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volunteering
... , 1992 ; D . H . Smith , 1994 ; Wilson , 2000 ; Wuthnow , 1998 ) . As a result , more frequent con - tact with others should lead to increased volunteering more so than it does for giving , exposing people to informal helping and personal networks that are a greater impetus to volunteering than to giving . ...
Despite the debate over the value of giving versus volunteering and the implications that they may be connected to public 1 e in distinct ways, there is little work that compares how factors related to civic engagement may encourage greater volunteering and greater charitable giving in different ways. Moreover, there is a need for a theoretical framework to understand why these helping behaviors relate differently to civic engagement when placed in the context of social ties and community participation. Using data from The Survey of Giving and Volunteering in the United States, the author finds that greater volunteering is most strongly promoted by community ties and increased giving is best explained by personal resources and helping values. As a result, the author argues that giving and volunteering represent distinct means of engagement and the potential substitution of money for time informal helping has important implications for the civic life.
... Involvement in after-school activities also plays a role. Individuals who were active in school organizations (except athletics) as teenagers are disproportionately more involved as adults, even when the impact of later influences such as marriage, children, and advanced education are taken into account (Kirlin 2002; Conway and Damico 2001; Flanagan and Faison 2001; Wilson 2000; Astin, Sax, and Avalos 1999; Youniss et al. 1997; Verba et al. 1995). Research suggests that of these two routes to civic behavior, participation in high school organizations (especially student-led groups) is a better training ground for later civic engagement than are early volunteering or service learning experiences (Perry and Katula 2001; Kirlin 2002). ...
We study differences in contributions of time and money to churches and non-religious nonprofit organizations between members of different religious denominations in the Netherlands. We hypothesize that contributions to religious organizations are based on involvement in the religious community, while contributions to non-religious organizations are more likely to be rooted in prosocial values such as altruism, equality, and responsibility for the common good, which are socialized in religious traditions. Data from the first wave of the Giving in the Netherlands Panel Survey (n=1, 964) support the hypotheses. We find higher levels of volunteerism and generosity among members of Protestant churches than among Catholics and the non-religious. Higher contributions to church among members of Protestant churches are mostly due to higher levels of church attendance and social pressure to contribute. In contrast, higher contributions to non-religious organizations by members of Protestant churches, especially charitable donations, are mostly due to prosocial values.
Recent scholarship in Asian American studies has done much to uncover the political and theoretical stakes that underlie the very possibility for an "Asian American community" to exist. But considering the proliferation of historical and theoretical approaches as of late, the reintroduction of a sociological approach, as Pawan Dhingra presents in Managing Multicultural Lives: Asian American Professionals and the Challenge of Multiple Identities, forces a reconsideration of both terms and methodologies. The concept of "identity" has been widely recognized as fluid, performative, and fraught with internal contradictions, as Stuart Hall suggested nearly two decades ago, but the initial celebratory acknowledgment of its abstractness as an overthrow of earlier definitions of identity as static has given way to a sense of overwhelming confusion. How can we conceive of identity in a politically useful manner while still acknowledging its contradictions and its tensions; that is, how can we re-actualize identity within a sociopolitical valence?
Dhingra tackles precisely these questions with his ethnographic study of young white-collar Indian American and Korean American professionals in Dallas, Texas. Utilizing the sociological diction of domain-codes and schemas, Dhingra brings us a quantitative approach, which at first glance might baffle the theoretician or historian of Asian American studies. But to ground identity politics and ethnic identity formation by combining numbers and voices, code-switching, and symbolic behavior is to offer a recasting of Asian Americans' attempts to navigate the rocky terrain of social and professional topographies. What has previously been seen as a relegation of ethnicity to the emotional, private space of domesticity, and a depersonalization of self in the "rational" workplace in which visible markers of culture and race are considered irrelevant or subsumed under "employee diversity," is contradicted by Dhingra's findings that ethnicity and professionalism become intertwined in Asian Americans' expressions of their identity. His informants "chose both to bring their ethnic minority status into the public realm and to bring their Americanized identity into the private realm. Their ability and desire to do so move us past the conventional notion of living in two worlds, which governs our thinking about the second generation" (229). But the dichotomy of "home" and "work," of "self" and "Other," remains for Dhingra not only relevant but often dictates precisely which behaviors are considered "ethnic" or "American" in the relative spaces. Rather than the consideration of liminality or marginality that has characterized much historical work in Asian American studies, Dhingra asserts that "there is no liminal or third space in this case" (229).
Following his departure from a traditional characterization of the second generation as the epitome of the "marginal man," Dhingra considers his informants' identities as representative of "the margins in the mainstream," as a merging of a highly ethnic identity with an American culture built on white masculine privilege. In a sense, Dhingra refuses Asian American identity as "living on the hyphen" between race and nationality, and instead he attempts to reconfigure that dichotomy as concentric and nested without denying its significance in subject formation. The debate over the proper syntax of identity, be it "Asian American," "Asian/American" or simply "American," reveals anxieties over representation that avoids a privileging of one over the other. To create such a term in any iteration, however, suggests a possibility for pan-ethnic alliances under an umbrella term for political mobilization. Such a possibility is one that Dhingra's study comes into conflict with, for he notes that the second generation's interest in pan-ethnic organizing is symbolic more than substantial, particularly because they attempt to forge a nonconfrontational identity in the workplace, and "prioritizing a pan-ethnic or ethnic identity rather than an American one suggests a resistance or even hostility towards Whites" (10). Rather than forming what he calls a "reactive ethnicity," then, the second generation's affective ties to their specific ethnic communities far override an interest in a wider scope of alliances.
The organizational structure of Managing Multicultural Lives speaks to this specificity through a careful review of a rich repository of interviews from Dhingra's seventy informants, representing a college-educated, full-time employed group of second-generation Korean American and Indian American young adults in the greater Dallas area...
This paper describes three major theoretical perspectives in research on volunteering: social theories that stress the importance of context, roles, and integration; individual characteristic theories that emphasize values, traits, and motivations; and resource theories that focus on skills and free time. It unites research from multiple disciplines into a single hybrid model, performs a preliminary test of the model on a nationally representative US dataset, and concludes with recommendations for scholars and practitioners. Using the 1995 Midlife in the US dataset, we operationalized concepts from each theoretical category and found that variables measuring each perspective played a substantial and independent role in predicting volunteering. Our hybrid model, which includes significant variables from each theory, offers some directions for recruitment and retention by showing how social roles and networks can constrain or encourage volunteering at different stages of the life course. As social roles and networks are both highly predictive and easily observed, volunteer managers can use them to recruit and retain volunteers. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Neighborhood-focused activism is one way residents enact their vision for their community. This study examines the neighborhood socioeconomic antecedents of participation in neighborhood-focused activism in a diverse sample of residents of Chicago neighborhoods to test three theories of neighborhood socioeconomic context and participation: 1) affluence affords participation, 2) activism addresses neighborhood needs associated with disadvantage, and 3) socioeconomic inequality creates contention that necessitates participation. Measuring neighborhood socioeconomic status as two unique dimensions, neighborhood affluence and neighborhood disadvantage, and accounting for both individual and neighborhood characteristics, I find support for each theory. Neighborhood socioeconomic context matters for participation, regardless of individual socioeconomic characteristics. Only when these three perspectives are considered jointly can they fully capture the socioeconomic context of participation in neighborhood-focused activism.
Citizens are increasingly being encouraged to take on new voluntary roles and responsibilities, such as, for example, looking after their local area and being involved in decision making. This move towards responsible citizenship is linked to the changing role of government, and the scaling down of the public services provided by the post war welfare state in many Western democracies.
In order to develop our understanding of why certain people are more likely to help than others in different circumstances, we examine people's expectations of help in return for helping at the individual, local, and national level. Our analysis suggests that across Europe younger people compared with older people are more likely to expect help in return for helping. Men are more likely than women to expect help in return for helping. In terms of helping values and behaviour, people who see helping others as important and also those who report helping other people in practice are less likely to expect help in return. There are also considerable differences between countries in reported rates of expecting help in return for helping. The perceived local context of help is important, such that people are more likely to expect help in return for helping where their perception of people helping each other in the local area is low. Policies aimed at encouraging citizens to take on new responsibilities need to take account of how citizens view their reciprocal relationships with fellow citizens as well as the local context and the state infrastructure.
Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Participation in voluntary associations is an important part of an immigrant’s integration into a host country. This study examines factors that predispose an immigrant’s voluntary involvement in religious and secular organizations compared to non-immigrants (“natives”) in Canada, and how immigrants differ from natives in their voluntary participation. The study results indicate that informal social networks, religious attendance, and level of education positively correlate with the propensity of both immigrants and natives to participate and volunteer in religious and secular organizations. Immigrants who have diverse bridging social networks, speak French and/or English at home, and either attend school or are retired are more likely to participate and volunteer for secular organizations. Further, social trust matters to native Canadians in their decision to engage in religious and secular organizations but not to immigrants. Pride and a sense of belonging, marital status, and the number of children increase the likelihood of secular voluntary participation of natives but not of immigrants. These findings extend the current understanding of immigrant integration and have important implications for volunteer recruitment.
Our Hong Kong-based study used interviews with volunteers and other stakeholders to investigate the perceived integrity and commitment of firms’ adoption of actively managed corporate volunteerism (AMCV), to examine whether AMCV was removing barriers against voluntary community service work and to identify volunteers’ motives for AMCV involvement. Interviewees perceived that firms were adopting strategically instrumental approaches to AMCV, combining community service provision with corporate image promotion and/or with organisational development. They indicated that although AMCV was mobilizing people, who would not otherwise have chosen to volunteer, instances of ‘conscription’ were uncommon. Those who had served as volunteers described positive motives for their own involvement, such as altruism, principlism, self-development, loyalty to the firm and relationship building with colleagues and service recipients. Some expressed that volunteering had been a highly rewarding self-transformation experience. Our study also used the career orientations inventory (COI) to examine career anchors. COI scores indicated that non-governmental organisation (NGO)-based employees and some firm-based paid AMCV organisers preferred the service/dedication to a cause anchor and that firm-based unpaid organisers-cum-participants preferred the lifestyle anchor. Volunteers without organiser roles had miscellaneous preferences but leaned toward the security anchor. From our findings, we argue that it would benefit all parties if firms, in close collaboration with NGOs, were to expand the range of volunteering opportunities that are available to employees and help them to choose activities and roles that are congruent with their career anchors, if they so wish.
Around 35 % of Australian adults volunteer. It has been found that participation in volunteering varies with life course stage: people tend to participate less in early adulthood, which has been referred to as a ‘demographically dense’ period, and more in middle adulthood, which has been characterized as a more stable period of life. This paper extends this research to investigate the types of organizations for which people volunteer at different life course stages. This paper uses data from the Negotiating the Life Course project (2003 and 2006) to examine participation in volunteering for different types of organizations. The focus is on the type of organizations for which people volunteer and how that differs in young, middle and older adulthood. There are three dominant types of organizations that people volunteer for: welfare and community, sport and recreation, and education and training, and volunteering with each of these groups varies with a person’s life course stage. Younger adults tend to be more likely to volunteer for religious groups. People in middle adulthood, and particularly those with school-aged children, tend to volunteer in sport and recreation groups and education and training organizations, and volunteering with welfare, community and health organizations is dominant in older adulthood.
This study is part of the growing literature on the effects on civic engagement of attitudinal predictors, such as trust, along with structural predictors. Drawing data from the 2005 Japanese General Social Survey, it examines the association between trust and the probabilities of formal volunteering and charitable giving. A bivariate probit analysis of the data suggests that trust, institutional trust in particular, matters more to predict giving than volunteering. Although the number of membership affiliations is positively and significantly associated with both types of civic engagement, the association between membership affiliations and formal volunteering is significantly greater. Implications of these and other findings are discussed for future studies linking trust to civic engagement in group-collectivist societies such as Japan.
With data from the 2006 Japanese General Social Survey, this study examines factors associated with citizen participation in international development aid (IDA). In line with the literature on correlates of charitable giving of time and money, it finds that structural positions of individuals, measured by their demographic, socioeconomic and social network characteristics, are associated with the probability of citizen participation in IDA. Moreover, the study shows that variables such as English skills, measured by the ability and opportunity to use English, and the level of endorsement of Official Development Assistance projects significantly and positively predict IDA participation status. Implications of these findings are discussed for future research on charitable giving for international development in Japan and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere.
The phenomenon of volunteering can be analysed as a consumer experience through the concept of value as a trade-off between benefits and costs. In event volunteering, both the expected value (pre-experienced) and the perceived value (post-experienced) of volunteering can be assessed. With this purpose, an online quantitative survey is conducted with a sample of 711 volunteers in a religious mega event, with questions related to five dimensions of their experience: efficiency, social value, play, spirituality and time spent. These five scales, properly tested are used for building a multidimensional index of both the expected and perceived value of the volunteer experience. ANOVAs test show significant differences on the index in both moments upon the socio-demographic profiles: negative expectations/experience balance by age, contrasted results by sex, and more experienced volunteers being more critical with the value experienced. Implications for event managers are proposed, in line with the motivation of volunteers.
Using data from the 2009 American Time Use Survey, this study examines to what extent time spent in major life domains such as education, paid work, domestic work, and religion is associated with individuals’ decisions to volunteer formally and informally. Consistent with earlier studies of volunteering behavior, this study finds that time spent on market and domestic works is significantly and negatively associated with both formal and informal volunteering, though in slightly different ways. Meanwhile, time spent on educational and religious activities is significantly and positively associated with only formal volunteering but not informal volunteering. Moreover, the study finds that the two forms of volunteering are complements rather than substitutes. Implications of these and other-related findings for integrating the literatures on decisions about formal and informal volunteering are discussed.
This study tested an expanded TBP model, which included personal norms and self-identity as cognitive variables, in a sample of current young volunteers of a general charity in the UK. Actual volunteering was measured via continued observation throughout the duration of the projects. An integrative model of sustained volunteering was proposed because some relationships did not follow the hypothesized paths. Subjective norm emerged as the exclusive determinant of sustained volunteering and also as the potential mediator of the effects of other variables over future volunteering behavior. Two focus groups with volunteers and 28 personal interviews with the coordinators of the volunteering projects were conducted to triangulate the research findings and reveal the main causes for drop-outs and non-attendance.
The article examines the recent emergence of ‘volunteering’ as a publicly significant notion and practice. Based on an extensive fieldwork in a prominent intermediary NGO in Israel, the article follows the efforts to promote and expand ‘volunteering’ pursued by the organization’s board and staff members. Affiliated with the privileged social strata of Ashkenazi (European) Jews, whose hegemonic position has been eroded during the neoliberal transformations in Israel, the NGO staff seek to retain their privileged status through a managerial activity in the field of ‘volunteering’. They promote a particular, liberally inspired construction of ‘volunteering’, while universalizing it as a professional, a-political and consensual realm. Inspired by critical studies of ‘whiteness’, the article describes how the privileged character of this managerial activity is being successfully obscured through the representation of ‘volunteering’ as an all-inclusive aspiration.
Study abroad is cited commonly as a critical element of education for global civic engagement, but the significance of various programmatic features has not been well established. This study examines the relationships among three facets of study abroad programs—destination, type, and duration—and subsequent volunteerism through international development organizations. Survey responses were analyzed from 2,250 college alumni (71 % female, 14 % ethnic minority, M age = 27) who studied abroad between 1995 and 2005. The results of logistic regression indicated that studying abroad in a developing country and engaging in international service-learning were positively associated with the odds of development volunteerism. The number of months spent abroad also predicted development volunteerism, though duration did not moderate the effects of program destination and type. An interaction test demonstrated that program effects were not dependent on gender. The findings suggest that differences in the nature of study abroad programs influence the extent to which participants become actively engaged in global civil society.
This study investigated the influences of resources and subjective dispositions on formal and informal volunteering. The author examined whether resources are associated with formal volunteering, while subjective dispositions are associated with informal volunteering, using data from representative national Japanese samples (SSP-P2010 data). The results suggested that socioeconomic resources (namely education) are more strongly related to formal volunteering than to informal volunteering, while subjective dispositions (empathy and religious mind) are associated with both formal and informal volunteering. The main finding of the present study was that empathy and religious mind are the essential facilitators of both types of volunteering with different characteristics.
