Social participation among older adults in Belgium’s Flanders region: exploring the roles of both new and old media usage

ABSTRACT

The media usage of older adults aged 60 and above in the twenty-first century information society is gaining increasing research attention. This research investigates the association between two important aspects in later life, media usage and social participation, among 36,282 home-dwelling adults aged 60 and above in over 138 municipalities of Belgium’s Flanders region. The data are collected through a participatory research method, in which older adults are recruited and trained as research volunteers. Media is categorised into new media (Internet) and traditional/old media (newspaper, TV, community newsletter), while social participation is divided into formal and informal participation. The results of hierarchical linear regression and logistic binary regression analysis show that reading the community newsletter, reading the newspaper, and Internet usage are positively correlated with formal and informal social participation, whereas watching TV shows a negative correlation with both participation forms. Finally, the implications of the association between older adults’ traditional media usage and social participation are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Media usage
• new media
• old media
• social participation
• older adults

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank the BAS team and volunteers who have participated in the research project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Honghui Pan is currently a Ph.D. researcher in Belgian Ageing Studies of Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her research interests are ageing and media usage, social participation, active and healthy ageing in the context of migration, long-term care, etc. She is now working on the project of Chinese migrants in Europe, Chinese culture and cultural implications for participation in later life.

Liesbeth De Donder is associate professor Adult Educational Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel where she teaches “Research Methodology”, “Social Gerontology” and “Civil Society and Community Development”. Her research focuses on social participation and inclusion, caring communities, safety and elder mistreatment, with a particular interest in participatory methodologies.

Sarah Dury received her PhD in social gerontology focusing on participatory research methodology from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. Her main research topics are volunteering, civic engagement and participation, loneliness, social exclusion, and frailty. She is now working on a new research project on the transition from work to retirement and the relations with civic participation and wellbeing. She has a position as postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO).

Renfeng Wang received his PhD in Educational Sciences from Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Faculty of Psychology & Educational Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He focuses on the obstacles that impede older adults from getting involved in educational activities from the perspective of different cultural context.

Nico De Witte is a member of the faculty Psychology and Adult Educational Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and of the Faculty of Health Care, University College Ghent, Belgium. His research interests are frailty, malnutrition, quality of life, quality of care, loneliness in later life, etc.

Dominique Verté is professor from faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His research interests are political, social and cultural participation in old age, community development and volunteering, problems of social exclusion, issues related to frailty and elder abuse, etc.

ORCID

Honghui Pan http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7880-5827

Additional information

Funding

The first author receives funding from China Scholarship Council.