Instrumentos internacionales que consagran el derecho fundamental al agua

Continuity of activities

A notable feature of leisure activity in retirement is the degree of continuity from pre- retirement years. Longitudinal and retrospective studies consistently show that individuals tend to do largely the same sorts of things with their leisure time before and after retirement (Aiken, 2002b; Lawton, 1993; Roberts, 1999). Older people do not very often take up new leisure activities (Argyle, 1996), and they do not tend to make sudden drastic reductions in these activities (Roberts, 1999).

Continuity in leisure activities is fostered by many factors, including early socialization, personality, skills, and the need to maintain a consistent self-image (Lawton, 1993). Older people may lack enthusiasm for taking up new activities

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because they have decided, on the basis of many years’ experiences, where their interests and talents lie (Kelly & Freysinger, 2000).

A systematic attempt to explain continuity of leisure activities is in terms of Atchley’s (1993) continuity theory. Atchley says that there is a lot of evidence that people want inner continuity as well as continuity of external behaviour and circumstances, and that they strive to attain both kinds. With respect to inner continuity, key concepts include self and identity. These have implications for continuity of activities, as, by middle age, most people define themselves largely in terms of their roles and activities. If people start new activities in later life, these are usually in the same general areas as their former activities (Atchley, 1993).

Atchley’s continuity theory (1993) does allow for some changes in activity. People make changes in order to adapt to changed circumstances, such as changes in health or motivation. Similarly, in Baltes’ well-known model of Selective Optimisation with Compensation, successful ageing involves withdrawing from certain activities as energy and ability levels decline, and investing one’s remaining resources selectively (Strain, Grabusic, Searle, & Dunn, 2002).

Although individual differences in leisure activities remain consistent, there is a tendency for participation in some leisure pursuits to decline gradually in later life while others are maintained or increased. For instance, in a Canadian longitudinal study of adults aged 60 and above, individuals were most likely to continue with reading and watching television over an eight-year period, and least likely to continue with theatre- and movie-going, travel, and spectator sports (Strain et al., 2002). Many factors contribute to declines in some activities in later life. Important influences include physical vigour and health, so it is not surprising that participation in physical activities tends to decline in later life, though walking and gardening remain popular (Argyle, 1996).

Lower leisure participation rates by older people seem to represent cohort effects (generational differences) as well as true age changes: The age differences found in

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cross-sectional studies are greater than the age changes found when the same individuals are followed up in longitudinal studies (Aiken, 2002b; Lawton, 1993).

Popular activities

Television watching is an extremely popular leisure activity in the general population (Csikszentmihalyi & Kleiber, 1991) and is the most common leisure activity among older people. Figures from surveys vary, but the surveys consistently find that nearly all retired people watch television (Myers, 1999). Many of them watch a huge amount. In fact, elderly people, on average, watch more television than anyone else. Diary-based time-use studies show that much of the increased free time post- retirement is used up with TV watching (Robinson & Godbey, 1997). These authors found that retired men spent about 25 hours per week watching TV, and retired women spent about 22 hours per week doing so. Other popular retirement leisure activities include reading, especially books and the daily paper, and listening to the radio (Argyle, 1996; Myers, 1999).

A substantial proportion of retired people do some voluntary work. The retired voluntary worker is typically middle-class and has a long history of volunteering (Moody, 2002). Estimates vary, but it seems that nearly half of the 65 to-74-year olds do some voluntary work, an increase of over 400 percent over the last 40 or so years (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2002). Suggested reasons for such increase include much greater opportunities for involvement, better educated older people, more value placed on volunteering, and more positive attitudes toward older people (Bowen, Noack, & Staudinger, 2011; Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2002; Schlosser, & Zinni, 2011).

There are substantial social class differences in the leisure activities of retired people. In particular, members of the middle-class are more likely than those of the working- class to engage in activities which are expensive or intellectually demanding, such as travelling and reading (Brown, Fukunaga, Umemoto, & Wicker, 1996).

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Could leisure opportunities be used better in retirement?

The majority of studies suggest that retired people are reasonably satisfied with their lives (Aiken, 2002b; Myers, 1999). Retirement does not usually cause serious mental health problems, though there are often some short-term problems of adjustment (Aiken, 2002b). Retired people actually tend to report higher levels of happiness than do working people (Argyle, 1996).

Although retirement does seem to be a fairly satisfying phase of life on the whole, it might be made even better, for many individuals, through different use of leisure opportunities. The fundamental desirable shift would be away from reliance on passive pursuits, towards the kinds of leisure described earlier in the chapter in such terms as committed, engaged, high-investment, or serious.

As already discussed, a lot of leisure in retirement involves passive pursuits,

especially watching television. Watching a lot of TV does not seem to be very good for people. In fact, research suggests that it can lead to depression and apathy (Csikszentmihalyi & Kleiber, 1991). Several studies have found that amount of TV watching is negatively correlated with positive feelings, and survey participants never spontaneously report that TV watching makes them happy (Argyle, 1996).