Abstract:

The social activity of older people is central to social gerontology and has been the subject of much research into its role as a predictor for issues like health and the aged. This research reflects concerns that older people can become isolated by personal adjustments and limits imposed by social attitudes and structures. Encouraging and enabling desired social activity has great potential for promoting the health of older people and improving their well being. This paper examines older people's sense of the adequacy of their social activity and their views on the factors which influence them. Following Rosow's seminal work (1967) on social integration, the paper presents a typology classifying older people by their perceived adequacy of activity and their reported levels of social activity. A final set of analyses tests the hypothesis that well being is influenced by consistency between actual and desired levels of activity.