (2011). Work engagement: A quantitative review and test of its relations with task and contextual performance. Personnel Psychology,64, 89–136.
Converso, D., Sottimano, I., Guidetti, G., Loera, B., Cortini, M., & Viotti, S. (2018). Aging and work ability: The moderating role of job and personal resources. Frontiers in Psychology,8, 2262. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02262.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal performance. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Nachreiner, F., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2001). The job demands-resources model of burnout. Journal of Applied Psychology,86(3), 499–512.
Foster-Bey, J. (2008). Do race, ethnicity, citizenship and socioeconomic status determine civic engagement? The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement. Retrieved from https://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/WorkingPapers/WP62_Foster.Bey.pdf.
Fratiglioni, L., Paillard-Borg, S., & Winblad, B. (2004). An active and socially integrated lifestyle in late life might protect against dementia. Lancet Neurology,3(6), 343–353.
Fried, L. P., Carlson, M. C., Freedman, M., Frick, K. D., Glass, T. A., Hill, J., et al. (2004). Social model for health promotion for an aging population: Initial evidence on the Experience Corps model. Journal of Urban Health,81(1), 64–78.
Gallup Organization. (2003). Bringing work problems home. Gallup Management Journal. Retrieved from https://gmj.gallup.com/.
Gonzales, E., Lee, K., & Harootyan, B. (2019b). Voices from the field: Ecological factors that promote employment and health among low-income older adults with implications for direct social work practice. Clinical Social Work Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-019-00719-x.
Gonzales, E., Lee, Y. J., & Marchiondo, L. (2019a). Exploring the consequences of major lifetime discrimination, chronic workplace discrimination and neighborhood conditions with health and retirement. Journal of Applied Gerontology. https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464819892847.
Gonzales, E., Matz-Costa, C., & Morrow-Howell, N. (2015). Increasing opportunities for the productive engagement of older adults: A response to population aging. The Gerontologist,55(2), 252–261.
Grant, A. M., Fried, Y., & Juillerat, T. (2010). Work matters: Job design in classic and contemporary perspectives. In S. Zedeck (Ed.), APA handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 417–453). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1975). Development of the job diagnostic survey. Journal of Applied psychology,60(2), 159.
Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1980). Work redesign. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Halbesleben, J. R. B. (2010). A meta-analysis of work engagement: Relationships with burnout, demands, resources, and consequences. In A. B. Bakker & M. P. Leiter (Eds.), Work engagement: A handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 102–117). New York, NY, US: Psychology Press.
Harter, J. K., Schmidt, F. L., & Hayes, T. L. (2002). Business-unit-level relationships between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology,87, 268–279.
Heaven, B., Brown, L. J. E., White, M., Errington, L., Mathers, J. C., & Moffatt, S. (2013). Supporting well-being in retirement through meaningful social roles: Systematic review of intervention studies. The Milbank Quarterly,91(2), 222–287.
Henseke, G. (2018). Good jobs, good pay, better health? The effects of job quality on health among older European workers. European Journal of Health Economics,19, 59–73.
Hong, S., & Morrow-Howell, N. (2010). Health outcomes of experience Corps®: A high commitment volunteer program. Social Science & Medicine,71, 414–420.
James, J. B., McKechnie, S., Swanberg, J., & Besen, E. (2013). Exploring the workplace impact of intentional/unintentional age discrimination. Journal of Managerial Psychology,28(7), 907–927.
Kahana E., Bhatta T., Lovegreen L.D., Kahana B., & Midlarsky E. (2013). Altruism, helping, and volunteering: Pathways to well-being in late life. Journal of Aging & Health,25, 159–187. https://doi.org/10.1177/0898264312469665.
Kahn, W. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal,33(4), 692–724. https://doi.org/10.2307/256287.
Kahn, W. A. (1992). To be fully there: Psychological presence at work. Human Relations,45(4), 321–349.
Kielhofner, G. (2008). Model of human occupation: Theory and application. Lippincott: Williams and Wilkins.
Koyuncu, M., Burke, R. J., & Fiksenbaum, L. (2006). Work engagement among women managers in a Turkish bank: Potential antecedents and consequences. Equal Opportunities International,25(4), 299–310.
Ludlow, L., Matz-Costa, C., Johnson, C., Brown, M., Besen, E., & James, J. (2014). Measuring engagement in later life activities: Rasch-based scenario scales for work, caregiving, informal helping, and volunteering. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development,47(2), 127–149. https://doi.org/10.1177/0748175614522273.
Ludlow, L., Matz-Costa, C., & Klein, K. (2019). Enhancement and validation of the Productive Engagement Portfolio-Scenario (PEP-S8) Scales. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development,52(1), 15–37.
Maslach, C., Jackson, S. E., & Leiter, M. P. (1996). The Maslach burnout inventory (3rd ed.). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
Matz-Costa, C. (2016). Productive aging in the workplace: Understanding factors that promote or impede subjective well-being at work. Best Practices in Mental Health,12(2), 43–62.
