Extended Abstract
Introduction: Retirement and old age are often interrelated phenomena that occur in a temporal symmetry and have different individual, social, and economic dimensions and consequences. One of the most important and progressive issues of Iranian society is the qualityof life of the elderly and retirees, in other words because their proportion is increasing in the coming decades due to the age transition caused by demographic transition. Quality of life has both objective and subjective aspects, and the World Health Organization(WHO) has assessed the dimensions of quality of life in four dimensions: physical health, mental well-being, social relations, and communication and environmental health. The study of the quality of life is sociologically important because some aspects of quality of and many of the factors affecting it are social. In fact, the elderly live with the social, cultural, and economic habits they have acquired in during their lives. How they grow old depends on the type and amount and composition of the economic, social, and cultural capital. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the social, economic and cultural capital on the quality of life of the retired teachers in Jawanroud in 2020.
Method: This research is based on quantitative approach and survey method. The research was cross-sectional in terms of time and descriptive in terms of its purpose. The statistical population of the study comprised 423 retied people (389 men, 34 women) who were the members of Jawanroud Retirement Center in 2020. 170 copies of the questionnaires were completed online. The qestionnaire of the quality of life, social capital, economic capital, and cultural capital were used to collect the data. The face validity of the questionnaires was examined, and their reliability was assessed through Cronbach’s alpha and 0.86, 0.85, 0.80 and 0.69 were obtained, respectively.
Findings: The mean age of the study sample was 55 years old, and 87% were male and 13% were female. 33% had high school diploma, 50% a Master’s degree, and 17% bachelor’s degree or higher. Approximately 20% of theretirees were employed after retirement, and most retirees lived with their spouses and children. Findings showed that the quality of life of retired teachers in Jawanroud was higher than the average level (mean 3.43) and the average dimension of environmental welfare were lower than other dimensions. The quality of life had varying levels according to age, sex, education, marital status, and activity status. Those who were younger, more educated, had a spouse, and had a job were found to have a better quality of life. The average social capital of retired teachers (3.50) was higher than economic capital (2.05) and cultural capital (1.41). The economic and social capital of men was more than women, and the cultural capital of women was more than that of men. The economic, social, and cultural capital of those over the age of 60 has been lower than other age groups, but the economic, social, and cultural capital of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher, as well as those who were employed, has been higher.
The results of regression analysis showed that social, economic, and cultural capital explained 56% of the changes in the quality of life and the impact factor of social capital was 0.41, the economic capital was 0.28 and cultural capital was 0.15. The coefficient of effect of economic and social capital on the dimension of physical health of quality of life was 0.37 and 0.34, respectively. The coefficient of impact of social and economic capital on the psychological well-being dimension of the quality of life was 0.39 and 0.28, respectively. Among the mentioned capitals, only social capital (0.73) has affected the dimension of social welfare. The coefficient of the impact of economic, social, and cultural capital on the dimension of environmental welfare was 0.33, 0.27, and 0.23, respectively. Thus, these investments have played an important role in the quality of life of the retired teachers,; however, the role of social capital has been more in the quality of life.
Discussion: The results showed that the evaluation of retired teachers quality of life was higher than the average level. It seems that the role of living with teachers’ satisfaction in accordance with their jobs has played an important role in this mental evaluation, otherwise the objective economic conditions that are evident from the economic capital and daily life of teachers are lower than the average level. It should be noted that the role of job in assessing the quality of life is important and it seems that the job of a teacher in the quality of life in old age is an important factor that of course needs to be studied and identified more accurately. Another important finding of this study is the study of economic, social, and cultural assets of teachers that people become habitual during their lives and in during old age period; they adjust their strategies according to them and organize their lives. The results also showed that the teachers’ social capital was higher than other capitals, which seems to be important for the role of the demographic transition, which led to the concentration of kinship and intra-group capital, as well as communication with the community to play a teacher role. However, the finding is thought-provoking, especially with regard to teachers as the cultural pioneers of their limited cultural capital. Cultural capital along with social capital can play an important role in the quality of life of the elderly, which unfortunately even the cultural strata of society do not benefit from it and inevitably spend their old age with social capital and watch while in the future with the transfer of age, the concentration of social capital of kinship in the Iranian society will also disappear and it would be more likely to be the burden on the elderly. Therefore, for active aging and increasing the quality of life of the elderly and reducing the burden on the elderly in the coming decades, it is necessary to increase the economic and cultural capital of society.
Ethical considerations
Contribution of authors
This article was prepared with the opinion and participation of the supervisor and his cooperation.
Funds
In terms of financial resources, this research does not have any dependence on governmental and non-governmental institutions and organizations and has not received any financial support.
Conflict of interest
There is no conflict of interest between the authors of this article.
Following the principles of research ethics
In this article, all rights related to research ethics have been observed. All the members of the research sample participated in the project with full consent and each member had full freedom and authority to withdraw from the research at any stage. Also, the principle of anonymity has been respected for all sample members.