In this study, we explored what senior housing residents in the age range of 82–97 perceive as social participation that is meaningful and contributes to a meaningful everyday life. Our analysis shows that the six study participants’ perceptions of such involvement encompassed reciprocal social interactions with caring people they connected with and could be themselves around, maintaining control over their social life and having the opportunity to directly communicate with decision makers at the senior house. Overall, the participants’ descriptions of social participation that was meaningful related to various aspects of feeling significant as a person. Together, these aspects formed the overarching theme, I matter.

One dimension of feeling significant that our participants talked about related to being caring towards those who needed practical or emotional support or, vice versa, receiving support from people who genuinely cared and wanted to be there for them because the former made them feel appreciated and the latter that they were looked after. Such interactions allowed the participants, as well as those they interacted with, to take on a caring role that was perceived as meaningful. To have the opportunity to take on meaningful roles within the family, community or beyond generates a sense of value and belonging (WHO, 2015). Informal support allowed our participants and their fellow residents, even those in poor health, to maintain social participation they perceived as meaningful. Social participation provides meaning in life and can enable older adults to cope with age-related changes (Palmes et al., 2021).

All participants said that they wanted to strengthen the companionship among the residents, partly because they felt lonely due to the deaths of close friends that used to provide companionship. A common push factor for older adults to relocate to senior housing is to reduce the risk of loneliness (Tyvimaa & Kemp, 2011), but recent research shows that moving to a senior house may increase feelings of loneliness over time (Lotvonen et al., 2018), and senior housing residents in general appear to feel lonelier than their community-dwelling counterparts (Lahti et al., 2021). It is therefore important that the social environment in senior housing encourages residents to interact with one another, as these new social contacts potentially can develop into friendships and thus reduce loneliness (Carroll & Qualls, 2014; Lotvonen et al., 2018; Tyvimaa, 2010).

It was also conveyed by our participants that feeling significant as a person included spending time together with others they felt connected with because they were accepted for who they were and therefore could be themselves, which contributed to a sense of belonging. Nevertheless, in line with previous research, our participants said that they nowadays belonged less because most of their friends had died; consequently, they had a desire to build new social connections (Duppen et al., 2020), particularly with their peers at the senior house. They, however, considered it challenging to create bonds with other residents, partly because there were few opportunities to get acquainted because of the low attendance rate at available in-house activities but also because it was important that they had something in common with those they spent much time with. A variety of organised activity options can facilitate the development of new friendships with people who have similar interests as well as enhance social integration (Roberts & Adams). It is therefore important that available activities encourage a larger percentage of senior housing residents to participate, as such actions can contribute to a more inclusive environment (Fang et al., 2016).

Creating an appealing social environment could, according to our participants, strengthen the sense of companionship and potentially reduce the feelings of loneliness that they all experienced. Although a common push factor to relocating to a senior house is fear of loneliness (Tyvimaa & Kemp, 2011), residents in senior houses appear to feel lonelier than their community-dwelling counterparts (Lahti et al., 2021). Optimising the opportunities for social participation among senior housing residents can reduce feelings of loneliness (Jeste et al., 2019; Jolanki, 2021; Tyvimaa & Kemp, 2011). Yet another reason to take action to prevent loneliness in senior housing residents is the increased occurrence of extreme pandemics such as COVID-19 (Marani et al., 2021), which raises concern for increased loneliness among older adults because of a lack of social participation (Berg-Weger & Morley, 2020). Professions that often come in contact with older adults must take advantage of their experiences from the ongoing pandemic and more systematically use available tools and strategies to prevent loneliness and help older adults to stay connected during future pandemics (Berg-Weger & Morley, 2020).

The most prominent feature of feeling significant that our participants emphasised was that they had the authority to decide the level of social participation, without any interference from others, which strengthened the sense of being in control of their lives (Jolanki, 2021). Having the authority and possibility to make autonomous choices significantly influences older adults’ dignity (WHO, 2015) and the perception of being old (Liu et al., 2020). While it was important to have the opportunity to interact with others, the participants wanted to be in control of when, where and with who they interacted. Making such selective choices allowed them to balance social participation with privacy (Tyvimaa, 2011) and maintain autonomy (Jolanki, 2021; Lotvonen et al., 2018). The participants furthermore said that one motivation for taking part in activities together with others was to maintain physical and cognitive functions as a means to remain autonomous – regular involvement in social activities decreases the likelihood of frailty in old age (Abe et al., 2020). The desire for autonomy can motivate older adults to improve social participation, which subsequently may contribute to higher-quality interactions (Townsend et al., 2021). Another reason the participants stated for making efforts to remain autonomous was because they feared that they would be forced to relocate to a long-term facility if their physical or cognitive health declined too much, meaning that their current independence and social connections could be jeopardised (Carroll & Qualls, 2014). Clearly, it is important to older adults to remain independent for as long as possible. Therefore, if the intention with independent living communities is to foster independence, it is important that staff in senior houses are familiar with the residents and know their needs (Tyvimaa, 2010). A person-centred approach can foster independence as well as social participation, which points to the importance of an active dialogue with senior housing residents about their wishes, needs and functional ability. The information can then be used to help residents to maintain their level of independence and remove barriers for social participation (De Coninck et al., 2021).