Morale, as a future-oriented indicator of well-being, is susceptible to caring and social exclusion in society, with respect to social integration theory. The influences of caring and social exclusion perceived in society merit the concern of the present study. In addition, the study explores personal background characteristics as conditions for moderating the influences. A telephone survey of 1,526 adults in Hong Kong in China provided data for the study. Results demonstrated the main effects of caring and social exclusion perceived in society on morale and conditions that moderated the effects. The strongest condition is age, such that social exclusion was particularly demoralizing to the older person. In contrast, the person’s wealth did not have a main effect on morale. Results therefore favor the idealist explanation rather than materialist explanation for morale.
Past research has claimed that more volunteering experience could reduce an individual’s risk of depression. However, this conclusion may be too simplistic. This study aims to explore the effect of marriage within the complex relationships among volunteering, depression, and subjective well-being, which is utilized as the mediator. The 1,934 participants were randomly recruited from Taiwan. All the participants were asked to complete Subjective Well-Being Scale and Taiwan Depression Scale. The findings indicate that subjective well-being is a bridging-factor between volunteering and depression; whereas the model produces varied results according to marital status. For ‘single’ and ‘married’ people, subject well-being is a mediator, while for ‘never married’ people, that is a suppressor in the relationship between volunteering and depression.
Given the preponderance of corporate social responsibility initiatives across the corporate landscape and the correspondingly escalating demand for volunteers who participate in these initiatives, a need exists to better understand how to effectively motivate their voluntary engagement with tasks. Against this backdrop, this study argues the need to enhance their volunteer work meanings. We hypothesize that pride in volunteer work and volunteering as a calling are determinants of perceptions of the meaningfulness of volunteer work. In addition, we reveal that an organization’s social responsibility climate (SRC) is a key moderator in these relationships. Interestingly, an SRC is a double-edged sword such that it strengthens the relationship between meaning and pride, yet weakens the relationship between meaning and calling. Findings are discussed, along with managerial implications and future research directions.
A survey was conducted to investigate the relationship of Australian consumers’ lived (experienced) spiritual well-being and materialism with the various dimensions of consumer ethics. Spiritual well-being is composed of four domains—personal, communal, transcendental and environmental well-being. All four domains were examined in relation to the various dimensions of consumers’ ethical beliefs (active/illegal dimension, passive dimension, active/legal dimension, ‘no harm, no foul’ dimension and ‘doing good’/recycling dimension). The results indicated that lived communal well-being was negatively related to perceptions of the active/illegal dimension and the passive dimension and was positively related to perceptions of the ‘no harm, no foul’ dimension and the ‘doing good’/recycling dimension. Lived personal well-being was negatively related to perceptions of the active/illegal dimension and was positively related to perceptions of the ‘no harm, no foul’ dimension and the ‘doing good’/recycling dimension. Lived transcendental well-being was negatively related to perceptions of the passive dimension, the active/legal dimension and the ‘no harm, no foul’ dimension. Lived environmental well-being was negatively related to perceptions of the active/legal dimension and the ‘no harm, no foul’ dimension. The findings also indicated that materialism was positively associated with perceptions of actively benefiting from illegal actions, passively benefiting at the expense of the seller, actively benefiting from questionable but legal actions and benefiting from ‘no harm, no foul’ actions. Public policy implications of the findings and opportunities for future research are discussed.
This study examines Hispanic formal volunteering and the cultural, social, and community context factors that affect their decision to volunteer. Using data from three surveys in the United States, the study finds that religious attendance, cultural background, and education are the most consistent and significant predictors of Hispanic formal volunteering. Religious attendance has a stronger positive impact on Hispanic volunteering than on non-Hispanics. The impacts of income, social resources, and community characteristics on Hispanics’ volunteering vary by surveys. Secular organizations serving children and youth and religious organizations are the favorite organizations for Hispanic volunteers.
Volunteering time for a variety of purposes or caring and sharing has been a part of most societies throughout human history.
The teachings of most major religions have supported care of the elderly, widows and orphans, and poor and otherwise dependent
individuals. While most societies know these activities are ongoing along with other mutually supportive activities designed
to build and support community, until recently, little attention has been paid to the role and contributions of volunteers.
Data on volunteering is not regularly collected by governments, as is employment data. Although there is growing evidence
of the contributions volunteers make to communities and society, there are few regular studies to document such assertions
(Clotfelter, 1999). Practitioners assert that volunteers help to solve social and community problems, build social solidarity, and through
organized citizens groups help to redress social wrongs, change public policy, and improve the quality of life of communities
and nations. One of the purposes of the United Nations Year of Volunteers in 2001 was intended to address this information
gap about volunteers and to encourage nations to conduct surveys of their volunteers and their activities.
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of race, gender, and marital status on giving and volunteering behavior. A second purpose is to examine these effects across different survey methodologies. Using data from Indiana households, a multimethod, multigroup research design was used to compare giving and volunteering across eight. different survey methodologies. Results indicate important differences in philanthropic behaviors by gender, race, marital status, and survey methodology-even when controlling for differences in income, age, and educational attainment. These results highlight the importance of looking specifically at human and social capital variables, and survey methodology, when making assumptions about and interpreting the measurement of philanthropic behavior.
On the basis of data from the 1998 and 2000 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, this study tested two alternative hypotheses, role overload and role extension, about the relationship between volunteering and spousal caregiving among older married persons. Spousal caregiving was not significantly associated with the likelihood of formal or informal volunteering for men; however, female caregivers were found to be less likely than noncaregivers to have engaged in formal or informal volunteering to a certain extent, thus lending partial support to the role overload hypothesis. Functional health status and other human and cultural capital resources were significant predictors of both formal and informal volunteering for both men and women. Future studies need to examine in more depth the effect of spousal caregiving on volunteering, taking caregiving burden and stress into consideration, to more fully understand these two types of productive activity in later life.
This article examines to what extent religious context influences giving to, and volunteering for, religious causes - both directly and through increased attendance at religious services - and whether it has unintended spillover effects on giving and volunteering for secular purposes. Results from individuals living in a sample of counties in the United States indicate that a high level of religious pluralism is not associated with an increase in the probability that individuals will attend religious services regularly. Religious pluralism is, however, directly and positively associated with religious volunteering, while the association is not statistically significant for giving. Increases in religious volunteering associated with a high level of religious pluralism do not displace secular volunteering. There is no minority effect: individuals are equally likely to give to, and volunteer for, religious and secular causes whether they live in counties where their religious group represents the majority or the minority of the total population of religious adherents. As the proportion of the population in a county who is religious increases, so does the probability that any one individual will give to, and volunteer for, religious causes. I do not, however, find a relationship between the devoutness of a religious community and an individual's propensity to give to, and volunteer for, secular causes.
This study examines the relationship between volunteer socioeconomic status (SES) and voluntary organization involvement among older adults. Using longitudinal data from the Americans' Changing Lives surveys, this study assesses the effects of education and income on the type and scope of voluntary organization involvement. Multiple imputation and generalized estimating equations methods are used in the data analysis. The results indicate that more highly educated, older adults are more likely than their less-educated counterparts to volunteer in all five types of organizations (i. e., religious, educational, political, senior citizen, and others), volunteer in a wider range of organizations, and devote more hours. However, income makes little significant difference in organizational volunteering. Voluntary organizations are advised to facilitate older adults from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds in taking volunteer roles. Innovative recruitment programs are needed to tap the resource for volunteering that elders from all SES groups represent.
Using national representative sample survey data from the United States and Canada, the authors compare American and Canadian responses to a set of 14 possible reasons for being active in voluntary associations. They assess the 14 reasons individually and then conduct analyses in which the 14 measures are grouped into two composite scales: collective reasons and self-oriented motivations. The authors also consider theories for explaining how and why Americans and Canadians might differ in their motivations for volunteering. Analyses are conducted on seven background predictors: gender, race, religious affiliation, religious attendance, age, education, and socioeconomic status. Findings show that Americans are more likely than Canadians to mention altruistic rather than personal reasons for joining voluntary organizations, and Canadians are slightly more likely than Americans to emphasize personal reasons for their volunteer work, but this difference is not significant after controls. The implications of the findings for understanding voluntary activity in the two nations are discussed.
