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Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy, and Social Connectedness as Mediators of the Relationship Between Volunteering and Well-Being
Abstract
This study examines the potentially mediated relationship between volunteering and well-being. Using survey data from a random sample (N = 2,990) of the population of the state of Victoria, Australia, three hypotheses were tested: Volunteers will report higher well-being than nonvolunteers; volunteers will report higher self-esteem, self-efficacy, and social connectedness than nonvolunteers; self-esteem, self-efficacy, and social connectedness will mediate the relationship between volunteer status and well-being. Results supported the hypotheses and showed that self-esteem, self-efficacy, and social connectedness were all significant mediators of the volunteering–well-being relationship. Increased social connectedness associated with volunteering was found to be the strongest first step in these pathways. This points to the importance of social connection for well-being, but future research using longitudinal designs is required to further test these relationships and provide the capacity for evidence of causality.
... The positive association between meaning in life and prosocial tendency indicates that people searching for meaning would engage in prosocial acts to experience meaningfulness. Particularly, meaning-seekers show the strong intention to engage in civic activities (Lin, 2019) because these activities can enhance their sense of meaning through increasing social connectedness (Ohmer, 2007), self-esteem (Brown et al., 2012), and sense of competence in organizing their lives (Zimmerman and Rappaport, 1988), which are highly associated with meaning in life (Heine et al., 2006). In addition, meaning-seekers engage in high-cost prosocial acts like kidney donation (Dakin et al., 2021) probably because these prosocial behaviors with higher costs are viewed as having more valuable and significant meaning (Olivola and Shafir, 2011;Inzlicht et al., 2018). ...
... Therefore, it is likely that both the presence of meaning and search for meaning are the B-component. Furthermore, considering the self-transcendent nature of meaning in life (Brown, 2000;Seligman, 2004), and the meaningenhancing effect of prosociality (Zimmerman and Rappaport, 1988;Ohmer, 2007;Brown et al., 2012;Lin, 2019), those with higher levels of the presence of meaning and/or search for meaning, are more likely to have higher prosocial tendency. Alternatively, when the possible outcomes of a particular prosocial act are judged to be valuable and meaningful, an individual is more likely to have a higher level of prosocial tendency to perform the act. ...
... In other words, the positive relationship of future orientation with prosocial tendency are partially explained by the presence of meaning and the search for meaning. These findings are consistent with the previous studies regarding the positive associations between future orientation and presence of meaning (Hicks et al., 2012;Baumeister et al., 2020;Miao et al., 2021), and search for meaning (Leshkovska and Shterjovska, 2014) as well as the positive associations between prosocial tendency and presence of meaning (Van Tongeren et al., 2016;Klein, 2017;Liu and Zhang, 2020), and search for meaning (Zimmerman and Rappaport, 1988;Ohmer, 2007;Brown et al., 2012;Lin, 2019;Dakin et al., 2021). Theoretically, ABC model (Ellis, 1991) is proposed in this study for interpreting the mediation model of meaning in life on the relationship between future orientation and prosocial tendency. ...
Introduction
The positive relationship between future orientation and prosocial tendency has been consistently reported. However, the possible mechanism has not been examined yet. Previous research revealed the positive relationship between future orientation and meaning in life, as well as between meaning in life and prosocial tendency. Hence, it is hypothesized that the two components of meaning in life (presence of meaning and search for meaning) possibly mediate the relationship between future orientation and prosocial tendency.
Methods
During the first half of 2020, 430 Hong Kong youths aged 15–35 (male: 30.5%; female: 69.5%) were recruited to participate an online cross-sectional survey. The survey included three scales: (1) The Scale for Measuring Adult’s Prosocialness, (2) Consideration of Future Consequence Scale, and (3) Meaning in Life Questionnaire.
Results
The key findings showed that: (1) females had higher level of prosocial tendency than males, and (2) significant partial mediating effects of both presence of meaning and search for meaning on the relationship between future orientation and prosocial tendency. Nevertheless, the multi-group mediation model did not show significant gender difference.
Discussion
These findings implied that future-oriented and meaning-focused interventions could possibly enhance youth’s sense of meaning in everyday life and foster their meaning searching tendency, which further strengthen the positive effect of their future orientation on prosocial tendency, even during life adversities.
... Research has shown that volunteering, beyond its potential to benefit the recipients, is associated with several benefits on social, community and individual levels. Indeed, in terms of intangible assets and well-being (WB), mounting evidence has shown a general positive effect of volunteering on volunteers (e.g., Brown et al., 2012;Kim et al., 2020;Lawton et al., 2021;Russell et al., 2019;Stukas et al., 2016;. However, research has not produced conclusive and consensual explanations of the dynamics of influence between these constructs. ...
... This general trend has led to greater attention being paid to volunteering as a driving force of WB (Littman-Ovadia & Steger, 2010). A number of studies have reported that volunteers generally experience higher levels of WB than nonvolunteers (e.g., Brown et al., 2012;Kwok et al., 2013;Lawton et al., 2021;Meneghini & Stanzani, 2019). However, in the field of psychology, there is more than one conceptualization of WB. ...
... At the same time, individuals' EWB enhancement is worth doing for the NPO itself, in order for an individual volunteer to function properly. From a practical point of view, with the aim of favoring volunteers' engagement, the NPOs should give priority to enhancing volunteers' self-esteem and their perception of "community service self-efficacy" that have been shown to foster intrinsic motivation and engagement in volunteers (Brown et al., 2012;Harp et al., 2017). In addition, engagement may be raised by ensuring social support and improving the communication processes between volunteers, that contribute to fostering the satisfaction of relational needs . ...
... Research has substantiated this assumption (for reviews, see Anderson et al., 2014;Piliavin & Siegl, 2015;Wilson, 2012), particularly for older volunteers in organizations that provide a supportive environment (Musick & Wilson, 2003;Van Willigen, 2000; but see Bjälkebring et al., 2021). Among other things, improvements in internal control beliefs and social relationships have been discussed as likely pathways from volunteering to a higher SWB (Brown et al., 2012;Fried et al., 2004;Krause et al., 1992;Mellor et al., 2008;Müller et al., 2014;Musick & Wilson, 2003;Pilkington et al., 2012). However, empirical tests of these pathways in a longitudinal framework are scarce and have not addressed moderating factors, such as age (for an exception, see Müller et al., 2014) or type of volunteering. ...
... One line of research identified internal control beliefs and similar constructs (e.g., selfefficacy, Bandura, 1977;and mastery, Pearlin et al., 1981) as potential explanations for the link between volunteering and SWB (Brown et al., 2012;Fried et al., 2004;Mellor et al., 2008;Müller et al., 2014). Internal control beliefs refer to the beliefs that outcomes are contingent upon one's own action rather than upon external circumstances (Rotter, 1966). ...
... As a self-determining, challenging, and productive activity that facilitates organizational and rhetorical skills, volunteering may foster these beliefs (Piliavin & Siegl, 2015;Son & Wilson, 2012;Verba et al., 1995). Indeed, in two cross-sectional studies of Australian adults, the association between volunteering and higher SWB was mediated by perceived control (Mellor et al., 2008) and self-efficacy (Brown et al., 2012). However, two longitudinal studies yielded mixed results regarding mediation: Müller et al. (2014) found that self-efficacy mediated the link between volunteering and SWB among adults aged 55 + in Germany, whereas Musick and Wilson (2003) did not find mastery to mediate the link between volunteering and lower depression in a U.S. sample of older adults. ...
We investigated whether higher internal control beliefs (perceived control, political efficacy) and improved social relationships (lower loneliness, social support availability) mediated the associations between nonpolitical and political volunteering and subjective well-being (SWB; life satisfaction, emotional well-being). Moreover, we examined whether these effects differed between nonpolitical and political volunteering and across age groups. We conducted longitudinal multilevel regression analyses of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1985–2016) in younger (14–29, n = 7,547), middle-aged (40–50, n = 6,437), and older (65–75, n = 3,736) adults (see preregistration at https://osf.io/qk6mu ). Significant effects on SWB emerged mainly in older adults who reported higher life satisfaction on occasions with more frequent nonpolitical volunteering than usual but lower life satisfaction on occasions with more frequent political volunteering. The negative effect of political volunteering was mediated by higher loneliness. In younger and middle-aged adults, mixed effects of nonpolitical and political volunteering on the mediating variables and no significant effects on SWB emerged. We discuss methodological, contextual, and life-stage explanations of our findings.
