National Academies Press: OpenBook

Productive Roles in an Older Society (1986)

Chapter: Front Matter

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 1986. Productive Roles in an Older Society. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/602.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 1986. Productive Roles in an Older Society. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/602.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 1986. Productive Roles in an Older Society. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/602.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 1986. Productive Roles in an Older Society. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/602.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 1986. Productive Roles in an Older Society. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/602.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 1986. Productive Roles in an Older Society. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/602.
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Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 1986. Productive Roles in an Older Society. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/602.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 1986. Productive Roles in an Older Society. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/602.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 1986. Productive Roles in an Older Society. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/602.
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Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

iNE11~198 iO116 Pr#dUC1i~ 1#1DI lo a' Older S#~1~t Commi~eeonanAgingSo~ety Inshtuteof~edicinesndNstionalResesrcbCouncu NAT~NALACADE~YPRESS ~bshin~on,D.C.1986

National Academy Press · 2101 Constitution Ave., NW · Washington, DC 20418 NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Govern- ing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance. This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Insti- tute of Medicine. The Institute of Medicine was chartered in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to enlist distinguished members of the appropriate professions in the exami- nation of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. In this, the Institute acts under both the Academy's 1863 congressional charter responsibility to be an adviser to the federal government and its own initiative in identifying issues of medical care, research, and education. This study has been supported by funds from the National Research Council Fund, a pool of private, discretionary, nonfederal funds that is used to support a program of Academy-initiated studies of national issues in which science and technology figure significantly. The NRC Fund consists of contributions from a consortium of private foundations including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Charles E. Cul- peper Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Rocke- feller Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; the Academy Industry Pro- gram, which seeks annual contributions from companies that are concerned with the health of U.S. science and technology and with public policy issues with technological content; and the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engi- neering endowments. The study was also supported by the Charles A. Dana Founda- tion. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Committee on an Aging Society (U.S.) Productive roles in an older society. (America's aging) "This report . . . presents the papers commissioned for a symposium on productive roles in an aging society"-Pref. Includes bibliographies and index. 1. Aged-United States-Congresses. 2. Voluntarism-United States- Congresses. I. Title. II. Series. [DNLM: 1. Aged-congresses. 2. Voluntary Work- ers-congresses. WT 30 C7345p] HQ1064.U5C535 1986 305.2'6 85-63125 ISBN 0-309-03637-2 No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without permission from the publisher. Cover photograph courtesy of the Foster Grandparents Program. Printed in the United States of America

COMMITTEE ON AN AGING SOCIETY ROBERT W. BERLINER (Chairman), Dean, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut PHILIP H. AsE~soN, Editor, Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C. WILLIAM G. BELL, Professor of Gerontology and Director, Multidisciplinary Center on Gerontology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida ROBERT H. BiNsTocK, Professor of Law and Politics, Heller School, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts KAREN Davis, Professor of Health Services Administration, The Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland Tacos J. FELDMAN, Associate Director for Analysis and Epidemiology, National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, Maryland JAMEs A. JosEPH, President and Chief Executive Officer, Council on Foundations, Washington, D.C. F. PETER LIBASST, Senior Vice-President, Travelers Insurance Company, Hartford, Connecticut GEORGE C. MYERS, Professor of Sociology and Director, Center for Demographic Study, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina BERN~cE L. NEUGARTEN, Professor of Education and Sociology, School of Education, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois ALAN PIFER, President, The Carnegie Corporation of New York, New York, New York DON K. Price, Professor of Public Management, Emeritus, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts EtizAsETH Russets, Senior Staff Scientist, Jackson Laboratories, Bar Harbor, Maine H. GUYFORD STEVER, Chairman, Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems, National Research Council, Washington, D.C. T. FRANKLIN Williams, Medical Director, Monroe Community Hospital, Rochester, New York This list shows affiliations of members at the time of their service with the com mittee. · - ~ 111

iv COMMITTEE ON AN AGING SOCIETY Study Staff ENRIQUETA C. BOND, Study Director and Director, Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention DAVID Tucson, Study Director until September 1983 LINDA DEPUGH, Administrative Secretary Consultant GERALD S. SCHATZ

Preface Substantial increases in the number and proportion of older persons in the decades ahead portend significant changes in American society. Indeed, demographic projections of a popula- tion rapidly growing older have led some observers to character- ize the United States as an "aging society." The ways in which an aging society might be a different soci- ety, in other than demographic characteristics, are not entirely clear. But it is evident that the changing age distribution of the population will have major implications, at the very least, for the following: · financing, development, organization, and use of health care systems; · patterns of family life, social relations, cultural institutions, living arrangements, and physical environments; · distribution of jobs among older and younger workers, as well as the earnings, status, and satisfaction that these jobs may provide, within the context of age discrimination laws, seniority practices, and technological innovation; · economic aspects of providing retirement income through various public and private mechanisms; · quality of life of the population throughout the life course including functional-status, well-being, legal status, and per- sonal autonomy; and · an ever-shifting agenda of related public policy issues. v

V1 PREFACE If we are to deal effectively with these issues, our current under- standing of the specific implications for older and younger per- sons, for age relations, and for the institutions of our society- must be expanded. The Committee on an Aging Society was organized to identify selected issues that need to be confronted, both soon and over the longer term. Recognizing that many organizations and ad hoc groups have been addressing a range of issues associated with aging and with older persons as an age group, the committee has attempted to emphasize broader societal issues as well. From among those issues the Committee on an Aging Society suggests topics that warrant systematic investigations fostered by the National Research Council, the Institute of Medicine, and other organizations. It is the committee's belief that such investiga- tions of these topics will provide a basis for action by policyma- kers in both the private and public sectors. This volume is the second report in a series, called America's Aging, in which the committee calls attention to issues that emerged from symposia convened to explore selected topics. Other reports or proposed symposia focus on health in an aging society, the social and built environment, and legal and ethical issues. This report summarizes the committee's recommendations and the discussions on which they were based and presents the papers commissioned for the May 1983 Symposium on Unpaid Productive Roles in an Aging Society. Because many other groups have addressed the labor force participation of older per- sons, the committee chose to focus on unpaid productive roles to which less attention has been given. FREDERICK C. Rosins President Institute of Medicine

Contents SUMMARY . . . . . . . . e · · · · · · · · · e · · e introduction, 1 Unpaid Productive Roles, 6 Characteristics of Older Americans, 10 Older Americans AS a Societal Resource, 15 Conclusions and Recommendations, 20 Bibliography, 22 THE ECONOMICS OF VOLUNTEERISM: A REVIEW Carol Jusenius Romero THE OLDER VOLUNTEER RESOURCE .............. Harold A. Kieffer UNPAID PRODUCTIVE ACTIvITY OVER THE FIFE COURSE dames N. Morgan SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC ASPECTS OF FUTURE UNPAID PRODUCTIVE ROLES ................ George C. Myers, Kenneth G. Manton, and Helena BaceZlar INDEX ... 23 51 73 .... 110 ·- V11 . 149

. AMERICA,S AGING Productive Roles in an Older Sociely

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This second volume in the Institute of Medicine's series on America's Aging explores the various productive roles that the growing number of elderly individuals can play in society through volunteer work. Some of the issues addressed include the main incentives and impediments to elderly volunteerism, the various forms of unpaid productive work and how they affect the health and well-being of the volunteer, and the recruitment of elderly volunteers that is done by various organizations. For policymakers, economists, sociologists, gerontologists, and social services agencies, this is an indispensable resource for the future.

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