Perceived Neighborhood Cohesion and Community Participation Among Older Adults
Community participation in later life has a long tradition as volunteering offers a formal role to older adults after leaving the workforce. Community participation is associated with a series of positive outcomes among older adults, including increased life satisfaction, better health outcomes, and better coping with the age-related declines in functional abilities. With growing number of older adults now age in their own neighborhood with ever increasing diversity, it is essential to understand how neighborhood cohesion affects older adults’ participation behavior. Knowledge concerning the effects of minority and immigration status on participation behavior is also imperative. This study is to 1) examine the association between perceived neighborhood cohesion and community participation among older adults; 2) compare participation behaviors across groups of elders with different race/ethnicity and immigration status, and 3) compare participation patterns across different community mechanisms.
Methods:
This study uses the data from the California Health Interview Survey 2012 and includes 13,722 representative respondents age 65 and above. To reflect the diversity among older adults, respondents are categorized into seven groups: African Americans, US-born Asians, Hispanics and whites and foreign-born Asian, Hispanics and whites. Community participation is assessed through three community mechanisms — volunteering in community work and services, volunteering in formal organizations for community problem solving, and meeting informally for community problem solving. Neighborhood cohesion is measured by perceived safety, trust and mutual assistance in the neighborhood; place attachment is measured using the proxy of length of time in the neighborhood. Demographics, as well as characteristics that may constrain participation including living arrangement, and physical and cognitive disability, are included in analysis. A series of logistic regression were conducted.
Results:
Perceived neighborhood cohesion is only associated with elders’ volunteering in community work and services. Place attachment is associated with volunteering in community work and services, and meeting informally for community problem solving. Comparing to US-born white elders, black elders reported on-par or higher level of participation among all three community mechanisms; US-born Hispanic and all immigrant groups of elders reported significant lower level of participation among all three mechanisms. Higher level of education, more family income, being married/having a partner, and urban residence are associated with higher level of participation among the three mechanisms. Having certain physical and cognitive limitations do not significantly decrease the likelihood of community participation; only the difficulty of “going outside home alone” is negatively associated with participation.
Implications:
Older adults energetically participate in community work and service programs and a cohesive neighborhood social environment might offer motivation and support. As growing health and social service programs offered in the community depend on older adults’ participation, efforts to promote neighborhood cohesion are desirable. However, special attention should be paid to Hispanic and other immigrant community-dwelling older adults. Differences in participation are likely connected to disparities in health and other wellbeing indicators. It is also important to note that older adults could be the agent of community change. Long-term residents could demonstrate determination and mobilize grassroots to address community problems.