... Extensive research investigates the links between organized social participation and adult SWB, demonstrating that participants appear happier and more satisfied with their lives (Helliwell and Putnam, 2004;Borgonovi, 2008;Brown, Hoye and Nicholson, 2012). Research into the youth participation-SWB link, however, is less established. ...
... In contrast to the social-resources model, other studies highlight the importance of psychological resources (Mellor et al., 2008;Brown, Hoye and Nicholson, 2012;Whitehead et al., 2014). Here, engagement is posited to build various psychological-resources, including perceived control, self-esteem, and social efficacy, important for SWB (Baumeister and Leary, 1995;Proctor, Linley and Maltby, 2009). ...
... However, separate testing of the social-/psychologicalresource models limits our understanding of the extent to which both pathways operate alongside one another, or how mutually exclusive they are; for example, one pathway may operate through another, as when social efficacy can foster more social interactions (Dworkin, Larson and Hansen, 2003). One study found initial evidence that participation may drive greater SWB through independent gains across both sets of resources (Brown, Hoye and Nicholson, 2012). However, based on crosssectional data, similar concerns about endogeneity remain among these studies, especially given social/psychological resources may be just as likely to recruit individuals into participation as build SWB. ...
There is growing interest in the role of organized social participation in clubs, associations and activities in shaping subjective well-being (SWB). However, the field remains contested. This study addresses key questions regarding the participation–SWB link: concerns regarding endogeneity; debate surrounding the mechanisms at work; and the role participation can play in closing inequalities in SWB. Each question is addressed through a quasi-experimental field study into the impact of a large-scale, nationally-implemented youth engagement scheme (UK National Citizen Service) on life satisfaction. Using pre-test/post-test data on a sample of participants and (propensity score matched) controls, results suggest discrete periods of youth engagement can lead to significant improvements in life satisfaction, observable at least 4–6 months after involvement ended. Participation can also help close social inequalities in SWB via a significantly stronger impact on life satisfaction among young people from more economically disadvantaged communities. Although youth from disadvantaged communities join the scheme with lower SWB, post-participation, they have entirely closed the gap in SWB with their less-disadvantaged peers. Improvements in SWB emerge from positive impacts of participation on both social- and psychological-resource pathways. However, stronger participation-effects on psychological-resources become increasingly important for explaining the additional SWB-gains of more disadvantaged young people.
... Psychosocial research has studied the antecedents of this important prosocial behaviour with the aim to understand its underlying individual characteristics and motivations. Among the antecedents of volunteering, core self-conceptions seem to have a relevant role both in getting involved and persisting in voluntary activities (Barbaranelli, Caprara, Capanna & Imbimbo, 2003;Brown, Hoye & Nicholson, 2012). However, the literature has often highlighted a modest and sometimes inconsistent relationship between personal characteristics and volunteering (Callero, Howard & Piliavin, 1987;Omoto & Snyder, 1995), which may be due to intervening factors (Carlo, Okun, Knight & De Guzman, 2005). ...
... In the present study, such intervening factors are hypothesized to be motivations to volunteering, as they may mediate the link between general self-efficacy and selfesteem and volunteer involvement and life satisfaction, which increasing evidence supports may be maintained or increased by volunteering (Brown et al., 2012;Caprara & Steca, 2005;Omoto, Snyder & Martino, 2000). ...
... Volunteers seem to be more extroverted and sociable than non-volunteers, have greater empathic and collaborative abilities, remarkable trust in society and optimism about the future (Carlo et al., 2005;Marta & Pozzi, 2007). They also seem to have a subjective impression of competence, higher self-efficacy (Brown et al., 2012) and self-esteem (Brown et al., 2012;Kirkpatrick-Johnson, Beebe, Mortimer & Snyder, 1998;Smith & Nelson, 1975). ...
... Furthermore, research demonstrated that people with high level of search for meaning tend to engage in prosocial acts (Lin, 2019;Scales et al., 2014;Van Tilburg & Igou, 2017). It is possible that prosocial acts can enhance meaning in life (Brown et al., 2012;Klein, 2017;Van Tongeren et al., 2016). Hence, in order to have a sense of meaningfulness, meaning seekers are more likely to enhance their prosocial tendency. ...
... According to the classification of meaning seekers (Chu & Fung, 2021), growth searchers think about the future tend to search for a deeper understanding of meaning, whereas deficiency searchers tend to establish their meanings motivated by the future. Hence, given the meaning-boosting effect of prosocial acts (Brown et al., 2012;Klein, 2017;Van Tongeren et al., 2016), both types of searchers are more likely to have higher level of prosocial tendency to establish their meanings or to further explore their deeper meanings. ...
... Social relations benefit one's mental and physical health and contribute to overall wellbeing [53]. The importance of social connectedness to well-being is well documented [52,54]. This factor, whether developed through a special community or mainstream society, has been shown to reduce mental illness and increase well-being [52]. ...
... Social connectedness is often framed as a mediator among social and psychological variables; for instance, it mediates the relationships between acculturation and wellbeing [52] and between extraversion and well-being [56]. Using data from 3318 surveys, Brown and colleagues [54] discovered that social connectedness mediated the relationship between the status and well-being of people with volunteer experience. It also mediated the relationship between TTI and well-being in a group tour context [11]. ...
This study examines the general relationship between tourists’ park visits and life satisfaction. Specifically, the article focuses on relationships between verbal and nonverbal and positive and negative tourist-to-tourist interactions, social connectedness, and life satisfaction. Results show that friendly conversation has significant positive relationships with life satisfaction and social connectedness, whereas unfriendly behavior is negatively related to social connectedness. Social connectedness has a significant positive relationship with life satisfaction and plays a mediating role between tourist-to-tourist interaction and life satisfaction. By exploring several types of tourist-to-tourist interaction, this study offers insights into tourist-to-tourist interaction and life satisfaction under a pandemic context.
... Self-efficacy also plays a prominent role in research on volunteerism (Kossowska & Łaguna, 2018;Wang et al., 2011). In particular, studies indicate that volunteering increases self-efficacy for middle-aged and older adults (Brown et al., 2012). A study with Korean older adults indicates a strong association between volunteering and a sense of "inward social self-efficacy" (Hur, 2018, p. 295). ...
... Volunteers for caregivers of people with dementia are shown to have fairly high levels of self-efficacy, potentially leading to increased health service use and overall well-being (Charlesworth et al., 2017). Additionally, self-efficacy serves a mediator in the relationships between personality and volunteer engagement (Kossowska & Łaguna, 2018), between organizational environment and volunteer intention (Wang et al., 2011), and between volunteering and well-being (Brown et al., 2012). ...
The objective of this study is to test self-efficacy as a mediator in the relationship between three lifestyle activities (exercise, volunteering, and computer use) and self-perceptions of aging (SPA) among older adults. We hypothesize that increased self-efficacy will mediate the relationship between lifestyle activities and more positive SPA. This is a cross-sectional, secondary data analysis drawn from the 2016 wave of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; n = 4,561). Bootstrapping procedures were applied to test the significance of the indirect effects of self-efficacy in the relationship between lifestyle activities and SPA. Results indicate significant direct effects between exercise, computer use, and self-efficacy. Direct effects were observed between exercise, volunteering, computer use, and SPA. Self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between exercise, volunteering, computer use, and SPA. Implications for practitioners working with older adults are discussed. Future research should test formal intervention programs aimed at reducing internalized ageism through additional pathways.
