Neighborhood Environment, Volunteering, and Life Satisfaction Among Older Adults in South Korea: A General Structural Equation Model

Background and Purpose. With more people living into advanced age and the large Baby Boomer cohort (born between 1946 and 1964) moving into retirement, many communities face the challenges of including large concentrations of older adults. Ensuring that older adults enjoy healthy, safe, and active lives in neighborhood environments that meet their varying needs and capacities has taken on new urgency in the face of profound demographic shifts. Drawing on the Person-in-Environment perspective, this study examined the role of neighborhood physical and social environments on volunteering and life satisfaction of older adults in Seoul, Korea. Using indicators identified by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Age Friendly City (AFC) framework, this study aims 1) to investigate effects of neighborhood environments on volunteering and life satisfaction, and 2) to explore the mediating effects of volunteering on the relationship between neighborhood environments and life satisfaction.

Methods. Data were obtained from a representative study: the 2011 Seoul City-wide Needs Assessment of Middle- and Old-aged Adults. A sample of 4,000 respondents subjectively rated the neighborhood environment in which they are embedded. Guided by the WHO AFC framework, physical environment was measured in three domains: outdoor space and building, transportation, and housing. Social environment was measured in five domains: social participation, respect and social inclusion, civic participation and employment, communication and information, and community support and health services. Respondents were asked to rate the environmental question items on 7-point likert scale. Life satisfaction was measured using eight items that explored multi-dimensional aspects of older-adult life experiences. All questions were measured on a 5-point scale. Responses to the eight variables were averaged to create a life-satisfaction indicator (α = 0.78). Volunteering was measured by one question item about whether the respondent participated in volunteer activity in the last year. General Structural Equation Models (SEM) were performed. The General SEM model consists of measurement models that specify the relationship of observed variables to latent concepts (physical environment, social environment, and life satisfaction) and the structural model of directional relationships among latent constructs and observed volunteering variable. Path analysis was conducted to test mediating hypotheses.   

Results. Older adults living in environment with better “social participation” (OR=1.09, p<0.000) and “employment and civic engagement” (OR=1.05, p=0.002) characteristics were more likely to volunteer. Respondents reported higher level of life satisfaction if they lived in environments with better features of “respect and inclusion” (b=3.18, p<0.000), “communication and information” (b=3.48, p<0.000), “employment and civic engagement” (b=0.72, p<0.000), and “social participation” (b=1.59, p<0.000). No physical environment characteristic (“housing”, “transportation”, “outdoor space and buildings”) was found significant. Mediation effect of volunteering was not found.

Conclusions and Implications. As an innovative attempt to use SEM for analyses of WHO AFC indicators in a non-Western context, our study provides empirical evidences for mezzo-level social work advocacy and policy intervention to design age-friendly environments to increase older adults’ civic participation, and ultimately improve their well-being.