Matz-Costa, C., Besen, E., James, J., & Pitt-Catsouphes, M. (2014a). Differential impact of multiple levels of productive activity engagement on psychological well-being in middle and later life. The Gerontologist,54(2), 277–289. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gns148.
Matz-Costa, C., Carr, D., McNamara, T., James, J. (2016). Physical, cognitive, social, and emotional mediators of activity involvement and health in later life. Research on Aging,28(7), 791–815. https://doi.org/10.1177/0164027515606182.
Matz-Costa, C., James, J., Ludlow, L., Brown, M., Besen, E., & Johnson, C. (2014b). The meaning and measurement of productive engagement in later life. Social Indicators Research,118(3), 1293–1314. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0469-6.
Matz-Costa, C., Lubben, J. E., Lachman, M., Lee, H. N., & Choi, Y. J. (2018). A pilot randomized trial of an intervention to enhance the health-promoting effects of older adults’ activity portfolios: The Engaged4Life Program. Journal of Gerontological Social Work,61(8), 792–816.
McMunn, A., Nazroo, J., Wahrendorf, M., Breeze, E., & Zaninotto, P. (2009). Participation in socially-productive activities, reciprocity and wellbeing in later life: Baseline results in England. Ageing & Society,29, 765–782. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X08008350.
Mauno, S., Kinnunen, U., & Ruokolainen, M. (2007). Job demands and resources as antecedents of work engagement: A longitudinal study. Journal of Vocational Behavior,70(1), 149–171.
May, D. R., Gilson, R. L., & Harter, L. M. (2004). The psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology,77, 11–37.
McBride, A. (2007). Civic engagement, older adults, and inclusion. Generations,XXX, 66–71.
McNamara, T. K., & Williamson, J. B. (2014). Chapter 13. Ageism's many forms: Institutional, unintended, and reverse. In R. Hudson (Ed.), The new politics of old age policy (3rd ed.). Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.
Mor Barak, M. E. (1999). Beyond affirmative action—Toward a model of diversity and organizational inclusion. Administration in Social Work,23(3), 47. https://doi.org/10.1300/J147v23n03_04.
Mor Barak, M. E., & Cherin, D. A. (1998). A tool to expand organizational understanding of workforce diversity: Exploring a measure of inclusion-exclusion. Administration in Social Work,22(1), 47–64.
Morrow-Howell, N., Gonzales, E., Matz-Costa, C., & Greenfield, E. A. (2015). Increasing productive engagement in later life (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 8). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. Retrieved from https://aaswsw.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/WP8-with-cover.pdf.
Morrow-Howell, N., & Greenfield, E. (2015). Productive engagement in later life. In L. George & K. F. Ferraro (Eds.), Handbook of aging and social sciences. Amsterdam: Elesvier.
Morrow-Howell, N., Gonzales, E., Matz-Costa, C., James, J., & Putnam, P. (2018). Advance long and productive lives. In R. Fong, J. Lubben, & R. P. Barth (Eds.), Grand challenges for social work and society (chapter 5). Washington, DC: Oxford University Press/NASW Press.
Morrow-Howell, N., Hinterlong, J., Rozario, P. A., & Tang, F. (2003). Effects of volunteering on the well-being of older adults. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences,58(3), S137–S145.
Morrow-Howell, N., Hinterlong, J., & Sherraden, M. (Eds.). (2001). Productive aging: Concepts and challenges. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Peeters, M. C. W., Montgomery, A. J., Bakker, A. B., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2005). Balancing work and home: How job demands and home demands are related to burnout. International Journal of Stress Management,12, 43–61.
Peterson, U., Demerouti, E., Bergström, G., Samuelsson, M., Åsberg, M., & Nygren, Å. (2008). Burnout and physical and mental health among Swedish healthcare workers. Journal of Advanced Nursing,62, 84–95.
Piliavin, J. A., & Siegl, E. (2007). Health benefits of volunteering in the Wisconsin longitudinal study. Journal of Health and Social Behavior,48, 450–64.
Rich, B., Lepine, J. A., & Crawford, E. R. (2010). Job engagement: Antecedents and effects on job performance. Academy of Management Journal,53(3), 617–635.
Richardsen, A. M., Burke, R. J., & Martinussen, M. (2006). Work and health outcomes among police officers: The mediating role of police cynicism and engagement. International Journal of Stress Management,13, 555–574.
Rothbard, N. P. (2001). Enriching or depleting? The dynamics of engagement in work and family roles. Administrative Science Quarterly,46, 655–684.
Rowe, J. W., & Kahn, R. L. (1997). Successful aging. The Gerontologist,37(4), 433–440. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/37.4.433.
Rowe, J. W., & Kahn, R. L. (1998). Successful aging. New York: Dell Publishing.
Saks, A. M. (2006). Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. Journal of Managerial Psychology,27, 600–619.
Sakurai, R., Yasunaga, M., Murayama, Y., Ohba, H., Nonaka, K., Suzuki, H., et al. (2016). Long-term effects of an intergenerational program on functional capacity in older adults: Results from a seven-year follow-up of the REPRINTS study. Archives of Gerontology & Geriatrics,64, 13–20.