... Pilkington et al. (2012) found that a higher score for life satisfaction and positive affect was significantly related to the availability of social support and positive interpersonal exchanges among Australian older adults who engaged in moderate levels of volunteer work (up to seven hours per week). Similarly, Brown, Hoye, and Nicholson (2012) reported that those who engaged in volunteer activities with any formally organized group were more likely to demonstrate high level of social connectedness and self-esteem that positively contributed to their psychological well-being and self-reported mental health. Thus, we hypothesized that volunteer work promotes a perceived social self-efficacy that further prevents loneliness in older adults. ...
... Musick and Wilson (2003) showed that volunteer activities contribute to emotional well-being in older adults by facilitating social integration. Brown et al. (2012) found that self-efficacy, self-esteem, and social connectivity play significant roles in mediating the association of volunteer participation with personal well-being and mental health. Moreover, they suggested that social connectedness was the most evident aspect among volunteers that further facilitated self-efficacy and self-esteem. ...
Objectives:
This study aimed to examine the relationship between participation in volunteer work and loneliness among older adults, and to explore the mediating role of perceived control and perceived social self-efficacy in this association.Method: This study was developed as a secondary data analysis using the data sampled from the 2016 Health and Retirement Study in USA. The sample comprised 9,944 individuals aged between 65 and 107 years (mean = 75.94, SD = 7.70; 59.4% females). Using a multi-item survey questionnaire, frequent participation in volunteer youth work and charity work, loneliness, perceived control, and social self-efficacy were assessed. To examine the mediating effects of perceived control and social self-efficacy on the association between volunteer work and loneliness, the bootstrapping technique was performed.Results: Two forms of volunteer works, namely, volunteer youth work and charity work, significantly predicted perceived control, social self-efficacy, and lower levels of loneliness. Perceived control and social self-efficacy appeared to significantly mediate the relationship between volunteer activities and loneliness.Conclusion: The study's findings put forward a need to develop policy provisions that facilitate supporting systems and organizations for life-long education and recruitment of older volunteers. Community-based organizations should create and promote volunteer opportunities in older adults, thereby alleviating later-life loneliness.
... greater psychological well-being and fewer depressive symptoms), enhanced eudemonic well-being (e.g. higher levels of personal growth and purpose in life), and greater psychological resources (e.g. greater selfesteem, self-efficacy, and social provisions) (Borgonovi 2008;Brown et al. 2012;Cho et al. 2018;Fiorillo and Nappo 2017;Greenfield and Marks 2004;Han and Hong 2013;Haski-Leventhal 2009;Heo et al. 2017;Krägeloh and Shepherd 2015;Lum and Lightfoot 2005;Morrow-Howell et al. 2009;Müller 2014;Musick and Wilson 2003;Pilkington et al. 2012;Tomioka et al. 2017;Van Willigen 2000). Despite the large body of evidence documenting potential benefits, research assessing the specific aspects of the volunteering experience that are important to psychological outcomes for older adults is limited, making it unclear which characteristics of volunteer positions are associated with optimal outcomes. ...
... Psychological resources As per previous research (Brown et al. 2012), "psychological resources" was operationalised as self-esteem, self-efficacy, and social provisions. Selfesteem was assessed using the 10-item Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg 1965). ...
Although there is a large body of evidence documenting the benefits of engagement in formal volunteering among older people, research assessing the specific aspects of the volunteering experience that are associated with these benefits is limited. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to (i) examine the aspects of volunteering that predict improvements or declines in older people's psychological outcomes over time and (ii) assess the extent to which demographic characteristics and time spent engaging in informal volunteering moderate the relationship between aspects of volunteering and potential outcomes. At Time 1, non-volunteering Australian older adults completed measures assessing their subjective well-being, eudemonic well-being, and psychological resources and were asked to commence volunteering. At Time 2 (six months later), participants completed the same measures and reported on their volunteering experiences. Among the 108 older adults who provided usable data at both time points (average age = 69.86 years, 64% women), the degree to which participants felt overwhelmed by their volunteer work significantly predicted declines in subjective well-being and psychological resources. The perceived importance of the cause for which participants reported volunteering and the perceived meaningfulness of the specific activities undertaken predicted improvements in these outcomes. Volunteering roles for older adults that (i) are not considered overwhelming, (ii) fulfil their desire to volunteer for a cause about which they are genuinely concerned, and (iii) involve activities perceived to be meaningful are likely to produce the favourable psychological outcomes.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10433-021-00618-6.
... Research suggests that when a stimulus, regardless of whether it is an object (Kimchi, 1992) or experience (Ariely & Carmon, 2003), is broken down into parts, the parts exhibit and retain their individual properties, which interferes with how they are perceived as a whole (Mishra, Mishra, & Nayakankuppam, 2006). To illustrate, Ariely and Zauberman (2003) showed that when experiences are partitioned, taking place over multiple periods with interruptions, people tend to evaluate the experience based on the mean intensity of the individual parts, rather than the overall pattern or trend (i.e., improving vs. deteriorating) of the experience. Accordingly, when a monetary or temporal expense is segregated into parts (e.g., pennies a day, minutes a day), people may readily attend to its individual parts that are then equated to other relatively small and ongoing commitments (e.g., buying a coffee, taking a coffee break). ...
... In the current research, we focus specifically on anticipated morality as one important metric of value derived from volunteering. Although there are other values derived from volunteering, such as enhanced self-efficacy (Brown, Hoye, & Nicholson, 2012) and social connectedness (Creaven, Healy, & Howard, 2017), the feeling of morality has been identified as a key emotional benefit of giving time to others (Reed et al., 2007;Reed et al., 2016). ...
Does the way individuals think about the burdens and benefits of giving time to charity depend on how that time is distributed? Prior work shows that the assessment of a whole is different than the assessment of the sum of its parts. Drawing on this work, we demonstrate that when a volunteer experience is segregated into multiple parts (vs. aggregated into a whole)—for example, volunteering 4 h a day for 2 days versus 8 h in a single day—individuals expect the process to feel less effortful but also the outcome to feel less morally right. In addition, we find that contribution size has a moderating effect on anticipated effort (but not on anticipated morality). Lastly, we find that individuals who focus on minimizing the effort involved in volunteering (vs. maximizing the impact of volunteering) show a greater likelihood of volunteering in a segregated (vs. aggregated) manner. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
... The benefits of social connectedness have been well documented. Several researchers have found strong associations between social connectedness and higher subjective wellbeing, self-esteem, and self-efficacy (Brown et al., 2012;Diener et al., 2017;Lee & Robbins, 1998), and less mental health difficulties, such as depression (Armstrong & Oomen-Early, 2009;Soares et al., 2022), anxiety (Soares et al., 2022), and adjustment problems (Duru & Poyrazli, 2011). Among U.S. adolescents (13 to 20 yr), receiving more social help related to COVID-19 predicted lower depressiveness and higher belongingness (Alvis et al., 2022). ...
College students in the U.S. and China have faced significant challenges during COVID-19. Data were collected from 120 Amerian students (Mage = 19.48, SDage = 1.30) and 119 Chinese students (Mage = 18.61, SDage = 0.91) in November, 2019 and March, 2020 to examine risk and protective factors for mental health (depression, anxiety, life satisfaction) during the pandemic, and potential cultural and gender differences. Results indicated that the frequency and impact of COVID-19-related stressful life events predicted deterioration of mental health over time, while social connectedness before the pandemic buffered the negative impact of COVID-19 stressful life events on life satisfaction. Chinese students reported higher levels of social connectedness and larger impact of COVID-19-related stressful life events, but lower frequency of stressful life events than American students. Stressful life events and social connectedness predicted mental health outcomes similarly for Chinese and American students. Gender differences were identified. Females reported more stressful life events, higher levels of depression, anxiety and less life satisfaction during COVID-19 than males. In addition, the frequency of stressful life events had a stronger impact on depression and anxiety for females compared with males. It is important to implement prevention and intervention programs to promote social connections and wellbeing among college students, especially among female students.
