Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

‘Age Norms’ can be defined as expectation of behavior style and social role of people of a certain age in a society. These norms of the older adults are indicators of their status in society. In the past, the perception of the older adults was negative. However, in recent years, it is gradually becoming more positive. As the life span of the old age grows longer, interest in the quality of life and welfare of the older adults is increasing. Participating in social activity is important for older adults because such activity is associated with mortality rate and subjective well-being. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether social activity participation of older adults affects the recognition of the older adults age norm through the exercise practice. The subjects for this study are 10,451 elderly who participated in 2014 Korean National Survey on Older Adults. Data were analyzed using SPSS WIN(ver. 21.0) program, and frequency analysis, descriptive analysis, multiple regression, and Sobel test were utilized. The results reveal that exercise practice has a partial mediating effect between elderly age norm and social activity participation of older adults. Based on these findings, the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.