A Research Note on Challenges of Cross-National Aging Research: An Example of Productive Activities Across Three Countries

Abstract

Cross-national studies can elucidate the influence of sociocultural contexts on a wide variety of aging issues. This study aims to develop methods for using secondary data for cross-national comparisons using productive activities as an example. The study also identifies challenges in conducting cross-national research. Using the national representative data from the United States, China, and South Korea, this study developed a sequence of methods for cross-national analysis. Results indicate that productive activities vary by country, and this variation could possibly be due to the differences in sociocultural context and variations in operationalization and measurement. Given the difficulty of making decisions and drawing conclusions across different cultural contexts, team members must include scholars who are familiar with the culture and language of the region of study. Researchers also need to determine whether data sets are valid for cross-national comparisons and understand the limitations of the comparisons, given constraints in the data.

An Ecological Framework for Active Aging in China

“…Although engagement in agricultural activities is not mentioned in literature on Active Aging, studies have documented that the prevalence of agricultural activities among older Chinese (H. Li, Chi, & Xu, 2013 on rural China; Y. C. Chen et al, 2018). Our additional analyses imply that older adults in disadvantaged community environments have higher likelihood to engage in such activities.…”

“…Although engagement in agricultural activities is not mentioned in literature on Active Aging , studies have documented that the prevalence of agricultural activities among older Chinese (H. Li, Chi, & Xu, 2013 on rural China; Y. C. Chen et al, 2018).…”

The Effects of Charitable Giving on Life Satisfaction of Older Korean Adults: The Moderating Role of Relationship Satisfaction and Social Trust

“…Moreover, the fact that the results using recent data may imply that the importance of prosocial behaviors for older Korean adults is growing, especially as interest grows and prosocial behaviors become more of a social norm (Cho & Oh, 2013). However, willingness to participate in prosocial behaviors in Western context, which is highly influenced by individualistic cultures, and in Korean context may differ (Chen et al, 2018). Therefore, the cultural background and the meaning of prosocial behaviors need to be examined more closely in future studies as more studies are still needed to further assess if the results of this study are applicable to different cultural contexts.…”

Pairwise Comparisons as a Scale Development Tool for Composite Measures

“…Fourth, productive ageing makes for an interesting application of our method because the extent to which different activities are considered 'productive'-that is the coefficients on each activity indicator-is likely to vary across contexts depending on factors such as social policies and cultural norms around families and intergenerational relations (Chen et al, 2016). There is the possibility that relative rankings of adults with identical activity profiles in terms of 'productivity' might differ across countries, making it difficult to compare the level of productive ageing across societies (Chen et al, 2016). The method we develop in this study can be used to compare operationalisations of a concept across coders and groups of coders, which we demonstrate by comparing evaluations of productive ageing between a group of Italian and a group of South Korean academics.…”