The Effects of Marriage Status on the Informal Social Activity of the Korean Elderly

This study examines the effect of marital status on the informal activity in later life by gender. The data for this study comes from the third wave data of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA). The age of the sample for analysis is 65 or over. The number of the sample for the analysis is 3,926. The results show that for the female group, there is a systematic difference in the level of meeting close persons depending on the marital status. For the male group, there is systematic difference in the level of contacting the children depending on the marital status. The author explains these differences due to the different gender role in the family. Additionally, the author discusses the relationship between gender and aging.