Productive Engagement of Older Adults
Authors: Morrow-Howell Nancy , Sun Peter 
Published: December 2022

Population aging has largely been approached as a problem. Demographic shifts toward aging societies have been viewed from a deficit perspective. Certainly, the remarkable extension of human life has created challenges to individuals, families, healthcare and social care systems, and income security policies. Yet, the “age-drain” approach fails to recognize the vast heterogeneity of the older population and the growing human capital among older adults. The productive-aging perspective is an alternative to the age-drain perspective that can shape social approaches to population aging. The concept of productive aging was introduced by Dr. Robert Butler in 1985, and he called for the redirection of attention from the dependencies associated with later life to the actual and potential contribution of older adults. Further, he suggested that society could not afford to dismiss the growing capacity of the older population. From the productive-aging perspective, the capacity of older adults to contribute to families and communities through working, volunteering, and caregiving is highlighted. It is likely that societies will need more people in these roles longer into the life course, and it is possible to facilitate engagement in these roles to maximize positive outcomes for older adults and society.

Productive engagement is defined as engaging in activities that produce goods and services, whether paid for or not, including working, volunteering (formal and informal), and caregiving. In all these cases, monetary values have been assigned to the contributions made by people over a certain age, depending on the age selected by the researcher. Outcomes of productive engagement have been conceptualized at multiple levels, including well-being for older people, experienced person-power for organizations, relief to retirement income programs, and stronger civic society. Attaining these outcomes requires social policies and programs that increase opportunities for all segments of the older population. Since the conceptual beginnings, scholars have proposed that productive engagement be viewed as an outcome of extra-individual factors, distinguishing this perspective from the successful aging paradigm that focused more on individual determinants. To date, outdated programs and policies have constrained the engagement of older adults as workers, volunteers, and caregivers. Many innovations have been proposed, and promising interventions are being demonstrated. The aim is to transform work environments and employment policies to enable people to work longer, to increase opportunities to engage older adults in volunteer roles while helping organizations more fully utilize this talent pool, and to improve support for caregiving and other forms of care work in later life. The goal is to create opportunities and to facilitate engagement in productive roles—not to exploit or coerce older people or to exclude lower-resourced individuals who have been marginalized across their life course. Fundamentally, progress depends on changing attitudes about aging and dispelling current assumptions about older adults and aging populations.