Relationship between Income, Age and Social Participation

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1. INTRODUCTION
Demographic characteristic such as the level of income and age play a vital role in influencing
human beings social participation in the society. It is hypothesized that age sometimes have an
impact on an individual income. This perception is held true partially since old age is associated
with more years of working hence more accumulation of income. On the other hand, tender age
is associated with aggressiveness and energy thus being able to earn more income at one
particular time. This case can also be argued from the spending perspective. Research has shown
it that elderly people since to scale down their spending on various bills. This has been attributed
to the fact that the elderly has less years or energy to make more income. However, the same
research found that young people tend to have higher spending on their bills since they feel they
have the luxury of time to make more money. A totally different scenario plays out in some
economies. For example, in the United States, it was found that the distribution of income over
age is normal. The age group below 25 years was found to earn less. The income rose up to the
ages of between 45 and 54 after which the income seemed to fall gradually as the age decreased.
As a result of disparity in income across the ages, social classes have been created. The social
classes have in turn influenced how people participate socially in the society. In summary, it is
tempting to conclude that income influence social participation in a community. The effect of the
disparity in income in some economies has been so much so that it has been a center of political
discussions in most nations of the world just to mention the worst case scenario. High income
level has been associated with high self-esteem and the converse is also true. Due to this
participation in social forums in the community such as politics, welfare groups, religious groups
and social trust funds have been affected. There has been a skewed participation in terms of
social cadre. Low income earners due their low self-esteem think that they are inferior and so is

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their opinion. They believe that only the high income earners can be heard in these forums and
their ideas implemented. It is against this background that this research study sought to establish
whether there is a relationship between income, age and social participation. The following
sections of this research will include conceptual framework, methodology, data analysis,
discussions and conclusions.
2. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
An association has been found to exist between income inequality and social participation. This
has been proven through its manifestation in various social forums. For example this has been
attributed to upsurge in the number of people who participate in politics (Solt, 2008). A political
research by (Verba et al. 1995; Scholzman, 2012) found that people who were high in terms of
socio-economic status participated more and consistently in issues that shape the country like
politics than their counterparts who are at the lowest in the socio-economic ladder. To add on,
societies which are diverse in terms of their economies participate more in civic processes
(Oliver, 1999). Income in society has also affected the level of trust or mistrust in societies.
Scholar (Hetherington, 2005) found that there was a strong correlation between decreased trust
and decreased social participation. Low social trust was also evident at the government level
where there was income inequality (Ulsaner & Brown, 2005). According to (Omoto & Synder,
2002), there is a psychological idea in the society that fulfillment, membership and integration
are paramount. This however normally affected due to inequality due to income. This further
causes a decrease in social participation since some of the members of the community always
feel that they do not fully belong due to their low income earning status. This discussion brings
the research survey to the following hypothesis;

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1. There is a positive relationship between income and social participation
2. There is a positive relationship between age and income.
Conceptual framework
The research survey in the development of conceptual framework considered factors from the
literature review and the questionnaire which were used by the research study. The factor
variables will be educational factor, age factor, marital status factor, gender and satisfaction. The
main dependent variable will be organizational commitment.
Conceptual framework
{Independent variable} {Dependent variable}
3.
4.
{Independent variable} {Dependent variable}
Figure 1 Conceptual framework for the study (Source: Researcher, 2018)
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This section covers in general the methods that have been used in the research. It provides
detailed information of how the data was collected, the data collection tool, sampling techniques,
the target population, research design and sample size. To add on it highlights how the data
analysis and various reliability and validity tests were done.
AGE INCOME
SOCIAL
PARTICIPATIONINCOME