Bridging Disciplinary Boundaries (January 11 - 14, 2007)

Purpose Wealth ownership is theorized to influence civic engagement and personal well-being (Sherraden, 1991). Volunteering as a productive aging activity holds great promise for the well-being of older adults (Morrow-Howell, Hinterlong, and Sherraden, 2001). However, to date there is little literature assessing how wealth, civic engagement, and the well-being of the elderly are interrelated in a model. This study examines how asset accumulation affects civic engagement and well-being of the elderly and whether the association between assets and well-being of the elderly is mediated by civic engagement in the perspective of a longitudinal data analysis.

Methods This study is a secondary data analysis of three waves of data from the Americans' Changing Lives Study (ACL). Data were collected in 1986, 1989, and 1994. While there are 1,669 older adults in the wave1, sample of this study was reduced to 548 because of sample attrition and small size of volunteers across three waves. Wealth was measured by self-reports. This study used volunteer hours as a measure of volunteering. Self-esteem as an index of the well-being of older adults is a standardized index created by data collectors. These three variables were collected across three waves. Latent growth curve models were analyzed by LISREL 8.52.

Results Before a conditional model with all variables together, this study tested whether unconditional measurement models of wealth, volunteering, and self-esteem satisfied model fit indices of structural equation model such as ÷2, RMSEA, CFI, and RMR. Good model fits were found except ÷2. Model modification processes produced a theoretical model with good model fits, e.g., RMSEA (.039), CFI (.984), and RMR (0.017). Controlling for demographics, e.g., age, gender, race, marital status, and education, the elderly with more wealth are more likely to volunteer more hours and have higher self-esteem. However, it was found that only intercept of wealth are significantly related to intercepts of volunteering and self-esteem. Changing rates of wealth had no effects on volunteering and self-esteem. The elderly with higher initial levels and steeper increasing rates of volunteering hours have positive growing rates in the self-esteem. Volunteering was found to mediate a significant part of the relationship between wealth and self-esteem.

Discussion This study is expected to contribute to knowledge building by testing the two interrelated theoretical perspectives, Sherraden's (1991) institutional saving theory and Morrow-Howell et al.'s (2001) productive aging perspectives, in a model. Since asset accumulation may be a significant factor affecting civic engagement and well-being of the elderly, policy makers and practitioners should pay more attentions to asset accumulation programs for the elderly. In addition, more volunteering programs should be developed to enhance access and opportunity of the elderly to participate in volunteering.