Effects of work participation, intergenerational transfers and savings on life satisfaction of older Malaysians

To examine the effects of work participation, intergenerational transfers and savings on the life satisfaction of older community-dwelling Malaysians.

Data from the 1999 Survey on Perceptions of Needs and Problems of the Elderly on people aged 60 and over were used. The life satisfaction score was constructed from 10 questions adopted from the Life Satisfaction Inventory-A by Neugarten, Havighurst and Tobin. Multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the expected level of life satisfaction.

Controlling for other variables in the model, respondents who provided assistance to and received assistance from children with savings had significantly higher life satisfaction than their counterparts, while work participation did not have any significant effect on life satisfaction.

Intergenerational transfers and savings are important predictors of life satisfaction. The interdependence between generations should remain and savings habits need to be cultivated to ensure a higher life satisfaction in old age.