In this paper, we examine whether and what extent public and private forms of religiosity act as moderators of the volunteering and well-being relationship in mid- to later-life. We use data from the second wave of the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (n = 1,805). We analyzed the relationships between volunteering and indicators of well-being (self-rated physical and mental health), and tested the moderating effects of public and private religiosity on the volunteering and well-being relationship. Our findings suggest that salubrious effects of volunteering on the self-perceived physical and mental health of middle- aged and older- aged adults varied by their participation in different forms of religiosity. In particular, volunteers who engaged in more public forms of religiosity reported significantly better physical and mental health than non-volunteers who engaged in these forms of religiosity. In other words, individuals who were actively engaged public forms of religious practices and who volunteered, maximized the associated health benefits.
Background
Volunteers in Taiwan complement the delivery of health services by paid health professionals. However, in doing so, community health volunteers experience burdens associated with their activities. The reasons for these burdens and degree to which they are experienced are explored in this paper. Our study adds to international research regarding the burden experienced by volunteers. This project is the first to assess how community health volunteers in Taiwan experience burden.
Methods
The 20 item Burden on Community Health Volunteer (BCHV) instrument, specifically designed for this project, was administered to 435 volunteers attached to Community Health Promotion Development Centres in northern Taiwan.
Results
The overall burden experienced by volunteers is relatively low. However, a multivariate adjusted regression analysis revealed significant differences in volunteer burden depending on the number of people each volunteer served on average per week, as well as the volunteer’s marital status and their perceptions about personal health. Volunteers who served many people and who perceived their own health as poor experienced a higher level of burden. Those who were a widow or a widower felt less burdened than others.
Conclusions
The results of the study identify areas where burden is high and where strategies can be developed to reduce the level of burden experienced by community health volunteers in Taiwan. Community health volunteers in Taiwan complement the role of nurses and other health care providers so their retention is important to ongoing service delivery.
This study reports the results of a pilot volunteer project for older Chinese immigrants and documents benefits for both volunteers and caregiver recipients. Using a social marketing approach, the volunteer project was designed as a social model to promote better health among older Chinese immigrants in New York City. The packaging of this health promotion project as a volunteer program was based on a strengths perspective. In the program, 18 older Chinese immigrants were trained to provide support and referral to family caregivers of ill relatives in the Chinese community. At 6 months, outcomes were evaluated for both volunteers and caregivers. The older volunteers perceived benefits associated with volunteering, specifically, a greater sense of well-being and satisfaction with life. In addition, the majority of volunteers felt empowered by training and volunteering (100 %), felt the skills they learned improved communication with their own families (90 %), and reported physical and emotional health benefits (61 %). At the same time, caregivers reported stress reduction following volunteer support. Findings suggest that a volunteer program model may be an effective health promotion intervention for older Chinese immigrants.
Advisory boards typically offer guidance, support, social, and financial capital to academic units within colleges and universities. They are generally comprised of prominent volunteers from the community and appropriate industries or businesses. The results of this exploratory study found that non-alumni advisory board volunteers developed emotional connections and pride in serving the institution similar to alumni. The connections led most of the volunteers who participated in this study to have a high level of engagement with the institution that was meaningful to them and resulted in their desire to continue as volunteers, even without having earned a degree from the institution.
This paper uses insights from the literature on social capital and from the sociology of values to explain dependency of immigrants’ involvement in associations depend on the norms of participation in their country of origin as well as the norms of their host countries. The argument is that changing the social context should lead to changing participative behaviours. I use cross-classified multilevel models on the EVS 2008 data to test if average levels of participation in the host and in the origin society determine immigrants’ propensity to become member in voluntary organizations. The findings point to a partial assimilation of immigrants. Their behaviours, while influenced by their culture of origin, are mainly shaped by their country of residence. The relation is influenced by the differences between the patterns of participation in the two cultures, the age when migrating and the dependency of the origin on remittances.
Although today’s nonprofit organizations make a strong appeal to vol- unteers, they often have difficulties with attracting and retaining these free labor forces. In this sense, studying the motivation of volunteers and its effects proves useful. In the present article, we investigate the relationship between volunteers’ motivation and their self-reported work effort, while relying on the Self-Determi- nation Theory. The results indicate a positive link between volunteers’ autonomous motivation and work effort. Moreover, this relationship holds for each person in our sample, irrespective of the organization in which she/he is volunteering. Implica- tions for future research, as well as the practical impact of these findings, are discussed.
The challenges of meeting global health care needs in communities throughout the developing world are becoming increasingly complex. Understanding what motivates volunteers is important for organizations that seek to harness and develop long-term volunteers in order to meet the need for global health care services. Here we report a case study of a successful volunteer clinic that has provided medical, dental and surgical services to under-served residents of northern Mexico for more than 20 years. Our objective was to understand what promotes sustained volunteerism. Thirty semi-structured interviews were conducted with students, residents, nurses, dentists, oral surgeons and community volunteers, in addition to four full days of participant observation. We analysed volunteers' experiences with a real-life global medical mission and offer recommendations. Motivating factors included psychological and emotional rewards, career-related benefits, opportunities for interpersonal interaction, the opportunity to serve disadvantaged communities and personal relevance of the mission. We demonstrate the paramount importance of volunteer-patient interaction, having a dedicated facilitator to recruit and pave the way for first-time volunteers and the value of using multiple recruitment strategies. Most important, we show that organizations must focus on facilitating first-time volunteers' experiences, particularly by ensuring that they are given specific roles and responsibilities, one of the best predictors of volunteer satisfaction and sustained volunteerism.
The contemporary discussion about the growing ‘burden of population ageing’ should not neglect the substantial productive potential of older people. Using micro-data from the 2004 Survey
of
Health,
Ageing
and
Retirement
in
Europe (SHARE), this paper examines the relationships between selected socio-demographic characteristics and the rates of participation in voluntary work in 10 European countries among those aged 50 or more years. The analysis reveals a clear spatial pattern, with relatively high participation rates in Northern Europe and relatively low participation rates in Mediterranean countries, and shows that age, education, health and involvement in other social activities strongly influence an individual's propensity to engage in volunteer work. A multivariate logistic regression provided no indication that the country differences can be explained by variations in population composition or attributes, such as the age structure or differences in health status. The findings have important implications for future cross-national research and for policies to promote the participation of older adults in voluntary work, and suggest that policies and programmes to encourage older citizens to make greater use of their productive capacities are feasible. It is concluded that further research needs to account for the influences of institutions and culture on participation in volunteering, the finding of this paper.
Sex segregation in the workplace—the tendency for men and women to work in different occupations and jobs—remains widespread. Domestic chores are also sex-typed, but the extent to which sex segregation is found in other forms of nonwaged work, such as volunteering, is unknown. One theory about the work/nonwork interface predicts a positive relation between the two types of activity: sex segregation will be just as common in unpaid labor. Another theory predicts a negative relation: waged work and nonpaid work are dissimilar. Maximum likelihood probit models with selection are used to estimate the incidence of sex segregation among volunteers in a nationally representative sample of adult Americans (N = 91,807). Men are more likely to occupy leadership positions than women. They are more likely to do maintenance work and teach or coach, while women are more likely to prepare and serve food or clothing, raise money, and “help out” at events. Sex segregation is most pronounced among those who volunteer to help young people, but negligible among volunteers advocating a cause.
The existence of social civility is explored in terms of the components of social responsibility, social concern, and social involvement. Social civility is viewed as consisting of the degree to which people have a sense of duty or obligation to society, the extent of their concern for the welfare of others as well as themselves, and whether they help others through voluntary activities. The purpose of this article is to describe the level and distribution of the components of social civility in the population. Data are from a 1995 random digit–dialing sample of U.S. adults between the ages of 25 and 74. The findings fail to support the hypothesis of social incivility in the U.S. Adults report high levels of social responsibility and invest a great deal of thought and effort into their life and their contributions to others’ welfare. Social civility is found to be higher among more educated, married, female, and older adults. Regular religious attendance, which predicts greater social civility, mediates the relationship of the key demographic variables with social civility.
