Do Older Women without Work Experience Participate Less? Life Course Analysis Using the Jages Data

Background          Social participation, such as being a part of community groups, is key to healthy, active aging. Although social participation in older age may be defined by cumulative experience throughout one’s life course, many older Japanese women today have never worked outside the home. As work experience can help expand social interaction and social networks, it is possible that women who have never worked do not participate in social groups as actively as those who have.

Methods               The Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES) is a social epidemiological survey of a community-representative sample of functionally-independent individuals aged 65 and older. In 2010-11, responses were received by post from 112,123 people in 31 municipalities across Japan (66.3% response rate). Social participation was measured by monthly or more frequent participation in any one of six types of social groups (business, volunteer, senior, sport, community, and hobby). Using logistic regression, four models were tested on 41,966 to 44,272 women with a valid response for each outcome variable: whether lack of work experience in older Japanese women is associated with (1) less social participation, (2) less social interaction, (3) less frequent interaction with friends, and (4) fewer friends.

Results                 Controlling for age, equivalent income, family structure, years of education, and health conditions, lack of work experience throughout life was associated with a 21 percent lower likelihood of participating in groups, 25 percent higher likelihood of having less social interaction, and 12 percent higher likelihood of having few friends. The association between lack of work experience and lack of group participation held for all income levels and age groups. 

Conclusion          Lacking work experience appeared to lead to less social participation later in life. Work experience can develop better social skills and more extensive social networks, contributing to more active social participation in older age.