Late-life Work Research Articles

The Role of Late-Life Work Among Widowed Adults in Korea: A Buffer or Burden for Widow(er)s' Health?

To examine the role of work in the bereavement process, we focused on health changes among widowed adults. We analyzed a sample of 518 adults (aged 52-95) from the Korean Retirement and Income Study (2011-2019) who experienced spousal loss during the study period. The widowed participants provided data on their employment status and perceived health at both pre-loss and post-loss. Widowed participants reported worse physical and mental health after the bereavement, but the significant health deterioration was not observed among employed participants. Adjusting for pre-loss health status and other covariates, employed widow(er)s showed a smaller decrease in physical and mental health, compared to their counterparts. The effect of employment on physical health changes was more pronounced for economically vulnerable widow(er)s. Work might serve as a restoring coping strategy for widowed individuals; economic benefits from the job may also contribute to their health and well-being.

THE ROLE OF LATE-LIFE WORK AMONG KOREAN WIDOWED ADULTS

Abstract According to the Dual Process Model, oscillation between two types of stressors and coping processes—loss-oriented and restoration-oriented leads bereaved individuals toward the adaptive coping. Previous studies have focused on the buffering effects of social engagement such as volunteering or leisure as restoring activities, but little is known about the role of work. In Korea, employment rates of older adults are rising, and many people wish to keep working after the retirement age. This study examines the restoring effects of work among Korean widowed adults. Utilizing five waves of the Korean Retirement and Income Study (2011–2019; conducted biennially), we analyzed 481 middle-aged and older adults (aged 52–95) who experienced spousal loss during the study period. The widowed participants provided data on their employment status and perceived health status, including sociodemographic characteristics at both pre-loss (T1) and post-loss (T2). On average, participants’ perceived physical health (MT1 = 2.75, MT2 = 2.61) and mental health (MT1 = 3.20, MT2 = 3.07) deteriorated after the bereavement. Residualized change models found that employed participants (29.7%) showed a smaller decrease in perceived physical health (B = 0.35, p < .001) and mental health (B = 0.18, p = .046) compared to their counterparts, which supports the buffering effect of late-life work in the bereavement process. We also found a significant interaction between employment status and net wealth for perceived physical health (B = -0.04, p = .037), showing that the effect of employment stood out more among economically vulnerable people.

“I Believe in Socialism as Well as Democracy”: Du Bois’s Discourse on, and Development of, Democratic Socialism Both before and after In Battle for Peace

In 1951 Du Bois was indicted by the U.S. federal government for being an agent of a foreign state as a result of his work with the Peace Information Center, an organization committed to peace activism and nuclear disarmament. As detailed in his often-overlooked 1952 book, In Battle for Peace: The Story of My 83rd Birthday, the then eighty-two-year-old Du Bois was arrested, handcuffed, searched for concealed weapons, fingerprinted, briefly jailed, and subsequently released on bail. However, his passport was immediately revoked and remained canceled until 1958. Du Bois’s misguided support for dictatorial leaders like Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-Tung, who claimed to be communist and committed to Marxist principles, has caused many scholars to disregard or even lampoon his late life work and instead focus almost exclusively on his early and middle years prior to his 1935 publication of Black Reconstruction in America: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860–1880. Considering the complex nature of his life, scholarship, and activism, this article’s primary objective is to provide a brief overview of Du Bois’s discourse on, and development of, democratic socialism, both before and after In Battle for Peace.

Neighborhood Land Use, Work Participation, and Quality of Life Among Workers in Mid and Late Life: Exploratory Analysis of Singapore’s Public Housing Neighborhoods

Neighborhood environments have been positively associated with older adults’ engagement outcomes. As mid- and late-life work participation gains traction, the scope of productive engagement in later life expands concomitantly. However, current age-friendly neighborhood paradigms remain largely retirement-centric, with minimal applicability for older adults with work aspirations. Therefore, the objective of this research was to examine whether neighborhood land use had significant impact on older adults’ work participation and well-being while working. Neighborhood variables were measured at the postal code level and statistically analyzed in relation to work participation and quality of life (QOL) scores for 850 older adults in Singapore. Significant variables were evaluated again for 28 planning areas, and statistically analyzed in relation to workforce participation rates. The findings suggest that neighborhood spatial attributes are significant for mid- and late-life work participation: Strategic provision of amenities was associated with individual work participation and well-being, while density and distribution of specific land-use types were associated with workforce participation rates. The article concludes with a discussion on the gaps in planning approaches for work-supportive and age-friendly neighborhood paradigms.