... For example, social connectedness can protect men against adverse outcomes after stressful or emotionally painful experiences (Åslund et al., 2014;Maulik et al., 2010;Raffaelli et al., 2013) and buffer the onset of men's mental ill-health (Kleiman et al., 2014;Panagioti et al., 2014;Teo et al., 2013;Richardson et al., 2022) even found that social support acts as the lone protective factor against the transition from suicidal thoughts to suicide attempts in men. Greater social connectedness has also been associated with increased life expectancy (Giles et al., 2005), life satisfaction (Ambrey et al., 2017), and wellbeing (Brown et al., 2012), and decreased suicide ideation in men (McLaren & Challis, 2009). Improving social connectedness could therefore be one avenue through which we might improve mental health outcomes for men living in regional communities. ...
Regional Australian masculinities are typified by ‘traditional’ values (e.g., stoicism, self-reliance) known to restrict social connectedness. Thus, these masculinities have been implicated in worsening men’s mental health. What remains unclear, however, is how men living in inner-regional communities (i.e., townships on the fringes of major cities) might uniquely experience masculinity, social connectedness, and mental health. We interviewed 29 boys/men and one non-binary participant (Mage = 43.77 years) living in the Macedon Ranges (an inner-regional Australian community). Using reflexive thematic analysis, we generated three themes. Participants described inner-regional masculinities as traditional and rigid, and attributed the Macedon Ranges’ comparatively high suicide rate to these masculinities. Conversely, migration from the neighbouring city of Melbourne was implicated in introducing more inclusive masculinities to the area that conflicted with existing masculine norms. Thus, Macedon Ranges men were framed as ultimately lacking a cohesive community identity. Proximity to Melbourne was described as encouraging local men to commute daily for work instead of working locally, thereby further weakening community identity. Overall, these phenomena were implicated in damaging the psychosocial wellbeing of local men via reducing social connectedness. Because men’s mental illness is so pervasive within regional Australian communities, these findings have direct implications for policymakers. Namely, policies need to acknowledge that masculinities directly influence mental health and that inner-regional masculinities are impacted by unique place-based considerations distinct from men living in other regional communities.
... Initiatives to promote social connectedness (e.g. social prescribing) have been shown to positively impact mental well-being amongst the general population (Brown, Hoye, & Nicholson, 2012), posing a potential means of improving university students' psychological health and consequently, reducing SH. ...
The present study aimed to advance the literature with a qualitative exploration of self-harm amongst UK university students, providing novel insight into support provisions and help-seeking, as well as key triggers and maintenance factors of self-harm within a university context. Sixteen semi-structured interviews (81% female) were carried out with individuals who had engaged in self-harm during their time at university and were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Three overarching themes were identified: 1) Understanding Self-Harm; 2) A New Identity – The impact of University on Self-Harm; and 3) Professional Help-Seeking at University – “A vague and confusing process”. Participants shared that whilst the function of self-harm as a means of coping remained relatively consistent, academic and social stressors were influential in either maintaining or reducing engagement in self-harm during university. Increased understanding of self-harm amongst university personnel and peers has the potential to encourage disclosure and reduce stigma. These findings have important implications for universities and their support services, specifically in relation to advertisement and awareness of services during university transitions, and the ways in which support is offered and delivered for students who self-harm. Greater recognition of views and definitions of self-harm from the perspective of those with lived experience is needed. This study highlights that the presence of university support services is not enough and that key factors including session numbers, referral pathways, and communication from services are crucial in determining a positive or negative experience of help-seeking amongst university students who self-harm.
... Previous studies have suggested a connection between volunteering and well-being, higher self-esteem, and a greater sense of belonging [35]. ...
Participation in leisure time physical activity (LTPA) has considerable health-related, psychological, and social benefits. However, the involvement of individuals with disabilities is considerably less than that of their peers without disabilities. A higher rate of participation of individuals with disabilities in LTPA may be achieved by the active involvement of volunteers. This study aimed to describe the importance of volunteer involvement in a swimming organization focused on individuals with disabilities, as perceived by all participants, including swimmers with disabilities, their parents, volunteers, and coaches. The organization uses volunteers as swimming instructors who work individually with swimmers with disabilities. The data were obtained through 11 semi-structured interviews with swimmers with disabilities and their parents, volunteers, and coaches. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using a five-step inductive thematic analysis. As a result of the cooperation with the volunteer swimming instructors, swimmers with disabilities felt an improved range of movement, greater independence, and higher self-esteem than before they started using the services of the swimming organization. Consequently, even individuals with severe disabilities can participate in LTPA. Membership to the organization also provided space for the establishment of new social relations, and the instructors described them accepting persons with disabilities as their equals. More importantly, the involvement of volunteers enables organizations to provide respite care for parents.
... A greater sense of meaning in life was reported among volunteering adults and chronically ill adults than among people who did not engage in such activities [91,92]. Civic engagement was related to general self-efficacy and self-esteem, which also served as mediators between volunteering and subjective well-being in survey data from Australia [93]. Finally, semi-structured interviews revealed agentic identity development in young people transitioning out of care after engaging in civic engagement [15]. ...
Civic engagement is thought to contribute to well-being among young adults. However, less is known about the ways in which civic engagement promotes well-being in general and in particular in socially excluded populations. This study investigated whether civic engagement contributes to life satisfaction and hope in a sample of 127 socially excluded young Israeli women who participated in social activism programs for a period of eight months. A mediation model incorporating self-efficacy, meaning in life, and identity exploration was used to examine the contribution of positive attitudes toward civic engagement, civic engagement skills, and political awareness to the participants’ life satisfaction and hope. Indirect effects were found between positive attitudes toward civic engagement, civic engagement skills, and political awareness and the participants’ life satisfaction and hope via self-efficacy. Positive attitudes toward civic engagement and political awareness also predicted the participants’ life satisfaction via meaning in life. A positive direct effect was found between political awareness and hope. However, contrary to the hypothesis, a negative direct effect was found between positive attitudes toward civic engagement and life satisfaction. Civic engagement skills and political awareness also predicted identity exploration. These findings underscore the need for clinicians to be aware of the potential benefits of civic engagement for the well-being of socially excluded populations.
... played an important role in relieving their negative emotions. Other research on the well-being of volunteers found that social support, self-esteem, rewards and skills training were all closely related to well-being (Brown et al., 2012;Wu et al., 2019). Therefore, th exact answer to the question 'what are their needs' is safety, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualization. ...
The needs of volunteer community service providers (VCSPs), who are the main responders to community crises, have received significantly less attention for the contributions they have been making during the COVID‐19 crisis. A mixed‐method research framework was used in this study, which involved semi‐structured interviews with 13 NGOs and questionnaire responses from 430 VCSPs in Hubei, China to assess the VCSPs' personal needs based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs. It was found that the VCSPs had safety, love, belonging, self‐esteem, and self‐actualization personal needs, all of which were closely related to family, partners, organizations, society and the government. The discussions revealed that the more experienced VCSPs needed special attention and family support was extremely significant for VCSPs in crisis. Several recommendations to meet VCSPs' personal needs are proposed that could have valuable reference value for emergency managers when organizing and supporting VCSPs in contingencies.
... Health Guide Organization (37) concedes that volunteers feel gratified while helping others. When the life expectancy is high in a certain society, social interactions, co-operation, life satisfaction, social and emotional health would proliferate (63,64,65). The lack of spirit for social cooperation would possibly result in depression, pessimism, the negative evaluation of incidents, indifference to social affairs and work, dwindling of work ethics, social anomalies, the prevalence of violence in social relations, divorce, and the inclination to the culture of outsiders (20,66,67). ...
Background and Aim: Considering Voluntary Function, the purpose of the present study was to predictthe addiction potential among some members of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS).
Materials and Methods: The research method was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population of the present study was all members of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS). The sampling method was multi-stage cluster sampling, in which 620 active volunteers of the IRCS from 31 province and 175 cities of Iran (48.7% female and 50.1 Male mean age 23.27±3.32, range 14–31 years)were selected for this research. The research data was collected using the Iranian Addiction Potential Scale (IAPS) and Voluntary Function Inventory (VFI).
Results: Findings proved that there was a negative significant correlation between the AP and all measurements of VF such as protective enhancement, understanding, career, values, and motives; meaning that the more time youth spent on participating in voluntary activities, the less likely they sought to resort to misusing AP. Findings of the multiple regression has proved that volunteerism could predict 15% of changes in the AP as a criterion variable.
