Accumulation of Disadvantages: Prevalence and Categories of Old-Age Social Exclusion in Belgium

Sofie Van Regenmortel (), Liesbeth De Donder (), An-Sofie Smetcoren (), Deborah Lambotte (), Nico De Witte () and Dominique Verté ()
Additional contact information
Sofie Van Regenmortel: Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Liesbeth De Donder: Vrije Universiteit Brussel
An-Sofie Smetcoren: Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Deborah Lambotte: Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Nico De Witte: Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Dominique Verté: Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2018, vol. 140, issue 3, No 13, 1173-1194

Abstract: Abstract This paper focuses on the prevalence and measurement of old-age social exclusion. Currently there is limited knowledge of the prevalence of old-age social exclusion in Belgium. Although studies have already shown that older adults can experience exclusion in more than one dimension, the multidimensional nature of social exclusion is often lost when constructing a scale. Consequently, this paper’s aim is twofold. First, it examines the prevalence of different dimensions of old-age social exclusion in Flanders and Brussels and seeks to demonstrate the influence of applying different measurement thresholds. Second, this study develops an old-age social exclusion measure that preserves its multidimensionality. Descriptive and Latent Class Analysis were performed on the Belgian Ageing Studies data (2008–2014), a survey among home-dwelling older adults (60 + years) (N = 20,275; 80 municipalities). Findings revealed that older adults are mainly digitally excluded and excluded from the neighbourhood, civic participation, and social relations. More than 60% older adults experience exclusion in two or more dimensions. The use of different thresholds, however, leads to different interpretations concerning the prevalence of social exclusion. Results of the Latent Class Analysis revealed four categories of old-age exclusion: those at “low risk”, “the non-participating financially excluded”, “the environmentally excluded” and the “severely excluded”. The discussion emphasizes the importance of preserving a multidimensional perspective when studying social exclusion. When addressing old-age exclusion, policy should be sensitive to the diverse categories and realize that one-size-fits-all policies and interventions are no solution.

Keywords: Multiple social exclusion; Old-age social exclusion; Social exclusion measurement; Latent Class Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-017-1817-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:soinre:v:140:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s11205-017-1817-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11135

DOI: 10.1007/s11205-017-1817-8

Access Statistics for this article

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement is currently edited by Filomena Maggino

More articles in Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().