Correspondence should be addressed to Catherine E. Bowen, Jacobs Center on Lifelong Learning and Institutional Development, Jacobs University Bremen, Campus Ring 1, 28759 Bremen, Germany. E-mail:
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2013 Nov;68(6):974-83. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbt101.
Why are older people perceived as more competent in some countries relative to others? In the current study, we investigate the extent to which national variation in perceptions of older people's competence is systematically related to national variation in the extent to which older people participate in paid and volunteer work.
We used multilevel regression to analyze data from the European Social Survey and test the relationship between perceptions of older people's competence and older people's participation in paid and volunteer work across 28 countries. We controlled for a number of potentially confounding variables, including life expectancy as well as the gender ratio and average education of the older population in each country. We controlled for the average objective cognitive abilities of the older population in a subsample of 11 countries.
Older people were perceived as more competent in countries in which more older people participated in paid or volunteer work, independent of life expectancy and the average education, gender makeup, and average cognitive abilities of the older population.
The results suggest that older people's participation in paid and volunteer work is related to perceptions of older people's competence independent of older people's actual competence.
为什么在一些国家，老年人被认为比其他国家更有能力？在本研究中，我们调查了对老年人能力的看法的国家差异与老年人参与有偿和志愿工作的程度之间存在系统关系的程度。
我们使用多层次回归分析了来自欧洲社会调查的数据，并在 28 个国家中测试了对老年人能力的看法与老年人参与有偿和志愿工作之间的关系。我们控制了一些潜在的混杂变量，包括预期寿命以及每个国家老年人的性别比例和平均受教育程度。我们在 11 个国家的子样本中控制了老年人的平均客观认知能力。
在更多老年人参与有偿或志愿工作的国家，老年人被认为更有能力，而与预期寿命以及老年人的平均教育程度、性别构成和平均认知能力无关。
结果表明，老年人参与有偿和志愿工作与对老年人能力的看法有关，而与老年人的实际能力无关。
