Life course social connectedness : age-cohort trends in social participation
Social connectedness has emerged in recent decades as a key determinant of well-being. Considering its importance, several studies have sought to describe how overall trends in society have changed over the years, while others have been more concerned with how it changes as individuals age. This stu...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145325 |
| _version_ | 1826110714197049344 |
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| author | Ang, Shannon |
| author2 | School of Social Sciences |
| author_facet | School of Social Sciences Ang, Shannon |
| author_sort | Ang, Shannon |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Social connectedness has emerged in recent decades as a key determinant of well-being. Considering its importance, several studies have sought to describe how overall trends in society have changed over the years, while others have been more concerned with how it changes as individuals age. This study set out to synthesize these two strands of research by describing age-cohort trends of social connectedness, using social participation as the key indicator. Data are from the Americans’ Changing Lives survey, a nationally representative panel dataset with an accelerated longitudinal design, collected over 25 years. Multivariate Bayesian generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs) were utilized to estimate age-cohort trajectories of formal and informal social participation. Findings show that even as informal social participation decreases with age, formal social participation increases – suggesting some form of compensatory mechanism. Further, while informal social participation remains stable across cohorts, formal social participation increases in later cohorts. These results suggest that the isolation of old age or overall societal declines in social participation in America may be overestimated by some observers, but more research is needed to more comprehensively describe how other aspects of social connectedness are distributed over the life course. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T02:39:01Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/145325 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T02:39:01Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1453252023-03-05T15:31:05Z Life course social connectedness : age-cohort trends in social participation Ang, Shannon School of Social Sciences Social sciences::Sociology Social Connectedness Cohort Change Social connectedness has emerged in recent decades as a key determinant of well-being. Considering its importance, several studies have sought to describe how overall trends in society have changed over the years, while others have been more concerned with how it changes as individuals age. This study set out to synthesize these two strands of research by describing age-cohort trends of social connectedness, using social participation as the key indicator. Data are from the Americans’ Changing Lives survey, a nationally representative panel dataset with an accelerated longitudinal design, collected over 25 years. Multivariate Bayesian generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs) were utilized to estimate age-cohort trajectories of formal and informal social participation. Findings show that even as informal social participation decreases with age, formal social participation increases – suggesting some form of compensatory mechanism. Further, while informal social participation remains stable across cohorts, formal social participation increases in later cohorts. These results suggest that the isolation of old age or overall societal declines in social participation in America may be overestimated by some observers, but more research is needed to more comprehensively describe how other aspects of social connectedness are distributed over the life course. Accepted version The author acknowledges use of the services and facilities of the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan, funded by NICHD Center Grant P2CHD041028. I am also grateful to Sarah Burgard, Philippa Clarke, Erin Cech, and three anonymous reviewers who provided helpful feedback on earlier drafts of the paper. 2020-12-17T05:42:13Z 2020-12-17T05:42:13Z 2019 Journal Article Ang, S. (2019). Life course social connectedness : age-cohort trends in social participation. Advances in Life Course Research, 39, 13-22. doi:10.1016/j.alcr.2019.02.002 1040-2608 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145325 10.1016/j.alcr.2019.02.002 39 13 22 en Advances in Life Course Research © 2019 Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved. This paper was published in Advances in Life Course Research and is made available with permission of Elsevier Ltd. application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Social sciences::Sociology Social Connectedness Cohort Change Ang, Shannon Life course social connectedness : age-cohort trends in social participation |
| title | Life course social connectedness : age-cohort trends in social participation |
| title_full | Life course social connectedness : age-cohort trends in social participation |
| title_fullStr | Life course social connectedness : age-cohort trends in social participation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Life course social connectedness : age-cohort trends in social participation |
| title_short | Life course social connectedness : age-cohort trends in social participation |
| title_sort | life course social connectedness age cohort trends in social participation |
| topic | Social sciences::Sociology Social Connectedness Cohort Change |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145325 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT angshannon lifecoursesocialconnectednessagecohorttrendsinsocialparticipation |