This study examines whether gender and employment status affect burnout, motives for volunteering, and difficulties associated with volunteer activity in social and community services in Israel. The sample included 375 men and women aged 16 through 80. Participants were divided into four groups by employment status: high school students, employed persons, retirees, and unemployed persons. The findings revealed that employment status had a more significant impact on the research variables than did gender. Burnout correlated positively with difficulty in relations with beneficiaries among men, and with difficulty in relations with the provider organization among women. Female students and unemployed men were found to be particularly vulnerable to burnout. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
This article reports the findings of a study of perceived barriers to volunteering to formal organizations by nonvolunteers. We examine the types of barriers, their frequencies, and their relationships with individual-level sociodemographic characteristics of nonvolunteers. Data from a 2001–2002 national survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics are analyzed using multiple regression techniques. Contrary to general expectations, only three barriers—lack of time, lack of interest, and ill health—are fairly common. Furthermore, as expected, different social class groups identify different types of barriers. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical implications of the findings (for example, how indicators of social and cultural capital affect access to volunteer opportunities) and practical implications concerning recruitment of volunteers.
This article investigates whether the process of globalization through which countries become increasingly interconnected is related to people's intention to help others in society. The willingness to help others may be lower in open countries because of more porous national boundaries and lower social cohesion. On the other hand, the openness of countries can also strengthen local structures and increase the awareness of mutual interdependence. Whether globalization is negatively or positively related to the willingness to help others is assumed to dependent on the social structure of countries. In this article, hypotheses are tested using individual level data from the European Values Study and country level data from the KOF Index of Globalization, the Eurobarometer, and the International Monetary Fund. The combined data set includes 31,554 individuals living in 26 European countries. The multilevel analyses show that economic and social openness are not related to the intention to help the sick and disabled and that the willingness to help immigrants is positively related to economic and social openness. The positive relationship between openness at the national level and the individual citizen's willingness to help immigrants is explained by the social structure of a country; if people receive more positive information about the behaviour of others, they are more willing to help immigrants.
The purpose of our research was to explore the differences between young adult moral exemplars and comparison individuals by studying their life stories. Moral exemplars were nominated for their extraordinary moral commitment to the social organizations where they volunteered or worked. Forty moral exemplars, along with 40 matched comparison individuals (total N=80), participated in a life narrative interview. These interviews were coded for specific narrative features such as narrative tone, awareness of others' suffering, helpers and enemies, agency and communion themes, redemptive experiences, contamination scenes, personal ideology, and future goals. Moral exemplars differed from comparison individuals on agency themes, redemptive experiences, contamination scenes, awareness of others' suffering, enemies, ideological depth, and future goals. These findings are discussed within a narrative identity development framework.
Many older adults are in need of care. Therefore, older people would generally benefit from the use of caring services, notably
including home care, residential care, nursing, and medical services. The contributory factors underlying caring services
tend to be a caring perspective that aspires to sustain older people's social relationships and real-life involvement. To
gauge the benefits from various social and health services, the present study relies on a large-scale survey of 3000 older
adults in Hong Kong, using quality of life as a criterion. Results showed that an older adult who had used (ordinary or enhanced)
home care services for a longer time turned out to have appreciably more improvement in quality of life. Besides, those who
joined an interest group more frequently were higher in quality of life, including the health domain. On the other hand, frequent
use of medical and meal-to-home services were signals that reflected problems detrimental to the older user's quality of life.
Despite this, the quality of clinics or hospitals, as perceived by the older adult, was the most beneficial. As such, caring
services that foster older adults' interests, cater to their health care needs, and embody quality can have principal contribution
to their users' quality of life.
The corporate social responsibility literature devotes relatively little attention to the strategic role played by employee
voluntary activities (EVAs) in social alliances. Using the resource-based perspective of the organization to frame the data
collection and the analyses, this article investigates: (1) the role of EVAs in the development of corporate and non-profit
organizations (NPOs) competitive assets and (2) the management approaches to how both parties can develop their own resources
by combining them with the shared resources with the purpose of enhancing its competitive advantage in its own sector. The
database is composed of 70 specifically designed interviews with managers of UK-based firms and NPOs. The analyses suggest,
among other things, that the majority of corporate and non-profit managers find that EVAs generate substantial tangible and
intangible benefits for their respective organisations, creating genuine synergies. We also find evidence of a general preference
for the management approaches of such programmes in both types of organisation.
KeywordsCorporate social responsibility–Resource-based view–Social alliances–Employee voluntary activities
Asian immigrants accounted for one-eighth of the total U.S. population in 2009. With Asian immigrants having higher levels of education and income than average Americans, their potential contribution to American philanthropy will be even more significant. This study examines the volunteering patterns of Korean immigrants, one of the fastest growing segments of the Asian immigrant population in the United States. This study explains Korean immigrants' volunteering within ethnic and mainstream (American) organizations using the concepts of bonding and bridging social capital. The bivariate probit regression results suggest that ethnic volunteering and mainstream volunteering are generally the substitutes for each other. The findings nevertheless suggest that providing Asian immigrants' with English education and continuing education opportunities may boost their volunteering to mainstream nonprofit organizations without discouraging their volunteering for ethnic organizations.
The United States, like most industrialized nations, has experienced rapid population aging in the last few decades. The social
changes associated with population aging resulted in the emergence of a period in later life called the third age, a period
which occurs after retirement and prior to the onset of disability. The depiction of third agers as healthy, retired, and
resource-rich has led to a growing expectation that they the capacity to remain productive in society through volunteerism.
This study examined the extent to which the characteristics associated with the third age shape whether and how much older
adults volunteer in the United States. Results from logistic regression models indicate that third age characteristics, including
having adequate economic, human, health, and temporal capital, are associated with volunteer behaviors, and that having access
to a social network also increases the likeliness of volunteering. These characteristics suggest that possession of and access
to these resources is important to having the ability to “choose” to engage in voluntary activities. Furthermore, if the United
States seeks to increase participation of older adults in such activities, it is important to facilitate opportunities for
elders to obtain access to the resources needed to volunteer and support opportunities for older adults and society to mutually
benefit from such engagement.
This research explores how strength of network ties, as fostered by the use of a social network site, Facebook, (a) influences alumni attitudes toward volunteering for and making charitable gifts to their alma mater, and (b) fortifies consistency between attitude and behavior. After exploratory interviews and participant observation, a survey of 3,085 alumni was conducted for hypothesis testing. Structural equation modeling analysis revealed: First, active participation in Facebook groups positively predicted strength of network ties along 2 dimensions: frequency of communication and emotional closeness. Second, both dimensions of tie strength influenced actual behavior, albeit via different routes. The paper also contributes to attitude change research in showing that strength of network ties can help ensure consistencies between attitude and behavior.
Community service is widely regarded as a fundamental experience in preparation for good citizenship, but it remains unclear whether common variants of service are consequential for civic outcomes. This study examines changes in the relative importance assigned to prosocial and egoistic values associated with service through different types of organizations, service prompted by external contingencies, and service that spans a narrow or wide frame of time. Data were drawn from the survey responses of 16,749 secondary school students (50 percent female, 28 percent ethnic minority, modal age = 15) who participated in the National Educational Longitudinal Study during their sophomore year in 1990 and completed a follow-up survey during their senior year in 1992. Results from a propensity score analysis indicated that service through humanitarian organizations but not other types of organizations was positively associated with the adoption of a prosocial value orientation. Service prompted by an institutional mandate or social pressure was negatively associated with prosociality relative to service characterized as strictly voluntary, although all students except those with an initially egoistic value orientation benefited from mandatory service relative to no service. While short-term service during the sophomore year had no enduring effect, long-term service predicted gains in prosociality above and beyond the effect of concurrent service. The findings suggest that the relationship between community service and prosocial value development can be optimized to the extent that service through a humanitarian organization is prompted by autonomy-supportive conditions over the course of 2 years.
This research investigates the relative strength of two correlates of helping behavior: dispositional empathic concern and a moral principle to care about others. The empathy–helping and care–helping relationships are investigated using data from the General Social Survey, a nationally representative random sample of the U.S. adult population. Ten helping behaviors are investigated. The results show that the care–helping relationship is stronger than the empathy–helping relationship for most helping behaviors, and that the empathy–helping relationship is mediated by the principle of care. That dispositional empathic concern is mediated by the principle of care requires new theoretical interpretations of the empathy–helping relationship, and suggests new directions for research on helping behavior.
