Advancing the human ecology approach on productive aging

ABSTRACT

As the population ages, older workers represent an increasingly large segment of the labor force which has led to numerous studies investigating productive aging. This exploratory essay focuses on the remunerated work dimension of productive aging. The main purpose is to discuss the application of a human ecology approach to understand the contexts that influence older adults to retire or continue working. This paper is supported by a literature review related to the ecological model proposed by Bronfenbrenner. This model contributes to the understanding of several environments known as microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. Each of those environments seems to influence whether older adults continue to work or decide to retire.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).