GENDER, HEALTH, AND EXTENDED WORKING LIFE IN IRELAND

This presentation is based on a forthcoming book chapter which analyses policies, statistical evidence and qualitative data to investigate the gender and health implications of Extended Working Life policy in Ireland. The qualitative data is from a study conducted in 2018 that investigated attitudes to extended working life and experiences of late life work among sixty older workers, 30 men and 30 women in three different occupations, health care workers/cleaners, teachers and academic faculty.The data were analysed using a lifecourse approach. Workers in physically-demanding occupations, those in precarious employment and women were found to be more likely to be disadvantaged in relation to options for extending their working lives. It is recommended that policies be modified to address the disadvantages faced by these groups of workers.

By the sweat of their brow? The effects of starting work again after pension age on life satisfaction in Germany and the United Kingdom

ABSTRACTIn recent years, the employment rates of people of pension age have increased considerably. However, longitudinal evidence on the effects of this employment on wellbeing which might contribute to an evaluation of this late-life work is scarce. Based on empirical findings so far and on theoretical approaches to wellbeing, work and retirement, both negative and positive effects of post-retirement work on life satisfaction are plausible. In this paper, we investigate the effects of taking up work again between the ages of 65 and 75 on life satisfaction in different occupational classes in Germany and the United Kingdom. We expect that not only the heterogeneous conditions and experiences of working are crucial for the consequences that post-retirement work has for life satisfaction, but also the institutional arrangements surrounding this form of work. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the British Household Panel Survey, covering the 1990s and 2000s. Based on fixed-effects regression modelling, we find positive effects of working in both countries, although not all effects are significant. Differentiating by the class of the job in which the older person works, we find mainly positive effects and no significant differences between those who work in a lower-class job and all others. In addition, we find that the positive effect of working on life satisfaction is partly explained by increased satisfaction with household income for those working in a lower-class job in the United Kingdom. We conclude that many of the pessimistic assumptions about people working after pension age cannot be confirmed for our time of observation. However, there are several reasons for believing that the results will be different in the future or for differently defined populations of people working past pension age.

Employment, late-life work, retirement, and well-being in Europe and the United States

Flexible work arrangements and retirement options provide one solution for the challenges of unemployment and underemployment, aging populations, and unsustainable public pension systems in welfare states around the world. We examine the relationships between well-being and job satisfaction on the one hand and employment status and retirement, on the other, using Gallup World Poll data for several European countries and the United States. We find that voluntary part-time workers are happier, experience less stress and anger, and have higher job satisfaction than other employees. Using statistical matching, we show that late-life workers under voluntary part-time or full-time arrangements have higher well-being than retirees. There is no well-being premium for involuntary late-life work and self-employment compared to retirement, however. Our findings inform ongoing debates about the optimal retirement age and the fiscal burdens of public pension systems. JEL codes: J14; J21; J26; J28; I31; Z18

Late-life work and well-being

Flexible work time and retirement options are a potential solution for the challenges of unemployment, aging populations, and unsustainable pensions systems around the world. Voluntary part-time workers in Europe and the US are happier, experience less stress and anger, and are more satisfied with their jobs than other employees. Late-life workers, meanwhile, have higher levels of well-being than retirees. The feasibility of a policy that is based on more flexible work arrangements will vary across economies and sectors, but the ongoing debate about these multi-tiered challenges should at least consider such arrangements.

Does Working Longer Make People Healthier and Happier?

PURPOSE: This study addresses the impact of late-life paid work on physical and psychological well-being. METHODS: Longitudinal data was drawn from the Health and Retirement Survey and the RAND-HRS data base for more than 6,000 individuals aged 59 to 69 who were working or not-working in the year 2000 and were alive in 2002. Well-being was assessed by using a set of six measures including: self-rated health; self-rated memory; activities of daily living; instrumental activities of daily living and mood indicators. The study controls for previous well-being status in 1998 and for demographic and socioeconomic factors. RESULTS: Those who worked in 2000 tended to report greater well-being in 2002 than those who did not work in 2000, even after introducing rigorous controls (p<.01). Working in undesirable jobs changes the favorable effects of paid work on mood indicators and mortality. For those forced into retirement (20% of the sample), work is not an alternative. IMPLICATIONS: This study suggests that late-life work will help most people maintain their overall well-being. While working longer seems beneficial for most people, it will likely have negative consequences for some. The type of job seems to be a critical factor. Another critical factor is the opportunity to continue working. Older workers may be willing to prolong paid work, but, in order to find a job, they need to be able to work and have a real demand for their labor. Gerontologists and policymakers need to consider these factors when evaluating proposals to keep people in the labor force.