Older residents (N 5 1972) in California were investigated prospectively for association of volunteering service to others and all-cause mortality. Potential confounding factors were studied: demographics, health status, physical functioning, health habits, social support, religious involvement, and emotional states. Possible interaction effects of volunteering with religious involvement and social support were also explored. Results showed that 31 percent (n 5 630) of respondents volunteered, about half (n5289) for more than one organization. High volunteers ([.greaterequal]2 organizations) had 63 percent lower mortality than nonvolunteers (age and sex-adjusted) with relative hazard (RH) 5 0.37, confidence interval (CI) 5 0.24, 0.58. Multivariate adjustment moderately reduced difference to 44 percent (RH 5 0.56, CI 5 0.35, 0.89), mostly due to physical functioning, health habits, and social support. Unexpectedly, volunteering was slightly more protective for those with high religious involvement and perceived social support. After multivariate adjustment, any level of volunteering reduced mortality by 60 percent among weekly attenders at religious services (RH 5 0.40; CI 5 0.21,0.74). Lower mortality rates for community service volunteers were only partly explained by health habits, physical functioning, religious attendance, and social support.
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/51572/1/Reynolds P, Social Connections and Risk, 1990.pdf
Previous studies have established a relationship between low levels of social networks and total mortality, but few have examined cause specific mortality or disease incidence. This study aimed to examine prospectively the relationships between social networks and total and cause specific mortality, as well as cardiovascular disease incidence.
This was a four year follow up study in an ongoing cohort of men, for whom information on social networks was collected at baseline. The main outcome measures were total mortality, further categorised into deaths from cardiovascular disease (stroke and coronary heart disease), total cancer, accidents/suicides, and all other causes; as well as stroke and coronary heart disease incidence.
Altogether 32,624 US male health professionals aged 42 to 77 years in 1988, who were free of coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancer at baseline.
A total of 511 deaths occurred during 122,911 person years of follow up. Compared with men with the highest level of social networks, socially isolated men (not married, fewer than six friends or relatives, no membership in church or community groups) were at increased risk for cardiovascular disease mortality (age adjusted relative risk, 1.90; 95% CI 1.07, 3.37) and deaths from accidents and suicides (age adjusted relative risk 2.22; 95% CI 0.76, 6.47). No excess risks were found for other causes of death. Socially isolated men were also at increased risk of stroke incidence (relative risk, 2.21; 95% CI, 1.12, 4.35), but not incidence of non-fatal myocardial infarction.
Social networks were associated with lower total mortality by reducing deaths from cardiovascular disease and accidents/suicides. Strong social networks were associated with reduced incidence of stroke, though not of coronary heart disease. However, social networks may assist in prolonging the survival of men with established coronary heart disease.
We examine the growing number of studies of survey respondents' global self-ratings of health as predictors of mortality in longitudinal studies of representative community samples. Twenty-seven studies in U.S. and international journals show impressively consistent findings. Global self-rated health is an independent predictor of mortality in nearly all of the studies, despite the inclusion of numerous specific health status indicators and other relevant covariates known to predict mortality. We summarize and review these studies, consider various interpretations which could account for the association, and suggest several approaches to the next stage of research in this field.
This study focuses on the role of social support and personal coping resources in relation to mortality among older persons in the Netherlands. Data are from a sample of 2,829 noninstitutionalized people aged between 55 and 85 years who took part in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam in 1992-1995. Social support was operationally defined by structural, functional, and perceived aspects, and personal coping resources included measures of mastery, self-efficacy, and self-esteem. Mortality data were obtained during a follow-up of 29 months, on average. Cox proportional hazards regression models revealed that having fewer feelings of loneliness and greater feelings of mastery are directly associated with a reduced mortality risk when age, sex, chronic diseases, use of alcohol, smoking, self-rated health, and functional limitations are controlled for. In addition, persons who received a moderate level of emotional support (odds ratio (OR) = 0.49, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.33-0.72) and those who received a high level of support (OR = 0.68, 95% CI 0.47-0.98) had reduced mortality risks when compared with persons who received a low level of emotional support. Receipt of a high level of instrumental support was related to a higher risk of death (OR = 1.74, 95% CI 1.12-2.69). Interaction between disease status and social support or personal coping resources on mortality could not be demonstrated.
The impacts of the productive social activities of volunteer and paid work on health have rarely been investigated among the oldest Americans despite a recent claim for their beneficial effect (Rowe and Kahn 1998). This paper used data from Waves 3 and 4 of the Asset and Health Dynamics among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) Study to (1) investigate the impact of these activities on health measured as self-reported health and activities of daily living (ADL) functioning limitations and to (2) explore possible causal mechanisms. Using multinomial logistic regression analysis, amounts of volunteer and paid work over a minimum of 100 annual hours self-reported at Wave 3 were related to poor health and death as competing risks measured at Wave 4, controlling for health measured at Wave 2 and for other predictors of poor health and death. Findings suggest that performing more than 100 annual hours of volunteer work and of paid work have independent and significant protective effects against subsequent poor health and death. Additional analyses suggest that the quantity of volunteer and paid work beyond 100 annual hours is not related to health outcomes and that physical exercise and mental health measured as cognitive functioning and depressive symptoms explain not entirely overlapping parts of the relationship between productive activities and health.
This study tests the effects of volunteering on the well-being of older adults, including the effect of level of engagement, the moderating effects of demographic and social factors, and the effects of the nature of the volunteer experience.
This is a secondary data analysis of three waves of data from the Americans' Changing Lives Study. Self-rated health, functional dependency, and depression are regressed on the well-being measures from the previous waves, other control variables and volunteer status, volunteer hours, type and number of volunteer organizations, and the perceived benefit to others of the volunteer work.
Older adults who volunteer and who engage in more hours of volunteering report higher levels of well-being. This positive effect was not moderated by social integration, race, or gender. There was no effect of the number of organizations for which the older adult volunteered, the type of organization, or the perceived benefit of the work to others.
This work contributes to a knowledge base that points to the development of social programs and policies that maximize the engagement of older adults in volunteer roles. The findings suggest that targeting efforts may not be warranted, in that there are not differential benefits according to personal characteristics of the volunteer. Future studies have to address the nature of the social institutions that will maximize the number of elders in these roles and the benefits that they accrue.
Much has been written about volunteerism in general, and more specifically about the older volunteer. But what motivates a person to volunteer? How do they learn about the opportunity? What do they need to feel satisfied with the experience and how might that and other factors relate to whether they continue volunteering? The following literature review highlights some of the findings about volunteer motivation, satisfaction, recruitment, and retention as it relates to volunteers in general, older volunteers, and illustrative of one setting, hospice volunteers. Implications for social work practice with older persons are discussed.
Panel data from a sample of 313 women who were wives and mothers in 1956 and were interviewed both in 1956 and in 1986 are used to consider the pathways that lead to health and social integration. Possible relationships were explored between the number, duration, timing, and episodes of various nonfamily roles throughout adulthood and subsequent health and multiple-role occupancy. It was found that occupying multiple roles in 1956, participating in volunteer work on an intermittent basis, and belonging to a club or organization were positively related to various measures of health and that occupying multiple roles in 1956, as well as doing volunteer work, was positively related to occupying multiple roles in 1986.
We construct an integrated theory of formal and informal volunteer work based on the premises that volunteer work is (1) productive work that requires human capital, (2) collective behavior that requires social capital, and (3) ethically guided work that requires cultural capital. Using education, income, and functional health to measure human capital, number of children in the household and informal social interaction to measure social capital, and religiosity to measure cultural capital, we estimate a model in which formal volunteering and informal helping are reciprocally related but connected in different ways to different forms of capital. Using two-wave data from the Americans' Changing Lives panel study, we find that formal volunteering is positively related to human capital, number of children in the household, informal social interaction, and religiosity. Informal helping, such as helping a neighbor, is primarily determined by gender, age, and health. Estimation of reciprocal effects reveals that formal volunteering has a positive effect on helping, but helping does not affect formal volunteering.
Research on volunteerism has focused primarily on the recipients of this activity as opposed to the volunteers themselves. We examined the characteristics and experiences of older adults who volunteered with Family Friends, a program designed to assist families who have children with chronic illnesses or disabilities living at home. A profile of volunteers who remained involved in the program after their requested 9-month commitment and those who did not was also developed Results suggested that Family Friends volunteers experienced a mutually beneficial relationship between themselves and families that provided them with a sense of purpose and personal competence. Volunteers who stayed with the program beyond their required commitment were more highly educated, received a higher annual income, were more likely to volunteer with other organizations, and reported higher life satisfaction. Implications for volunteer recruiting and longevity are discussed.
