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Effects of work participation, intergenerational transfers and savings on life satisfaction of older M alaysians
Author(s) -
Ng SorTho,
Hamid TengkuAizan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
australasian journal on ageing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1741-6612
pISSN - 1440-6381
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-6612.2012.00619.x
Subject(s) - life satisfaction , work (physics) , psychology , perception , survey data collection , gerontology , demographic economics , economics , medicine , social psychology , engineering , mathematics , statistics , neuroscience , mechanical engineering
Aim To examine the effects of work participation, intergenerational transfers and savings on the life satisfaction of older community‐dwelling Malaysians. Method Data from the 1999 S urvey on P erceptions of N eeds and P roblems of the E lderly on people aged 60 and over were used. The life satisfaction score was constructed from 10 questions adopted from the L ife S atisfaction I nventory‐ A by N eugarten, H avighurst and T obin. Multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the expected level of life satisfaction. Results Controlling for other variables in the model, respondents who provided assistance to and received assistance from children with savings had significantly higher life satisfaction than their counterparts, while work participation did not have any significant effect on life satisfaction. Conclusion Intergenerational transfers and savings are important predictors of life satisfaction. The interdependence between generations should remain and savings habits need to be cultivated to ensure a higher life satisfaction in old age.