OBJECTIVE To examine factors associated with social participation and their relationship with self-perceived well-being in older adults.METHODS This study was based on data obtained from the National Socioeconomic Characterization (CASEN) Survey conducted in Chile, in 2011, on a probability sample of households. We examined information of 31,428 older adults living in these households. Descriptive and explanatory analyses were performed using linear and multivariate logistic regression models. We assessed the respondents’ participation in different types of associations: egotropic, sociotropic, and religious.RESULTS Social participation increased with advancing age and then declined after the age of 80. The main finding of this study was that family social capital is a major determinant of social participation of older adults. Their involvement was associated with high levels of self-perceived subjective well-being. We identified four settings as sources of social participation: home-based; rural community-based; social policy programs; and religious. Older adults were significantly more likely to participate when other members of the household were also involved in social activities evidencing an intergenerational transmission of social participation. Rural communities, especially territorial associations, were the most favorable setting for participation. There has been a steady increase in the rates of involvement of older adults in social groups in Chile, especially after retirement. Religiosity remains a major determinant of associativism. The proportion of participation was higher among older women than men but these proportions equaled after the age of 80.CONCLUSIONS Self-perceived subjective well-being is not only dependent upon objective factors such as health and income, but is also dependent upon active participation in social life, measured as participation in associations, though its effects are moderate.

There have been few studies that examine quality of life among older adults in the Latin American region. Using a recent representative national survey on quality of life among older adults in Chile, we examine the effects of eight potentially important factors (nutrition, physical activity, going outside the home, reading, quality of family relations, conflict, social support, self-efficacy) on three major dimensions of quality of life (functional capacity, material conditions, general satisfaction with life). The regression models confirm that the major predictive factor of satisfactory functional capacity is the practice of physical activities, while for satisfaction, the major predictive factors are self-efficacy, good quality of social relations, and the performance of significant activities such as reading and going outside the home. Educational level is a variable that cuts across all these predictors, in a context of great unequal social opportunities in Latin America. These results have implications for the development and implementation of social policies and programs to achieve an improvement in living conditions of the growing elderly population in the region, and reduce costs that societies face as a product of this new demographic scenario.

This study is based on a face-to-face survey, conducted in 2009, with a representative sample of adults who were aged 45 years or above, living in the urban area of Santiago, Chile. This survey examined the exchange network between adults and their elderly parents, focusing on two of the main explanatory approaches to supportive family interrelations. That is, the norms of filial obligation and reciprocity. The article also investigates factors associated with the structure of needs and opportunities, as well as the family structures of the adult children and their parents. By estimating logistic regression models with cluster-robust standard errors the reciprocity norm is found to be significant, whereas that for filial obligation is not. The estimated models show that receiving support from the parent is one of the main factors that predisposes the adult child to the provision of parental support. That is, such action is favored by incorporation in a network of reciprocal exchanges. Thus, intergenerational ties work in two directions: parents request help from their children but also give them help. The norm of filial obligation, on the other hand, is only significant in the case of women.

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