Sociodemographic Determinants of Social Participation Motivation among Elderly Russians

Abstract

Based on a survey of 520 residents of the Sverdlovsk and Rostov regions aged 60 to 98, significant differences in the motivation for social participation of older people were found in terms of gender and age, family, education and employment status. The data show that age, acting simultaneously as a 'biological fact' and a social construct, shapes intra-­cohort differences that are realized in the dynamics from pragmatic motivation in the period of 'early old age' to prosocial motivation in the period of 'middle old age,' and reciprocally by the period of 'fourth age.' The main differences are formed at the intersections of different aspects of status, 'collecting' age and structural inequalities and advantages on the principles of intersectionality, forming not only 'chosen' but also 'imposed' strategies of social participation and non-participation. The study showed a link between the high resource capacity of seniors (high educational, labor, family status, urban infrastructure) and prosocial motivation for social participation, while the presence of obligations (gender, financial, family) tends to choose pragmatic motives. The low resource capacity of an aging person (old age, low level of education, status of a resident of a social service) is directly related to the priority of reciprocal motives for participation. This intensifies the discussion about the risks of low resource capacity of older people as a factor of coercion into social activity (both in line with and against personal goals and needs), uncritical acceptance of all (including destructive) forms of participation, as well as existing structures, rules, and norms that increase deprivation and stigmatization.