A Study On The Impact Of Social Policy Support On Productive Participation Of Older Adults

The traditional view of the elderly as "dependents" has ignored the diversity of the elderly group,resulting in a great waste of human capital.We should not simply regard the elderly as a social burden,but gradually change the concept of the elderly as social capital,and establish the idea that the elderly can participate in productive activities.At present,the state is aware of this aspect,and a series of policy documents have been issued,emphasizing the need to create social conditions to encourage the elderly to participate in productive activities,including paid work and volunteer services,to achieve "active ageing"."The 20 th National Congress and the two sessions of the National People’s Congress held this year have once again emphasized,encouraged and guided the productive participation of the elderly from the policy level.Is the existing social policy support promoting productive participation of the elderly? What is the role of older adults’ aging attitudes in the influence of supportive policies on productive participation? The purpose of this study is to lay the theoretical foundation for the shift from "adapting institutions to demographic changes" to "adapting institutions to demographic changes"and to provide a basis for reference.Based on data from the 2018 China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey(CLASS),this paper takes middle-and low-aged older adults as the study population and uses benchmark analysis,instrumental variables approach,and mediating effects modeling as econometric methods to explore the impact of social policy support on productive participation of older adults and whether attitudes toward aging play a mediating effect.The results of the study indicate that the participation in productive activities of the elderly is currently concentrated in family care,with limited participation in paid work and voluntary services.The regression results found that there are differences in the effects of different types of social policy support on the productive participation of the elderly,with the enjoyment of basic old-age insurance and the use of community-provided elderly services significantly increasing the level of productive activity participation of the elderly,and the positive effects of the former are mainly reflected in volunteerism and family care,while the latter are reflected in paid labor,volunteerism and family care;preferential treatment for the elderly has a negative effect on the productive participation of the elderly.The negative effect of preferential treatment for the elderly on productive participation is mainly in the area of paid work.The analysis of the influence mechanism found that social policy support influenced productive participation by promoting positive attitudes toward aging,and attitudes toward aging played a partly mediating role.Based on the above-mentioned empirical results,this paper further summarizes the results,considers the problems and causes,and proposes policy recommendations from the following aspects: first,update the definition of old age to help older people develop positive aging attitudes.First,the definition of "retirement" should be defined as "the minimum age for receiving a full pension",and the community should be used as a vehicle to promote positive aging attitudes among the elderly through geriatric education.Second,improve existing policies to release the demand for productive participation of the elderly.This should be done by improving senior care services,focusing on the provision of inclusive senior care services,and expanding the scope of the "time bank" pilot.Third,fill the policy gaps and guarantee the productive participation of the elderly.This can be done by developing a flexible working hours system and policy support for elderly caregivers.