Dans la plupart des études réalisées, les seniors sont souvent considérés comme des personnes fragiles vis-à-vis de la société. L’université d’Alberta, a effectué des recherches sur ces derniers et en a conclue que beaucoup d’entre eux sont des actifs et heureux.
Fast and Judith Frederick, a senior analyst with Statistics Canada, investigated how Canadians spend their time during later life transitions from paid work to retirement, to widowhood, and to loss of independence. The study uses data from Statistics Canada’s 1998 General Social Survey on time use.
The survey looked at such factors as income, living arrangements, time spent on unpaid work, active and passive leisure and self-care activities and quality of life. The findings showed that older people do not fit the stereotype of being « sick, weak, frail, powerless, sexless, passive, alone, unhappy and failing, » said Fast, who also leads a $2.3-million study titled « Hidden Costs/Invisible Contributions: The Marginalization of ‘Dependent’ Adults » funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
« Most of even the oldest of the old are very much engaged in life and differ little from younger seniors on many quality of life measures, » she said.
The researchers found that retirees spent more time on unpaid productive activities (volunteer, care and domestic work), leisure and self-care than their employed counterparts. This evidence contradicts previous findings that have been unclear about volunteer work. Overall, 3.2 million retirees spent about 5 billion hours on unpaid productive activity annually. The estimated economic value of these contributions to our society is $60.2 billion each year in
A small group of retired men and women also continued to hold paid jobs. More than 5 per cent of retired men and 4 per cent of retired women spent nearly four hours per day on paid work. This group of men was among the most at-risk of those making a seamless transition to retirement. The study found that they were almost as time-stressed as their full-time employed counterparts and much less likely than other men at this stage of life to report being happy with their quality of life.
However, Fast said she was surprised to see that those few men who were forced to live with someone other than their spouse because of transitions such as widowhood or poor health were happier than expected.
« This group of men were presumed to be the most socially isolated, to feel trapped in a daily routine, to feel they hadn’t accomplished what they wanted in the day and to have time on their hands they didn’t know what to do with, » said Fast. « Yet, they were almost as likely as married men to say they were happy, so they seem to have adapted to their new circumstances. »