Sandstedt, P., Littorin, S., Cröde Widsell, G., Johansson, S., Gottberg, K., Ytterberg, C., et al. (2018). Caregiver experience, health-related quality of life and life satisfaction among informal caregivers to patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A cross-sectional study. Journal of Clinical Nursing,27(23–24), 4321–4330. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14593.
Schaufeli, W. B., & Bakker, A. B. (2004). Job demands, job resources and their relationship with burnout and engagement: A multi-sample study. Journal of Organizational Behavior,25, 293–315.
Schaufeli, W. B., Bakker, A. B., & Salanova, M. (2006). The measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire a cross-national study. Educational and Psychological Measurement,66(4), 701–716. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164405282471.
Schaufeli, W. B., Taris, T. W., & van Rhenen, W. (2008). Workaholism, burnout, and work engagement: Three of a kind or three different kinds of employee well-being? Applied Psychology: An International Review,57(2), 173–203.
Sherraden, M., Morrow-Howell, N., Hinterlong, J., & Rozario, P. (2001). Productive aging: Theoretical choices and directions. In N. Morrow-Howell, J. Hinterlong, & M. Sherraden (Eds.), Productive aging (pp. 260–284). Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Shore, L. M., Randel, A. E., Chung, B. G., Dean, M. A., Ehrhart, K. H., & Singh, G. (2010). Inclusion and diversity in work groups: A review and model for future research. Journal of Management,37(4), 1262–1289. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310385943.
Sieber, S. D. (1974). Toward a theory of role accumulation. American Sociological Review,39(4), 567–578. https://doi.org/10.2307/2094422.
Siegrist, J., & Wahrendorf, M. (2009). Participation in socially productive activities and quality of life in early old age: Findings from SHARE. Journal of European Social Policy,19, 317–326.
Sonnega, A., Helppie-McFall, B., Hudomiet, P., Willis, R. J., & Fisher, G. G. (2018). A comparison of subjective and objective job demands and fit with personal resources as predictors of retirement timing in a national US sample. Work, Aging and Retirement,4(1), 37–51.
Sonnentag, S. (2003). Recovery, work engagement, and proactive behavior: A new look at the interface between work and non-work. Journal of Applied Psychology,88, 518–528.
Spruytte, N., Van Audenhove, C., Lammertyn, F., & Storms, G. (2002). The quality of the caregiving relationship in informal care for older adults with dementia and chronic psychiatric patients. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice,75(3), 295–311.
Staudinger, U. M., Finkelstein, R., Calvo, E., & Sivaramakrishnan, K. (2016). A global view on the effects of work on health in later life. The Gerontologist,56(1), S281–S292.
Stryker, S. (1968). Identity salience and role performance: The relevance of symbolic interaction theory for family research. Journal of Marriage and Family,30(4), 558–564. https://doi.org/10.2307/349494.
Studenski, S., Carlson, M. C., Fillit, H., Greenough, W. T., Kramer, A., & Rebok, G. W. (2006). From bedside to bench: Does mental and physical activity promote cognitive vitality in late life? Science of Aging Knowledge Environment,10, pe21.
Svanborg, A. (2001). Biomedical perspectives on productive aging. In N. Morrow-Howell, J. Hinterlong, & M. Sherraden (Eds.), Perspectives on productive aging: Concepts and challenge (pp. 81–101). Baltimore: John Hopkins University.
Thoits, P. (1983). Multiple identities and psychological well-being: A reformulation and test of the social isolation hypothesis. American Sociological Review,48(2), 174–187. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095103.
Todorova, I., Turner, H., Castaneda-Sceppa, C., Young, D., & Bonner, A. (2016). “I Do It With Love”: Engagement in caring for people with dementia. Global Qualitative Nursing Research,3, 1–14.
Toppe, C. M., Kirsch, A. D., & Michel, J. (2001).Giving & volunteering in the United States: Findings from a national survey. Washington, DC: Independent Sector. Retrieved from https://www.cpanda.org/pdfs/gv/GV01Report.pdf.
Wacker, R. R., & Roberto, K. A. (2013). Community resources for older adults: Programs and services in an era of change (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Wahrendorf, M., von dem Knesebeck, O., & Siegrist, J. (2006). Social productivity and well-being of older people: Baseline results from the SHARE study. European Journal of Ageing,3(2), 67–73.
Welsh, J., Strazdins, L., Charlesworth, S., Kulik, C. T., & Butterworth, P. (2016). Health or harm? A cohort study of the importance of job quality in extended workforce participation by older adults. BMC Public Health,16, 885. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3478-y.
Xanthopoulou, D., Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2009). Reciprocal relationships between job resources, personal resources, and work engagement. Journal of Vocational Behavior,74, 235–244.
Yang, J. A., Wilhelmi, B. L., & McGlynn, K. (2018). Enhancing meaning when facing later life losses. Clinical Gerontologist,41(5), 498–507.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Matz, C., Sabbath, E. & James, J.B. An Integrative Conceptual Framework of Engagement in Socially-Productive Activity in Later Life: Implications for Clinical and Mezzo Social Work Practice. Clin Soc Work J 48, 156–168 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-020-00756-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-020-00756-x