The CES-D scale is a short self-report scale designed to measure depressive symptomatology in the general population. The items of the scale are symptoms associated with depression which have been used in previously validated longer scales. The new scale was tested in household interview surveys and in psychiatric settings. It was found to have very high internal consistency and adequate test- retest repeatability. Validity was established by pat terns of correlations with other self-report measures, by correlations with clinical ratings of depression, and by relationships with other variables which support its construct validity. Reliability, validity, and factor structure were similar across a wide variety of demographic characteristics in the general population samples tested. The scale should be a useful tool for epidemiologic studies of de pression.
Participation in voluntary associations is usually explained by a Weberian theory that uses human capital variables; however,
Durkheimian theory suggests the importance of parental socialization and family status variables. Using a three-wave panel
study, this article models the changes in social participation that people experience while moving from high school to parenthood.
Voluntary participation is accounted for in part by the transmission of socioeconomic status, but family socialization through
example and value modeling are often more important. When self-oriented (occupation and profession) and community-oriented
(service, church, community, fraternal, and neighborhood) types of participation are distinguished, the status transmission
theory explains self-oriented but not community-oriented participation. Family socialization explains community-oriented but
not self-oriented participation. Thus, theories of voluntarism must be differentiated according to the type of voluntary association
concerned.
A program evaluation of OASIS, a national non-profit organization which provides educational and volunteer opportunities to people over the age of 55, focused on the benefits of participating in educational and volunteer activities. A total of 289 older adults provided their perspectives on the extent to which participation in these activities benefited them in four domains: socialization (social interaction), generativity (productivity), well-being (life satisfaction), and opportunity (chance for new endeavors). The survey results indicate that, in general, older adults perceive that they benefit from participation in these activities. Participants perceived the most benefit in the domain of opportunity, followed by well-being, and then, at the same level, socialization and generativity. Volunteers reported more benefit overall than class takers. When asked what was most beneficial about participation, most respondents mentioned interacting with new people.
Although the ultimate goal of occupational therapy with the elderly is to "help keep the aged within the mainstream of human activity" (Hasselkus, 1985, p. 157) engaged in meaningful and growth-oriented activities, more immediate problems such as dealing with environmental barriers or limitations in range of motion seem to take precedence in the day-to-day delivery of services. Clients' potentials for personal growth and for developing or practicing those abilities which might enable them to be active contributing members of society are thereby neglected. The occupational therapist is in an ideal position to encourage older persons to become involved in self-help, volunteer and advocacy activities. Identifying, referring and/or training persons who can contribute to-benefit from-such activities is a pertinent and exciting extension of the occupational therapy concepts of "meaningful" and "purposeful". Involvement in such activities engenders an increased sense of self-worth, empowerment and productivity in a climate of sharing, caring and concern. This paper explores three avenues of volunteering for the aged: self-help groups, community service and advocacy. The literature is reviewed and resource information is presented. The therapeutic value of volunteering is discussed and the role of the occupational therapist in promoting such activities is introduced.
In sample surveys, certain methods are used to improve the precision and control the costs of survey data collection. Among these methods are stratification, multistage sampling, clustering, and unequal probabilities of selection. These methods introduce a complexity to the analysis, which must be accounted for in order to produce unbiased estimates and their associated levels of precision. Not accounting for a complex sample design in the variance estimates can result in artificially small standard errors. This article provides a brief introduction to the impact these design complexities have on the sampling variance, and summarizes the characteristics and availability of software to carry out analysis on sample survey data while accounting for the design.
Many health science researchers conduct primary or secondary analyses with data from complex sample surveys but do not realize that specialized statistical software needs to be used. This article compares analyses of survey data conducted with survey software and with standard statistical software. The numerical example illustrates that the inappropriate use of standard statistical software for sample survey data can result in: (a) biased point estimates of population parameters, (b) underestimation of standard errors, (c) confidence intervals that are too wide, and (d) misleading tests of statistical significance. Weighted analyses with standard statistical software, with regular or normed weights, can yield correct point estimates of population parameters but still yield incorrect results for estimated standard errors and statistical tests. Data analysts are advised to use appropriate software for the analysis of survey data.
Using the 1989 Current Population Survey, this study profiles elderly volunteers ages 55 and older, identifies volunteer organizations served by the elderly, and examinesfactors associated with volunteer participation and time volunteered by the elderly. Results of tobit model with sample selection indicate that thefollowingfactors are positively related to participation in volunteer work: being afemale, being married, living in the Midwest, having a high income, having an advanced education, owning a home, and seeking employment (for retired group). Living in a large city and having a large household size are negatively related to volunteer participation. Factors affecting time volunteered by the retired are college education, home ownership, and presence of children younger than age 18. Implicationsfor volunteer organizations are presented.
Video-based media spaces are designed to support casual interaction between intimate collaborators. Yet transmitting video is fraught with privacy concerns. Some researchers suggest that the video stream be filtered to mask out potentially sensitive ...
Although there is now a voluminous literature on supportive social relations in later life, most of this research has been
concerned with assessing the beneficial effects of receiving support from others. The purpose of this study is to assess whether
giving support to others within informal as well as formal settings might also benefit older help providers. Findings from
a recent nationwide survey of the elderly suggest that giving informal assistance to others (but not formal assistance) appears
to bolster feelings of personal control in later life. The data further reveal that greater feelings of personal control are
in turn related to lower levels of depressive symptomatology.
In this study we investigated the effects of nonevaluative social interaction on the cardiovascular response to psychological challenge. Thirty-nine college-age females appeared accompanied ("Friend" condition) or unaccompanied ("Alone" condition) to an experimental laboratory. In the Friend condition, partners were present while the subject participated in two laboratory tasks, and the partners' evaluation potential was minimized by design. Subjects in the Friend condition showed reduced heart rate reactivity to both tasks, relative to the Alone group, an attenuated task-related systolic blood pressure response to one of the tasks, and a reduced diastolic blood pressure increase during a solitary interview. In two other instances, partner-related response reductions were apparent only for Type A subjects. None of these effects was accompanied by differences in task performance or self-reported emotional response. Interpersonal support may reduce cardiovascular responsivity to stress, an effect with possible implications for understanding the association between social relationships and cardiovascular risk.
Little research exists linking social support, stressors, and related nutritional strain (loss of appetite) with the risk of poor nutritional health. Relationships among these concepts were investigated using a sample of elderly Virginians. It was hypothesized that the risk of poor nutritional health (dietary inadequacy) is reduced among elderly with high levels of social support and exacerbated among those experiencing stressful events and strain. Moreover, it was hypothesized that the negative effects of stressful events and strain on the diet are mitigated by high levels of social support. Using multiple regression models, these hypotheses were tested, controlling for age, sex, race, and socioeconomic status. The results indicated that elderly with 1) an extensive friendship network have more adequate diets; 2) greater financial stress experience greater nutritional stress (poorer appetite); and 3) greater nutritional stress have less adequate diets. Moreover, companionship serves as a buffer against the negative effects of poor appetite on dietary intake.
Strong social support systems, which in epidemiologic studies are associated with decreased morbidity and mortality, have been hypothesized to mitigate the harmful effects of stressful stimuli on the individual. The authors found that, among 256 healthy elderly adults, individuals with good social support systems tended to have lower serum cholesterol and uric acid levels and higher indices of immune function; these correlations were independent of age, body mass, tobacco use, alcohol intake, and degree of perceived psychological distress. Thus, social support systems may intervene between the stressful stimulus and the physiologic response to that stimulus.
Characteristics of older adult volunteers and nonvolunteers who were active in a community center's programs were compared in order to determine correlates of voluntarism. Only 2 variables significantly differentiated: sex and past patterns of organizational participation. Findings suggest a high degree of consistency between past and present activity patterns of older adults. Implications related to preretirement planning and to the appropriate placement of the elderly in postretirement activities.
