Deconstructing Gender Differences in Experienced Well-Being Among Older Adults in the Developing World: The Roles of Time Use and Activity-Specific Affective Experiences

Gabriela Flores (), Clémence Kieny () and Jürgen Maurer ()
Additional contact information
Gabriela Flores: University of Lausanne
Clémence Kieny: University of Lausanne
Jürgen Maurer: University of Lausanne

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2022, vol. 160, issue 2, No 17, 757-790

Abstract: Abstract Due to declining fertility rates and increasing longevity, the world is growing older. Improving the quality of life of older adults, and not merely preventing deaths, is thus becoming an important objective of public policies. It is, therefore, urgent to understand the key dimensions of older adults’ subjective well-being as well as their main drivers. Women represent a large proportion of the older population, and existing evidence suggests that they may be particularly vulnerable, especially in the developing world. Analyzing potential gender differences in experienced well-being in older adults is hence crucial. We exploit information on time use and activity-specific emotional experiences from the abbreviated version of the day reconstruction method contained in the WHO Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE), focusing on five developing countries. We first quantify gender differences in experienced well-being among older adults, which we then deconstruct into corresponding differences in time use and activity-specific net affects. Adjusting for age only, our results indicate a gender gap in experienced well-being in favor of men. Yet, adjusting for additional individual characteristics and life circumstances beyond age weakens this association. Illustrative counterfactual analyses further suggest that gender differences in activity-specific net affects appear more important than differences in time use for explaining the disadvantage of older women. Our results suggest that women’s lower affect in most activities is linked to the conditions under which these activities are performed, and in particular to the higher level of disability of older women compared to men of the same age.

Keywords: Experienced well-being; Subjective well-being; Day reconstruction method (DRM); Gender; Older adults; Low- and middle-income countries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-020-02435-3 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:160:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s11205-020-02435-3

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

DOI: 10.1007/s11205-020-02435-3

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 ().