Conclusion: Voluntary function can increase happiness, mental health, expand interpersonal relationships and social networking, self-esteem and social skills in individuals. These skills can reduce the high-risk behaviors, including addiction. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to this valuable factors in preventive programs.
... Generally, self-efficacy and motivation are considered antecedents of perceived involvement [41,42], but according to others, the reverse model would also be sustainable: experience, motivation, and perceived involvement would go a long way toward increasing the hospital worker's sense of self-efficacy by promoting a state of greater mental and physical wellbeing [43,44]. Again in the hospital setting, further interesting studies have shown in volunteer samples the importance of perceived self-efficacy in limiting stress and improving the perceived quality of life [45,46]. Compared to previous studies by Strollo et al. [29] and Dionigi [30], our contribution intended to assess the effects of both the motivational and dispositional functions on the level of perceived self-efficacy. ...
The individual and collective perception of self-efficacy in clown therapists is fundamental in order to be able to be active, restrained, energetic and defocused, if necessary, without being overwhelmed by any problems patients might have. The present study evaluated both the incidence of motivational and dispositional functions on the level of perceived self-efficacy with a sample of 259 Italian clown therapists who were administered The Volunteer Self-Efficacy Scale, the Volunteer Process Model and the Italy Personality Inventory. The significance of a hierarchical linear regression model of perceived self-efficacy was tested. The results showed that the value orientation of the operators mainly influenced the level of perceived self-efficacy, that is, the search for actions with a high social meaning, rather than the orientation towards situations and experiences that allow one to expand one’s knowledge and promote one’s own person. Profiles with higher perceived self-efficacy were associated with the trait of dynamism and conscientiousness, while a person’s vulnerability was found to be a significant negative predictor of self-efficacy. An additional significant predictor was the experience of the clown therapist. The results of the study also showed a positive and functional role of the synergy conferred by teamwork. The group mitigates the emotional difficulties of the individual and supports him/her by orienting him/her technically and compensating for any inexperience in the field of animation in sensitive contexts, such as hospital wards with serious and vulnerable patients, such as children.
... On the one hand, civically engaged youth evince lower anxiety and distress 14 and experience greater hope, self-esteem, and self-efficacy about being able to make change and overcome challenges. 15 Further, civic engagement among college students is associated with academic success, 16 social skills, 17 and even reductions in risky behaviors such as substance abuse. 18,19 On the other hand, political activism increases youths' exposure to injustice and their awareness about the seemingly unchangeable nature of the racially biased sociopolitical system, thereby increasing adjustment problems such as isolation and loneliness. ...
Objective: This study expands the literature on risk taking among college students by exploring anti-racism action as a form of positive risk taking. Participants: 346 Black (64%) and Latinx (36%) college students (85% female) ages 18-27 years (M = 18.75, SD = 1.31). Methods: Participants responded to questionnaires on anti-racism action, health-risk taking, and college functioning. Latent class analysis identified behavioral profiles of risk takers. Indicators of profile membership and associations with college functioning were examined. Results: Three profiles emerged: moderate overall risk taking, high health-risk taking, and high anti-racism action. Personal experience with discrimination was associated with a greater likelihood of health-risk taking. Students in the high anti-racism profile evinced greater educational functioning than those in the high-health risk taking profile. Conclusions: Risky behavior on college campuses is not homogeneous. Specific interventions and support networks are necessary to support students falling within specific risk profiles.
... Finally, theories on psychological well-being (Ryff and Keyes 1995) imply that volunteering may have health benefits through psychological advantages. Because volunteers build up self-esteem, self-efficacy and a purpose in life by accomplishing meaningful goals, they maintain better mental health (Brown et al. 2012). Prosocial behavior also contributes to positive affect. ...
Unlabelled:
There is a vast literature on the health benefits associated with volunteering for volunteers. Such health advantages are likely to vary across groups of volunteers with different characteristics. The current paper aims to examine the health advantages of volunteering for European volunteers and explore heterogeneity in the association between volunteering and health. We carry out a mega-analysis on microdata from six panel surveys, covering 952,026 observations from 267,212 respondents in 22 European countries. We provide open access to the code we developed for data harmonization. We use ordinary least squares, fixed effects, first difference, and fixed effect quantile regressions to estimate how volunteering activities and changes therein are related to self-rated health for different groups. Our results indicate a small but consistently positive association between changes in volunteering and changes in health within individuals. This association is stronger for older adults. For respondents 60 years and older, within-person changes in volunteering are significantly related to changes in self-rated health. Additionally, the health advantage of volunteering is larger for respondents in worse health. The advantage is largest at the lowest decile and gradually declines along the health distribution. The magnitude of the association at the first decile is about twice the magnitude of the association at the ninth decile. These results suggest that volunteering may be more beneficial for the health of specific groups in society. With small health advantages from year to year, volunteering may protect older and less healthy adults from health decline in the long run.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10433-022-00691-5.
... Theories reported the importance of socioeconomic factors as antecedents of QoL (Lodhi et al., 2021). Furthermore, social networking, connectedness, and social support were crucial factors in promoting QoL (Brown et al., 2012). ...
The coronavirus pandemic has been sweeping the world for more than a year. As physical health begins to stabilize in the western world, an increasing concern is related to the impact of the virus and its containment measures on people's mental health. This work aimed to explore the effect of demographic factors (age, gender, level of education , and socioeconomic status) and variables such as fear of COVID-19 and social support in predicting the quality of life and mental health of adults during the first wave of the pandemic in Italy. Through an online survey with 1087 Italian adults (M = 39.7, SD = 16.39; 74.4% women), gender and socioeconomic status emerged as crucial factors in determining differences regarding people's responses and reactions to the pandemic. In addition, the results highlighted the importance of perceived social support and a moderate fear of COVID-19 in predicting people's quality of life and mental health. The study suggests important guidelines for the development of interventions to support the population's well-being and mental health.
... This situation makes it nearly impossible to maintain volunteerism with local youth centers, schools, park planning committees, community centers, etc. Finding ways to support volunteerism is important, as volunteerism has been found to provide a sense of purpose and meaningful social connections (Hood et al., 2018). Volunteerism also improves self-esteem and self-efficacy (Brown et al., 2012). In addition, continuing to support older volunteers' social engagement may not only promote their well-being but it might put them in position to support other older adults and individuals in the community as well. ...
... Empirical research in economics has begun to explore the idea that work represents much more than simply earning a living: it is a source of meaning (Cassar & Meier, 2018). My feelings are consistent with research suggesting that volunteerism provides a sense of purpose and meaningful social connections (Hood et al., 2018) as well as improving self-esteem and self efficacy (Brown et al., 2012). These are all essential elements at a time when isolation puts older adults at a greater risk of loneliness and depression (Huang, 2020). ...
This (auto)ethnographic case study documents two intertwined stories. The first traces the author’s evolutionary path from a post in full-time teaching and management to lifestyle entrepreneurship as an exercise instructor for older adults. The second arises from the experience of the participants in those classes and their interaction with the author. As the stories merge life experiences are shared and compared. Identity is formed and reformed. This is an original study covering a period exceeding fifteen years. Offered as a piece of Creative Analytical Practice the stories aim to show rather than tell how serious leisure is allied to the concept of ageing well. The work invites readers to respond and question in the light of their own experience. Attention is especially drawn to periods of life transition, for example retirement or confinement due to COVID-19. Data is drawn from doctoral and post-doctoral research supported by longer term personal diary entries. The events involved, the timescale covered and the authenticity of the interaction document a unique trajectory and an example which other older adults are being encouraged to emulate.
... Given that self-efficacy is formed through exposure to competent models, but also through social persuasion (which can be a trait of a good leader; Yukl 1999), previous research has concluded that there is a positive link between leadership and self-efficacy (Liu, Siu, and Shi 2010;Yang, Ding, and Lo 2016). In terms of volunteering, studies have shown that itis an important predictor of self-efficacy (Brown, Hoye, and Nicholson 2012;Stukas et al. 2016). ...