The participants expressed that they felt significant when their ideas and opinions were taken seriously. This was particularly evident when they described whether they had the authority to affect matters that directly had an impact on their own or other senior housing residents’ lives. Having the authority to give their opinion on how to make the living environment more satisfying, such as changing the lunch menu or making suggestions for in-house activities, signalled that their voices mattered, which enhances a sense of belonging and inclusion (Fang et al., 2016). It was obvious that the means of communication played a major role in whether the participants felt that their proposals were getting attention. For example, face-to-face interaction with decision makers was considered to be most efficient, whereas writing letters was the least effective. These examples point to the importance of active involvement − engaging senior housing residents in the planning of their living environment spurs interaction with other residents, increases satisfaction with the offered activities (Tyvimaa, 2011), contributes to new social networks and a sense of meaningfulness and gives them a better understanding of the planning process (Henning et al., 2009). However, the participants stated that they nowadays lacked the energy to take the initiative to influence, due to old age, but still wanted to contribute their opinions if the staff or management asked for their input. It is therefore extremely important to continue to engage older adults, regardless of functional ability, as it may remove barriers for social participation (Cachadinha et al., 2011).

As was stated in the introduction, Levasseur et al.’s (2010) taxonomy comprising six levels of social activity was used in this study to gain insight into participation that was meaningful, according to independently living older adults. It helped us to identify that such participation mainly included interactions on levels four and five but also to some extent on level six. On the fourth level, the participants participated in task-oriented activities in collaboration with others to reach a common goal (Duppen et al., 2020), such as planning dinner parties, solving crossword puzzles or attending cultural events. It was nevertheless not the social activities per se that made the interactions meaningful, but rather, the interactions enabled them to maintain their autonomy, remain active and connect with others. Besides, independent living residents’ involvement on the fourth level represents belonging (Shippee, 2012). Social participation on the fourth level contributes to social integration (Levasseur et al., 2010; Roberts & Adams, 2018), social networking (Ashida et al., 2016; Carroll & Qualls, 2014; Levasseur et al., 2010) and enhanced quality of life (Feng et al., 2020; Jenkins et al., 2002).

Involvement in social activities on the fifth level was characterised by being helpful to others, particularly fellow residents who needed assistance due to poor health or feeling lonely. This type of social participation involves social engagement and may delay frailty (Jeste et al., 2019). Even though all of the participants had reduced functioning themselves, they found it meaningful to care for others and therefore motivated to stay socially active (De Coninck et al., 2021). The participants’ attentiveness to other peoples’ needs can be described as altruism and may improve quality of life (Roberts & Adams, 2018). Social engagement promotes personal satisfaction (Aroogh & Shahboulagh, 2020) and a sense of connectedness (Mohler & Miller, 2020) and enables senior housing residents with reduced functional ability to participate socially and maintain a sense of belonging (Roberts & Adams, 2018).

In our study, involvement in social activities perceived as meaningful on the sixth level related to a desire to be actively engaged in issues relating to the senior house because it provided an opportunity to influence the development of their living environment. Even if there were fewer examples of social participation on level six than the previous levels, it was important for us to include these examples to highlight the importance of supporting engagement on this level; it enables older adults to contribute more broadly to society (Duppen et al., 2020) and may benefit many people in the community (Levasseur et al., 2010). The participants’ proposed changes of their local environment could potentially benefit others, both within the senior housing sphere and outside, as some of the services were accessible to the public and certain proposals could be implemented at other senior houses. Just as on the previous level, involvement is characterised by active non-obligatory meaningful social engagement (Levasseur et al., 2010). Broader community social engagement is associated with the sense of living a meaningful life (Amagasa et al., 2017; Steptoe & Fancourt, 2019).

Several limitations to this study need to be acknowledged. The participants were recruited from one senior housing facility, and this may limit the transferability of the findings to other settings. Less than half of the residents from the senior house we recruited from chose to take part in our study, which resulted in a small study population. A possible reason for the lack of interest is that many of the residents had pronounced decline in functional ability and felt they lacked the energy to participate. Another reason could be that they were less active socially than those who participated. Our participants were older adults in the ‘fourth age’, 80 years and older, and their perceptions of involvement in social activities that is meaningful may be different than younger age groups. Additionally, only one man participated in the present study, which may have resulted in missing viewpoints because previous research has reported gender differences in social participation (Amagasa et al., 2017; De Oliveira et al., 2021; Liu et al., 2020). Thus, a higher percentage of male participants could have generated additional perspectives and resulted in different interpretations of the data.

A key strength of the present study was the thematic analysis process. To achieve a high degree of trustworthiness, a step-by-step approach for conducting a trustworthy thematic analysis, described by Nowell et al. (2017), was employed. Reflexivity was a vital part throughout the research process to ensure ethical compliance and awareness of personal biases (Berger, 2015). Excel spreadsheets were used as a means to document the analytic process and constituted an audit trail of the findings (Nowell et al., 2017). The interpretations and findings were furthermore discussed with our participants during several phases of the analysis to ensure that the findings reflected their viewpoints. In addition, the extracted data from the transcripts were independently reviewed by two of the researchers in the present study.