Father and Son: Freud Revisits his Oedipus Complex in Moses and Monotheism

In this paper, I propose to understand Freud on his own terms and within his social, intellectual and psychological context. It is my hope that such an understanding will contribute in turn to our understanding of some of the sources of the creative process. Were it not for his fame, Freud's views on religion, history and art, would at best be but a footnote to these subjects. My contention is that Freud's writings on these subjects can contribute more to our understanding of Freud, the person, than they do to some of the subjects he is writing about. Toward this end I will focus on two of Freud's works, written more than 30 years apart, his early Moses of Michelangelo and his late-life work Moses and Monotheism, which reflect the considerable changes in Freud's thinking.

Bernhard Ebbinghaus: Reforming Early Retirement in Europe, Japan and the USA.

Comparing eight European countries, Japan and the United States, Reforming Early Retirement has a number of aims. One is to illustrate the differences in the development and scale of early retirement across countries and time. The other is to analyse the push and pull factors which influence early retirement, thereby increasing our understanding of the development of the different regimes of early retirement around the globe with a view to understanding why reversing the trend of early retirement is difficult. With an increasing focus on the globalization of ageing and the efforts of governments to discourage early retirement, the book is an important and interesting contribution to our understanding of the factors driving early retirement in different welfare regimes and thus the factors that conceivably could reverse the trend of the last 30–40 years. The book will inform policy analysts and policy makers as well as academics and others interested in late life work and retirement in an ageing world.

Late life work and retirement issues for Australian women from a non‐English‐speaking background

Late life work and retirement issues for Australian women from a non‐English‐speaking background

Joint Role Investments and Synchronization of Retirement: A Sequential Approach to Couples' Retirement Timing

We examine the linkage of couples' late-life work exit patterns with earlier work and family roles. Using data from the 1982 U.S. Social Security New Beneficiary Study, we estimate a sequential model of retirement timing of husbands and wives. The results indicate that early investments in work and family roles, as well as late-life characteristics, are associated with how older couples coordinate retirement timing. A woman's employment during the child-rearing years is associated with her earlier retirement, especially following her husband's retirement. The findings reveal the importance of the early “family organizational economy” in defining sequences of family events that combine with late-life events to influence the sequential synchronization of retirement timing.

Joint Role Investments and Synchronization of Retirement: A Sequential Approach to Couples' Retirement Timing

The AA. examine the linkage of couples' late-life work exit patterns with earlier work and family roles and estimate a sequential model of retirement timing of husbands and wives. The findings reveal the importance of the early « family organisational economy » in defining sequences of family events that combine with late-life events to influence the sequential synchronization of retirement timing.

Uniformity and Diversity: Life Course Institutionalization and Late-Life Work Exit

Recent research and theory argue that regulation of the life course, whether by state regulation, workplace dynamics, or economic and social trends, makes the life course more institutionally-dependent and uniform in timing. This article develops a more precise conceptualization of uniformity of life course transitions, distinguishing two facets: universality in event occurrence and variability in event timing. This distinction is unclear in many discussions of the topic, and separating the two elements reveals the complexity of the relation between social structural change and uniformity. The distinction is illustrated with U.S. data on recent trends in late-life labor force exit that show an increase in the proportion of those who exit by any age (i.e., universality), but a complex pattern of change in variability, indicating a tendency toward greater individuation.

The aging psyche and the question of artistic change: An examination of one career

A long-time lover of music, I confess to having a bizarre penchant for trying to test my informally trained musical intelligence in situations which require quick recognition, be it a piece, a composer, a performer, or some such feature. In fact, this article originated with my failure to recognize a theretofore unfamiliar work and with the surprise I experienced upon learning it was Verdi's last opera,Falstaff, composed when he was nearly 80. For a listener familiar withLa Traviata orAida, it appeared quite strange and surprising. Moreover, as I found out later, the sense of puzzlement was not merely a matter of subjective impression but rather exemplified an overall stylistic departure in Verdi's late life work, its salient features being compression and urgency rather than spaciousness, flowing line, a pervasive use of biting irony compared to the straightforward lyricism of the earlier work, a retreat from psychological realism in favour of sketchy, abstract portrayals, an overall impatience with established operatic convention, and a symphonic rather than linear or melodic conception. Some of these characteristics have also been found in the late works of painters and sculptors (e.g., Arnheim, 1986; Clark, 1972; Munsterberg, 1983). Taken together these observations raised for me the issue of artistic change, an issue of considerable significance to the understanding of creative endeavour in general.