Balancing work and family roles proves to be a rather difficult task for most individuals. The social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, and Hackett 1994) states that to reach positive outcomes in the work domain, people need to develop self-efficacy through adequate learning experiences. With this study, we tested the importance of two contexts that can provide valuable learning experiences: family and volunteering. Thus, we verified the relationship between the division of labour in the family of origin, respectively, authentic leadership use in the volunteering organization and anticipated work-family and family-work conflict in a sample of student volunteers. Self-efficacy in dealing with the conflict between the two domains was used as a mediator. One hundred and ten students who were also volunteers at the time of the study participated in this research. A series of mediation models showed significant indirect effects from family and volunteering experiences on the conflict between work and family. Spillover effects were also confirmed. This study provides an understanding of how positive contexts such as equitable division of labour in the family and having an authentic leader in the volunteering organization help students develop their self-efficacy, which also contributes to anticipating lower levels of conflict between the work and family domains.
... Third, self-esteem refers to whether people see themselves positively or negatively [49]. People with high self-esteem maintain a positive emotional status, which positively affects one's behavior upon helping others [50]. Donors may improve self-esteem through donation behaviors [35]. ...
COVID-19 and the fourth industrial revolution have rapidly changed our society into an overall contactless one. As smartphones become more popularized, donation methods are shifting to online activities that are beyond the traditional methods. In such a contactless society, mobile payment services are emerging as an innovative payment method. However, donation consolidation and persistence are lacking in online donation marketing and other online situations. This study empirically examines the effects of personal factors (unselfishness, self-esteem, and social norms) and technical factors (perceived usefulness, ease of use, and perceived behavioral control) on donation trust, attitude, and satisfaction if donations were made through a simple mobile payment system. To this end, an online questionnaire survey was carried out on donors using the Korean Red Cross’ simple mobile payment service. By collecting 250 data samples, this study verified hypotheses. As a result of the analysis, social norms under the personal factors were significant, but unselfishness and self-esteem did not affect donors. The perceived usefulness and ease of use, which are technical factors, positively affected trust in donation, but the perceived behavioral control was not significant. Consequently, intrinsic behavioral influence factors such as personal unselfishness, self-esteem, or behavioral control did not significantly affect donation behavior, in contrast with traditional donation methods.
... In the same way, the high-ranking administrative assurance, particularly emotional liability is absolutely associated to OCB elements selflessness as well as obedience (Zheng, 2012 ). Correspondingly, persons with the advanced opinion of their competences are more possible to be taking the initiative in addition to take part in accomplishments that go afar their prescribed work description, for instance to involve in intended function (Brown, 2012). ...
The existing research study was aimed to study the organizational citizenship behaviour of teachers at Secondary level. The nature of this research study was descriptive and gathered the data by survey method. Hundred male and hundred female teachers teaching at Secondary level were chosen by stratified sampling technique from the Islamabad Model Secondary Schools. A standardized questionnaire based on Organizational Citizenship Behavior Scale (OCBS) of 24 items developed by Podsakoff and Moorman (1995) was employed to gather data which have five subscales. Mean, Standard deviation, an independent sample t-test and ANOVA were applied for data analysis. The consciousness dimension has shown high mean score value as compare to the other dimensions of OCB. An independent t-test was employed to see the major difference regarding OCB of male and female teachers. Results indicated that there is a substantial difference in OCB between male and female teachers, moreover results also displays that male teachers have considerably higher level of OCB than female teachers. There is no significant difference found in OCB of teachers based on their marital status and age group. Educational administration should work out on fostering a perception of OCB in their institutions to improve their teaching standard and teachers should also be given incentives by their heads in order to exhibit high level of OCB that will be resulted in their improved performance.
... In later development, studies have shown positive impacts of prosocial behavior on self-esteem. For example, among adults, volunteerism is positively associated with self-esteem, both concurrently (Kulik, 2018) and across time (Brown et al., 2012;Mellor et al., 2008). Likewise, qualitative studies of adolescents' experiences of philanthropic service suggest positive associations with self-esteem (Conrad & Hedin, 1989;Yates & Youniss, 1996), and more recent quantitative data support these patterns (Bang et al., 2020). ...
This study assessed maternal caregiving quality and children's prosocial behavior as related to changes in child self‐esteem from early childhood across the transition into formal schooling. Although a robust literature indicates that sensitive caregiving promotes self‐esteem, less is known about the potential contribution of children's positive social behavior to enhanced self‐esteem. This study drew on a diverse sample of young children (N = 250; Mage = 4.085, SD = .249; 50% female, 50% male; 46% Latinx) to evaluate prospective relations between an observational assessment of sensitive maternal caregiving at the age of 4 and child reports of self‐esteem at the age of 8 as mediated by teacher‐reports of children's prosocial behavior at the age of 6. Analyses revealed a significant indirect pathway whereby sensitive maternal caregiving promoted children's self‐esteem via children's prosocial behavior. These findings highlight both sensitive caregiving and children's prosocial behavior as promising points of intervention to bolster children's self‐esteem.
... Self-esteem has been also linked with many variables and plays a significant role in anxiety, depression and other related psychological variables. Another study also revealed that self-esteem, selfefficacy, and social connectedness significantly mediate the volunteering-well-being relationship (Brown et al., 2012). Therefore, we can speculate that self-esteem will mediate the association between mindfulness and psychological well-being. ...
Mindfulness has been considered as a positive psychological trait that contributes to psychological well-being. This study investigated the mediating role of social connectedness and self-esteem in the link between mindfulness and psychological well-being. In this study, a sample of eight hundred and fifty-one students from three Chinese universities were selected to participate in the study. Participants filled in the questionnaires for mindfulness, social connectedness, self-esteem, and psychological well-being. Findings of the path analysis indicated social connectedness and self-esteem performed as a mediating role in the link between mindfulness and psychological well-being. In addition, the bootstrapping procedure demonstrated that the indirect effects of mindfulness on psychological well-being through social connectedness and self-esteem were significant. The study provides valuable implications to apply psychological interventions to improve students’ psychological well-being.
... This finding is in contrast with prior research (e.g., Datu et al., 2021;Duronto et al., 2005;Fu et al., 2017), of which the lack of effect of positive emotions was most surprising based on the abundant theoretical and empirical evidence demonstrating the benefits of positive emotions on mental wellbeing (e.g., Fredrickson, 2013;Nelson et al., 2016). A possible explanation for this contradictory finding might be that the current sample size was too small to detect mediation and moderation effects (Brown et al., 2012;Schoemann et al., 2017). The sample sizes at the time-points during the intervention focusing on the mediator outcomes were in particular low. ...
The current study examines the role of social ties in performing kind acts to enhance university students' wellbeing. Due to facing multifaceted challenges, university students form a group that is particularly vulnerable in terms of their mental health. Interventions harnessing prosocial behaviour have the potential to increase students' wellbeing, strengthen personal competencies, and broaden social networks. The first aim of the trial (N = 222) was to explore whether a 4-week acts-of-kindness intervention targeting either (1) strong social ties, (2) weak social ties or (3) unspecified receivers (treatment-as-usual) differ in their impact on students' mental wellbeing, positive relations, depressive symptoms, anxiety, and perceived stress. The second aim was to examine whether kindness for strong versus weak social ties have different underlying working mechanisms (i.e., positive emotions versus self-esteem) and who benefits most from these instructions (i.e., those with high or low levels of self-esteem and positive relations). Results demonstrated that the most significant improvements in mental wellbeing were found in the kindness for strong social ties condition compared to the other conditions. No mediation effects of positive emotions and self-esteem were found. Moderation analyses revealed that participants who performed kind acts for weak social ties reported significantly less positive effects on mental wellbeing, but only when their levels of self-esteem at baseline were medium or high. Independent of group allocation, participants' mental wellbeing increased throughout the intervention, but so did the experience of depressive symptoms, anxiety, and perceived stress. More research is needed to examine the timing of kindness interventions and investigate how they can improve mental wellbeing and psychological distress in acute phases of academic stress in university students.