Volunteer workers over age sixty-five were compared to retired elderly who did not engage in any type of work activity. Volunteers were found to have significantly higher degree of life satisfaction, stronger will to live, and fewer symptoms of depression, anxiety, and somatization. Since no differences were found on most demographic or background variables, participation in volunteer work appears to be the salient factor in explaining psychosocial differences between volunteers and non-volunteers.
Both cross-sectional comparisons and patterns of change in productive activities among members of the MacArthur Successful Aging cohort were examined. The data came from a three-site longitudinal study of community-dwelling adults aged 70-79. The highest functioning cohort (n = 1,192) was found to be significantly more productive than a comparison group of medium- and low-functioning respondents at baseline in four of five domains examined. In longitudinal models, we tested several hypotheses regarding the determinants of change in levels of productive activity over a three-year period. Overall, 15.1 percent (n = 162) of the cohort became less productive, while another 12.7 percent (n = 136) became more productive. Risk factors for decline in productivity included hospital admission and stroke. Age, functional disability, marriage, and increased mastery were protective against declines. Conversely, Blacks, those who were more satisfied with life at baseline, and those reporting increased mastery were more likely to increase their productivity.
This study examined the effects of social networks and social support on the mortality of a national probability sample of 2,200 elderly Japanese persons during a three-year period. The direct and indirect effects of social relationships were assessed by using hazard rate models in conjunction with ordinary least squares regressions. Among the five measures of social relationships, social participation is shown to have a strong impact on mortality, and this effect remains statistically significant when other factors are considered. Social participation, social support, and feelings of loneliness are found to have indirect effects on the mortality of the Japanese elders through their linkages with chronic diseases, functional status, and self-rated health. On the other hand, marital status and social contacts are not shown to have statistically significant effects on the risk of dying, either directly or indirectly.
The relationship of social ties to health behavior is studied in this paper. The general hypothesis tested is that those with social relationships are more likely to avoid health damaging behavior. Patterns regarding specific social ties and particular health behaviors are examined. Findings indicate the relationships of spouse, organization member, and friend are related to preventive health behavior; spouses are less likely smokers, drinkers, and heavy drinkers. The friend relationship is related to decreased smoking behavior, while the employee relationship is related to increased drinking. A consistent predictor of health behaviors is the social tie of organization member. People with relationships as organization members are more likely always to wear seat belts, smoke and drink less, and consume lower amounts of these substances.
A number of surveys indicate a rise in the percentage of elders involved in volunteer work over the past 25 years. This article identifies cultural, demographic, and programmatic factors that have contributed to this increase. After describing some current policies and programs, it identifies strategies for sustaining and expanding volunteerism by elders in the future.
The current political-economic climate, which is generally supportive of both private and public sector down-sizing, increasingly demands that human service workers assess, engage, and creatively use consumer strengths and resources. This meta-analysis of thirty-seven independent studies provided the means of inferring not only that elder volunteers' sense of well-being seemed to be significantly bolstered through volunteering, but also that such relatively healthy older people represent a significant adjunct resource for meeting some of the service needs of more vulnerable elders, as well as those of other similarly vulnerable groups such as disabled children. Averaging across studies, 85 percent of the "clients" who received service from an older volunteer (e.g., peer-counseling of nursing home residents) scored better on dependent measures (e.g., diminished depression) than the average person in comparison conditions did (U3 = .847 [Cohen, 1988], combined p < .001). The policy implications of such beneficial effects among both older volunteers and the people they serve are discussed.
"Productive aging" describes an array of activities through which older people contribute to society. Both the extent of current productive activities among older people and the barriers to more extensive productive activity are reviewed. If certain adjustments can be made for their special needs, older people have the potential to make substantial contributions. However, a variety of prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory practices continue to limit the opportunities of older people to make productive contributions, particularly in workplace settings. Interventions are needed to strengthen opportunities for retraining, employment, and volunteering for older people. At the same time, programs and policies to facilitate the productive participation of older people cannot easily correct for the adverse effects of a lifetime of racial or gender discrimination.
Although a number of authors have proposed that older volunteers should benefit in terms of better health and well-being, few researchers have examined the issue empirically to see whether this is true. The purpose of this article is to build on this literature by empirically examining the association between volunteering and mortality among older adults.
Using data from a nationally representative sample, we use Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate the effects of volunteering on the rate of mortality among persons aged 65 and older.
We find that volunteering has a protective effect on mortality among those who volunteered for one organization or for forty hours or less over the past year. We further find that the protective effects of volunteering are strongest for respondents who report low levels of informal social interaction and who do not live alone.
We discuss the possibility that the curvilinear relationship we observe between volunteering and mortality is due to a combination of factors, including self-identity, role strain, and meaningfulness. Other research using more precise data is needed to determine whether these ideas are supportable.
Studies often fail to adequately test the causal relationship between volunteering and well-being. Yet the media and empirical research have focused attention on the impact of volunteering on the well-being of elderly persons. This study addresses two questions: First, does volunteering improve the psychological and physical well-being of elderly persons? Second, do elderly volunteers experience different benefits than younger adults?
Using nationally representative panel data, I assessed the long-term impact of volunteering on the life satisfaction and perceived health of persons aged 60 and over. I then compared ordinary least squares regression results for seniors with those for younger adults.
I found that older volunteers experienced greater increases in life satisfaction over time as a result of their volunteer hours than did younger adult volunteers, especially at high rates of volunteering. Older adults experienced greater positive changes in their perceived health than did younger adult volunteers.
The type of volunteer work in which older and younger adults engage may be part of the reason for these differential effects. But the context in which older and younger adults volunteer and the meaning of their voluntarism are more likely explanations. Researchers should take into account volunteer commitment when studying volunteering's effect on well-being, not simply volunteer role.
Using two waves of panel data from Americans' Changing Lives (House 1995) (N = 2,681), we examine the relationships between volunteer work in the community and six aspects of personal well-being: happiness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, sense of control over life, physical health, and depression. Prior research has more often examined the effects of voluntary memberships than of volunteer work, has used cross-sectional rather than longitudinal data, and, when longitudinal, has emphasized social causation over selection effects. Focusing only on the consequences of volunteer work overlooks the antecedents of human agency. People with greater personality resources and better physical and mental health should be more likely to seek (or to be sought for) community service. Hence, we examine both selection and social causation effects. Results show that volunteer work indeed enhances all six aspects of well-being and, conversely, people who have greater well-being invest more hours in volunteer service. Given this, further understanding of self- versus social-selection processes seems an important next step. Do positive, healthy people actively seek out volunteer opportunities, or do organizations actively recruit individuals of these types (or both)? Explaining how positive consequences flow from volunteer service may offer a useful counterpoint to stress theory, which has focused primarily on negative life experiences and their sequelae.
The authors prospectively examined the effects of social ties and change in social ties, as measured by a well-known social
network index, on total and cause-specific mortality and on coronary heart disease incidence in 28,369 US male health professionals
aged 42–77 years in 1988. Over 10 years, the relative risk of total mortality for men in the lower two levels of social integration
compared with more socially integrated men was 1.19 (95% confidence interval: 1.06, 1.34) after controlling for age, occupation,
health behaviors, general physical condition, coronary risk factors, and dietary habits. In multivariate analysis, deaths
from accidents and suicide and from other noncancer, noncardiovascular causes were significantly increased among less socially
connected men. Socially isolated men also had an increased risk of fatal coronary heart disease (multivariate relative risk
= 1.82, 95% confidence interval: 1.02, 3.23). An increase in the overall social network index between 1988 and 1996 was not
significantly associated with subsequent 2-year mortality. In analyses of change in social network components restricted to
older men, each categorical unit increase in number of close friends was significantly associated with a 29% decrease in risk
of death. Increase in religious service attendance over time was also significantly predictive of decreased mortality.
There are a number of reasons why volunteering might yield mental health benefits, especially to older people. Volunteer work improves access to social and psychological resources, which are known to counter negative moods such as depression and anxiety. Analysis of three waves of data from the Americans' Changing Lives data set (1986, 1989, 1994) reveals that volunteering does lower depression levels for those over 65, while prolonged exposure to volunteering benefits both populations. Some of the effect of volunteering on depression among the elderly is attributable to the social integration it encourages, but the mediating effect of psychological resources is very small. Volunteering for religious causes is more beneficial for mental health than volunteering for secular causes but, again, the effect is confined to the elderly.
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