The Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.
Department of Sociology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, South Korea.
PLoS One. 2018 Apr 6;13(4):e0194703. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0194703. eCollection 2018.
Japan and Korea are the world's most aged and most rapidly aging nations. They both have low fertility rates, thereby intensifying the importance of social structures to aid a large, dependent population of older adults. Common strategies involve improving their social participation, which enhances their physical and mental health, so they are supporting society rather than being supported. Since the social participation rates in both countries are not as high as those of Western countries, it is critical to shed light on the factors related to social participation of the elderly.
A secondary analyses were performed using Japanese and Korean data from the 2012 East Asia Social Survey (EASS), which includes nationally representative samples through random sampling. The analyses only include data from those 65 and older (Japan: N = 683, Korea: N = 362).
Social participation is classified into four types: 1) no affiliation; 2) inactive participation; 3) active recreational; and 4) active social. The Japanese respondents had a higher participation rate than Koreans, but more Japanese were inactive. Though the rates of active participations were similar in both countries. Multinomial logistic regressions were conducted to examine the related factors among the four types of social participation. Basic attributes (e.g., living alone) and other factors (e.g., network size) were included as independent variables. The results show that larger non-family networks were linked with increased social participation in both societies. Men were more vulnerable to engaging in no social activities and at a higher risk of social isolation in both countries. One difference between the two nations is that among the Japanese, people with higher social orientations engage in more active social type participation.
This study reveals that non-kin social networks are important for social participation in Japan and Korea.
日本和韩国是世界上最老龄化和老龄化速度最快的国家。这两个国家的生育率都很低，因此加强社会结构的重要性，以帮助大量依赖的老年人口。常见的策略包括提高他们的社会参与度，从而增强他们的身心健康，使他们能够为社会做出贡献，而不是依赖社会。由于这两个国家的社会参与率都不如西方国家高，因此，阐明与老年人社会参与相关的因素至关重要。
使用 2012 年东亚社会调查（EASS）的日本和韩国数据进行二次分析，该调查通过随机抽样包括了具有代表性的全国样本。分析仅包括 65 岁及以上的人群的数据（日本：N=683，韩国：N=362）。
社会参与分为四种类型：1）无隶属关系；2）不活跃参与；3）积极娱乐；4）积极社交。日本受访者的参与率高于韩国，但更多的日本人不活跃。尽管两国的积极参与率相似，但多元逻辑回归分析了四种社会参与类型的相关因素。基本属性（如独居）和其他因素（如网络规模）被作为自变量。结果表明，更大的非家庭网络与两个社会的社会参与度增加有关。在两个国家中，男性更容易不参与任何社会活动，更容易面临社交孤立。两个国家的一个区别是，在日本人中，具有较高社会取向的人更倾向于参与更积极的社交类型的参与。
本研究表明，非亲属社会网络对日本和韩国的社会参与很重要。