... In terms of social engagement, self-efficacy has played a prominent role in research on volunteerism (Kossowska & Laguna, 2018;Wang et al., 2011). In particular, studies have indicated that volunteering increases self-efficacy for middle-aged and older adults (Brown et al., 2012). In terms of cognitive engagement, a growing literature has demonstrated the impact of computer use on self-efficacy among older adults. ...
Ageism is an insidious form of injustice that is internalized from an early age with accumulating negative health impacts across the lifespan. Internalized ageism has been associated with numerous public health outcomes, including physical and mental health, functional impairment, cognition, cardiovascular stress, hospitalizations, and longevity. Research has begun to document how ageism negatively impacts health through psychological, behavioral, and physiological pathways. Yet, limited research has addressed interventions to reduce internalized ageism. This article draws from stereotype embodiment theory and successful aging, presenting a conceptual model which incorporates potential downstream, midstream, and upstream interventions at micro, meso, and macro levels. The need to examine how policy influences health through the three pathways involved in stereotype embodiment theory is discussed. This study provides a working model for scholars and practitioners to use when considering paths toward reducing internalized ageism and optimizing well-being for aging adults.
... Finally, the relative well-being of volunteers and nonvolunteers has been investigated. Brown et al. (2012) found support for the hypotheses that volunteers report higher levels of well-being compared to non-volunteers, and that they also report higher levels of self-esteem, self-efficacy and social connectedness, all of which mediate the relationship between volunteer status and well-being. In an earlier study, Mellor et al. (2009) found that volunteers had higher levels of well-being and exhibited more positive psychological attributes (e.g. ...
There are ongoing management and societal challenges affecting volunteering participation. These place a premium on organizations identifying individuals that currently do not volunteer but have the willingness and capacity to do so, the “Potentials”. Supplementing the limited non-volunteer literature, we seek to quantify this potential volunteer pool using constructs aligned to the willingness, capability and availability dimensions from Meijs et al.’s (Volunt Action 8:36–54, 2006) volunteerability framework. Using binary logistic regression testing with a nationally representative sample of Australian volunteers and non-volunteers, we found partial support for the framework’s willingness and capability dimensions determining volunteer status. We then applied a predictive equation to the non-volunteer sample to calculate their percentage likelihood of volunteering, to identify a cohort of “Potential” volunteers. Further testing revealed statistically significant differences between this cohort compared to other non-volunteers based on various interventions for promoting volunteering. The implications of our novel study and an associated research agenda are discussed.
... This situation makes it nearly impossible to maintain volunteerism with local youth centers, schools, park planning committees, community centers, etc. Finding ways to support volunteerism is important, as volunteerism has been found to provide a sense of purpose and meaningful social connections (Hood et al., 2018). Volunteerism also improves self-esteem and self-efficacy (Brown et al., 2012). In addition, continuing to support older volunteers' social engagement may not only promote their well-being but it might put them in position to support other older adults and individuals in the community as well. ...
... A healthy and active lifestyle determines positive effects on cognition (Hötting and Röder, 2013), improving memory abilities and efficiency of attentional processes and executive-control processes (Colcombe and Kramer, 2003;Grego et al., 2005;Pereira et al., 2007;Winter et al., 2007;Chieffi et al., 2017). Moreover, the continuous interaction with the environment, the practice of physical exercise, and proper nutrition and sleep hygiene, as well as social connectedness, the perception of social support, and other social factors, reduce dysfunctional behaviors, as well as states such as depression and anxiety Brooks et al., 2020), improving the quality of life (e.g., Sherbourne and Stewart, 1991;Brown et al., 2012). ...
During the COVID-19 lockdown, individuals were forced to remain at home, hence severely limiting the interaction within environmental stimuli, reducing the cognitive load placed on spatial competences. The effects of the behavioral restriction on cognition have been little examined. The present study is aimed at analyzing the effects of lockdown on executive function prominently involved in adapting behavior to new environmental demands. We analyze non-verbal fluency abilities, as indirectly providing a measure of cognitive flexibility to react to spatial changes. Sixteen students (mean age 20.75; SD 1.34), evaluated before the start of the lockdown (T1) in a battery of psychological tasks exploring different cognitive domains, have been reassessed during lockdown (T2). The assessment included the modified Five-Point Test (m-FPT) to analyze non-verbal fluency abilities. At T2, the students were also administered the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). The restriction of behaviors following a lockdown determines increased non-verbal fluency, evidenced by the significant increase of the number of new drawings. We found worsened verbal span, while phonemic verbal fluency remained unchanged. Interestingly, we observed a significant tendency to use the left part of each box in the m-FPT correlated with TAS-20 and with the subscales that assess difficulty in describing and identifying feelings. Although our data were collected from a small sample, they evidence that the restriction of behaviors determines a leftward bias, suggesting a greater activation of the right hemisphere, intrinsically connected with the processing of non-verbal information and with the need to manage an emotional situation.
This project was submitted for the fulfilment of the course - 'Psychological Research Methods and Assessment - II' to Dr Indumathy Jayaprakash, Department of Psychology, as part of the Bachelor of Arts degree, Christ (Deemed To Be University).
Behavior-focused interventions such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) aim to activate value-consistent behaviors. However, few measures comprehensively assess what these behaviors are and why individuals engage in them (i.e., motivation). Building on previous research on ACT and self-determination theory, a new behavior-focused measure of valued action called the Six Ways to Well-Being (6W-WeB) was developed. This measure captures both the specific actions individuals engage in as well as why they do so. Specifically, it assesses the typical ways in which an individual engages in six behaviors: connecting with others, challenging oneself, giving to others, engaging in physical activity, embracing the moment, and caring for oneself. For each of these behavior domains, the 6W-WeB assesses an individual’s levels of satisfaction with their frequency of engagement as well as their autonomous and controlled motivation for doing so. It yields global scores for engagement, importance of activities, and pressure to engage in activities, as well as specific scores for each way to well-being. The measure has been validated in four independent samples, from two countries, with participants ranging in age from 11 to 65 years. The measure is best represented by a bifactor model which has been shown to be invariant across gender, age, country of sampling, and levels of psychological distress. The 6W-WeB is also linked in expected ways with measures of flourishing, psychological distress, experiential avoidance, and nonattachment. Additionally, known-groups validity tests demonstrated that the 6W-WeB can successfully differentiate between participants who meet criteria for high psychological distress and those who do not. The 6W-WeB measure can be a clinically relevant tool, helping practitioners identify the specific behavior domains that can promote their clients’ value-consistent living.
The Volunteering Research Papers aim to capture evidence on a wide range of topics related to volunteering and outline key insights for policy and practice. The Volunteering Research Papers are peer reviewed, and insights will directly inform the development of the National Strategy for Volunteering.
We examined whether emerging adults' sense of intimate safety with their parents and their adult attachment style would predict emerging adults' social connectedness. Additionally, we investigated whether their social connectedness would mediate the association between emerging adults' sense of intimate safety with their parents and their rumination and anger expression. Social connectedness is essential to the psychological and relational health of emerging adults, particularly during the renegotiation of their relationships with their parents. Two hundred sixteen emerging adults (80% female; 61% non‐Hispanic White) completed a survey of close relationship variables. The results suggest that emerging adults' adult attachment style mediated the relationship between emerging adults' intimate safety with their parents and social connectedness. Additionally, social connectedness mediated the relationship between emerging adults' intimate safety with their parents and their rumination and anger expression. This research highlights the importance of emerging adults' sense of safety to be their authentic and vulnerable selves in parent–child relationships on emerging adults' development of social connectedness and their mental and relational health.
