Gender Differences in Meaningful Leisure Among Older Adults: Joint Displays of Four Phenomena.

Nuria Jaumot-Pascual,María Jesús Monteagudo,Douglas A Kleiber,Jaime Cuenca

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01450

Nuria Jaumot-Pascual, María Jesús Monteagudo + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01450

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Abstract

Vital events, such as widowhood and retirement, are broadly accepted as points of inflection in the lives of older adults that often differ according to gender. In this study, we analyzed the influence of gender on meaningful leisure among older adults through the integration of qualitative and quantitative findings. The use of joint displays revealed that in this sample of people from Northern Spain: (1) there were no significant differences in the influence of retirement and widowhood on the leisure of the two genders, (2) the ethic of care was a constraining factor in older women’s leisure, (3) women were more innovative in their leisure in older age, and (4) volunteer activities were highly segregated by gender. The use of joint displays helped illuminate these four phenomena in light of quantitative and qualitative data.

Highlights

Specialty section: This article was submitted to Developmental Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
The use of joint displays revealed that in this sample of people from Northern Spain: (1) there were no significant differences in the influence of retirement and widowhood on the leisure of the two genders, (2) the ethic of care was a constraining factor in older women’s leisure, (3) women were more innovative in their leisure in older age, and (4) volunteer activities were highly segregated by gender
This paper addresses a purely mixed methods question: how do the quantitative data and the qualitative findings provide further understandings around gender differences among older people in the Basque Country, in Northern Spain? We break down this umbrella question into four, phenomenon-specific questions in the findings section

Summary

Introduction

Specialty section: This article was submitted to Developmental Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology. The use of joint displays helped illuminate these four phenomena in light of quantitative and qualitative data Life events, such as widowhood and retirement, are widely recognized as moments of vital transition for older adults (Antonovsky and Sagy, 1990). The literature has characterized retirement and widowhood as moments of transition in human development when individuals question their life priorities due to the disappearance of previous obligations that occupied their time Retirement had this role for men (Antonovsky and Sagy, 1990) and widowhood for women (Lopata, 1973; Hurd, 1999; Lee and Bakk, 2001). With the progressive incorporation of women into the workforce and changing gender roles, retirement and widowhood may be changing in their function as developmental tasks, possibly making previous literature historically limited

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