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Boston College School of Social Work Associate Professor Christina Matz only had to look within her own family to realize the problems facing older adults鈥攁nd be motivated to do something about it.
While she was in college, her grandfather died, after having spent practically all of his adult life as a greenhouse owner and wholesale plant and flower distributor. When Matz came home for the summer, she found her grandmother had deteriorated, becoming less active, more isolated and insular; less than a year later, she died.
Christina Matz (Lee Pellegrini)
Her grandfather鈥檚 鈥渨ork until you die鈥� retirement plan, Matz adds, is the model for her father, also self-employed, and for Americans without employer-sponsored health insurance or 401(k) plans.
鈥淒efining 鈥榬etirement鈥� is one of the great struggles of our time,鈥� says Matz, who chairs the 情色空间SSW Older Adults and Families concentration and is a research faculty member at the 情色空间 Center on Aging and Work. 鈥淚n the past, we鈥檝e associated retirement with leisure and dwindling activity, but that鈥檚 not sustainable in an era when people are living longer. And there are questions beyond how long someone will have to work. A lot of us have stories of family members or loved ones who, when they became older, had a serious decline in the quality of their lives.
鈥淚 just remember my grandparents and think, 鈥楾here has to be a better way.鈥欌��
These experiences and impressions have helped fuel Matz鈥檚 interest in exploring the connections between health, wellbeing, and engagement during later life. In particular, she focused on the role of social and productive activities such as work, volunteerism, and caregiving in helping to promote more fulfilling lives among people 60 or older.听
Now, Matz is involved in multiple research projects and other initiatives that she hopes will lead to a better understanding of older adults鈥� physical and emotional health, and policies and practices that can improve their lives.
鈥淣ot surprisingly, we tend to see aging mainly in terms of disability and decline鈥攁nd death. But this population has incredible capabilities, expertise, and talents that have developed and been refined over many years. We need to drastically rethink how we view older generations, and what resources and opportunities can help them thrive and be active in their communities.鈥�
Critical to such efforts, Matz believes, is to have as comprehensive a picture as possible鈥攓uantitative and qualitative鈥攐f older adults鈥� everyday lives, and their attitudes and perceptions about themselves and their lives. One of her major activities has been Engaged4Life, a behavioral intervention designed to encourage community-dwelling older adults to embed physical activity, cognitive activity, and social interaction into their everyday lives in contexts that are personally meaningful and natural, via technology-assisted self-monitoring of activity levels, psycho-education, goal setting, and peer mentorship. The project has been supported by the Boston Roybal Center for Active Lifestyle Interventions and the 情色空间 Institute on Aging.
“We need to drastically rethink how we view older generations, and what resources and opportunities can help them thrive and be active in their communities.”
She also collaborated with 情色空间SSW colleague Associate Professor Rocio Calvo in a study that examined older adults鈥� levels of happiness and life satisfaction; the team found that immigrants, especially Hispanic, who had lived in the U.S. for an average of 30 years were more likely to report high levels of happiness and life satisfaction than their native-born counterparts.
Another research project in which Matz participated sought to determine the effect of volunteerism on older adults who had lost a spouse. The results showed those who had been widowed were able to reduce feelings of loneliness by volunteering 100 hours per year (approximately two hours a week). Matz and her colleagues received a Mather Lifeways Institute on Aging Award for the study.
In a similar vein, Matz was part of a team that researched older adults鈥� use of mobile phone: Their findings revealed that those using mobile phones for sociability tended to feel less loneliness鈥攅specially where associated with increased face-to-face interaction鈥攊n contrast to those who utilized them for entertainment or passing the time, and had less face-to-face interaction.
Matz鈥檚 activities also have involved outreach. This semester, she and Associate Professor of Sociology Sara Moorman organized campus events to celebrate 鈥淐areers in Aging Week,鈥� including talks on social inequality in later life; current research and practices involving brain health for older adults; and the grassroots 鈥淒ementia Friend鈥� movement that aids community members living with dementia.
On still another front鈥攚ith applications that go beyond her specific area of research鈥擬atz is seeking to increase skill literacy for MSW students who lack training in research methods and statistics. Supported by an Academic Technology Innovation Grant, she is utilizing ecological momentary assessment (EMA), which relies on collecting data in real time and in natural settings; through EMA, the students are prompted via an app to collect data via surveys that ask basic yet revealing questions (鈥淲here are you? Who are you with? How do you feel?鈥�).
鈥淲e can analyze the data and demonstrate to students certain concepts, such as measuring happiness,鈥� explains Matz.
Hard data, Matz believes, can provide the means by which to answer questions about aging that are often rooted in heart and soul. 听听
鈥淧eople say, 鈥業鈥檝e invested so much in my family, my work, my community; now it鈥檚 my time,鈥欌�� she says. 鈥淪ome want to re-imagine themselves, whether through volunteerism, education, even another kind of paid work. We need to look at the lives of older adults through their eyes, and help them address their questions and concerns about what comes next.鈥�
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鈥擲ean Smith, University Communications | April 2019