Combining knowledge from research on prosocial behavior, online communication, and (online) social support, this paper examines (1) how online communication shapes the provision of online support and (2) how the provision of online support is related to wellbeing. The focus lies on the underrepresented perspective of those acting prosocially by providing support. To answer these research questions, a qualitative (n = 22) and quantitative study (n = 470) have been conducted. The results of both studies suggest that providing online social support is positively related to people's wellbeing by satisfying basic psychological needs. This relation was partially mediated by beneficence and moderated by autonomous motivation and positive feedback. The qualitative results underline the specific conditions of online communication for providing support. It connects people with shared concerns and enables the autonomous building of anonymous support communities. Moreover, asynchronous communication with reduced cues transmitted may foster positive feedback that strengthens the self-image of those acting prosocially.
The psychological resources of mindfulness, capacity for pleasure, self-acceptance, self-efficacy, construction of meaning, and solidarity can be systematically promoted in various social settings. Following the goal of personal development, work-life balance and biographical transitions can be better mastered through psychological resources in coaching sessions. In health promotion, contact with one’s own body can be improved and thus illness prevented. In schools and universities, there are large areas of overlap between psychological resources and competencies in education for sustainable development (ESD) taught there. In companies and nonprofit organizations, psychological resources can be promoted within the framework of measures for corporate social responsibility. In residential neighborhoods, the consideration of psychological resources can improve not only their sustainability but also their quality of life. For all settings, examples are given of how psychological resources are already used or how they can be combined with other goals in the settings to promote sustainable behavior.KeywordsCoachingHealth promotionSchoolsUniversitiesCompaniesNongovernmental organizationResidential neighborhoodsPersonality developmentEducation for sustainable development (ESD)Competencies for sustainabilityEnvironmental activistsCorporate social responsibilityLeadership stylesCorporate cultureHealthy livingEmpowermentNatural environmentUrban planning
Social prescribing is being proposed by policy makers as a solution to primarily address lowered wellbeing and increased loneliness in older adults. Previous reviews have found a lack of supporting evidence for social prescribing. However, these reviews were using a narrow definition which may have left out some important evaluations. Therefore, this review aims to evaluate the evidence for social prescribing programs using a broader definition to encompasses a variety of referral pathways and activities. The review was conducted by searching PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus, and ProQuest Social Sciences databases, and a final 77 articles were included. We found that there were five main themes in the outcomes reported: social connection; improvement in the management of health and health status; improvement in mental health and wellbeing; life enrichment; and link worker support. Social prescribing programs appeared to have generally positive impacts however there was a large variety in both programs reported and quality of the research, which made drawing definitive conclusions difficult. Researchers evaluating programs in future should attempt to recruit larger sample sizes and use a mixed methods approach to further examine the evidence base for social prescribing.
This study used nationally representative data from the China Longitudinal Ageing Social Survey 2018 to examine how activity patterns in the personal and family life domains were associated with social networks among Chinese older adults and whether internet use changed these relationships. Using latent class analysis, we identified four activity patterns, including Personal‐centered Activity class (14.37%), Low Activity class (58.06%), Family‐centered Activity class (19.24%), and Balanced Activity class (8.33%). Multivariate analyses revealed that the Personal‐centered Activity and Low Activity classes were associated with looser family ties compared with the Family‐centered Activity class, whereas the Balanced Activity class was associated with closer friendship ties. Internet usage was significantly associated with stronger family and friendship ties in the Low Activity group. Intervention programs to address the digital divide and engage older adults with limited offline social engagement in online communications may have positive effects on maintaining or expanding their social networks.
This study used data from 1871 college students across China to examine the relations among volunteering and PWB in 2020. Results of regression analysis indicate that volunteering had positive effects on the PWB of the students. Students whose motivation to volunteer was public interest had greater PWB, regardless of the degree to which they also reported private gain as a motivation. The significant interaction results indicate that students whose volunteer motivation included both public interest and private gains and who had high frequency of volunteering were more likely to have higher PWB. Policy and practice implications were discussed.
Loneliness is a risk factor for older adults, one exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although time spent alone is associated with both loneliness and greater well-being, the experience of solitude may depend on the type of activity pursued. We examined formal prosocial activity as one facilitator of positive solitary experiences. Older adults ( N = 165, M age = 71.13, SD = 5.70) highly committed to prosocial-program work (e.g., tutoring) filled out surveys at six random times every day for a week. Using multilevel modeling, we investigated whether participating in prosocial-program activity alone was associated with greater well-being compared to other solitary activity. While prosocial-program activity did not buffer against negative affect in solitude, it promoted positive affect and relatedness when alone. To the extent that prosocial-program work can facilitate positive solitary experiences by enhancing feelings of connection, it may protect against threats to well-being posed by loneliness in later life.
This paper investigates the relationship between dating anxiety (DA), self-esteem (SE) and social connectedness (SC), particularly the degree in which self-esteem and social connectedness can be considered predictors of dating anxiety, as well as the differences and similarities between participants regarding the three concepts (dating anxiety, self-esteem and social connectedness) based on their age, gender and the relational status. The sample consisted in 200 participants young adults (from several counties in Romania), aged 18-30 years old. Data were collected online by three instruments regarding DA, SE, and SC. The quantitative analysis of the results indicates positive and statistically significant correlations between SE and SC, negative correlations between DA and SE and between DA and SC. The results are discussed by reffering to previous data in the literature and from the perspective of their applied values in relation to the wellbeing of young adults involved (or trying to be involved) in romantic relationships.
Research investigating individual differences in personality and altruistic behaviour has focused predominantly on traits described within the Five-Factor Model (FFM). The objective of the present study was to examine if the same personality dimensions which predict donation behaviour (Kowalski et al., 2021) and are thought to be “beyond” the FFM also predict self-report altruism. An online survey including the Supernumerary Personality Inventory (Paunonen, 2002), the Self-Report Altruism Scale (Rushton et al., 1981), and the Compassionate Altruism Scale (O'Connor et al., 2015) was completed by 256 participants. Regression analysis revealed that the SPI accounted for significant variance in both measures of altruism. Specifically, age, integrity, femininity, and risk-taking positively predicted scores on the Self-Report Altruism Scale. Humorousness positively predicted compassionate altruism towards family, while compassionate altruism towards strangers was positively predicted by religiosity, and negatively predicted by femininity. Overall, the results highlight the importance of incorporating additional dimensions of personality into explorations of altruism and related prosocial behaviours. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
Objective. To study the relationship between the psychological characteristics of volunteers and the type of volunteer activity (helping people or homeless animals). Background. The normalization of the practice of volunteerism, the growth of the involvement of individuals in such activities require a thorough understanding of this phenomenon in order to better recruit and retain volunteers. On a number of characteristics of volunteers, the data are contradictory, volunteers with homeless animals were little studied, and there are few works devoted to comparing the types of volunteers. Study design. Groups of volunteers helping people or animals were compared based on activity motives, empathy, feelings of loneliness, and life satisfaction. Descriptive statistics, analysis of differences, contingency table were utilized. Participants. Volunteers working with people (n=71), average age 33.95 years (SD=11.23); of them 83.1% are women and 16.9% are men. Volunteers with stray animals (n=71), mean age 39.7 years (SD=9.05); of them 92.95% are women, 7.05% are men. Measurements. Russian-language versions of The Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (Mehrabi¬an, Epstein), UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, Peplau, Ferguson), and The Satisfaction With Life Scale. To study motives, the author’s form is used, compiled according to the theory of motives by E.G. Clary. Results. Volunteers from both groups did not differ in characteristics: average level of emotional empathy, normal level of life satisfaction, low level of loneliness. Volunteers helping people are predomi¬nantly poly-motivated, while volunteers with animals are mono-motivated. Among volunteers with ani¬mals, individuals with the altruistic orientation prevail, among volunteers helping people — individuals who combine altruistic and egoistic orientations. Conclusions. Volunteers with animals are motivated altruistically, the motivation of volunteers helping people is variable and includes an egoistic component.
Our study uses a social cognitive theory lens to examine the development of AmeriCorps’ members’ context-specific self-efficacy (self-efficacy to perform community service). The analysis uses panel survey data from 189 Ohio State AmeriCorps members collected at the beginning and end of their service terms in 2017–2018 or 2018–2019. Using a random-effects model, the results indicate that generally self-efficacy increased from beginning to end of the service term. Perceptions of having performance accomplishments, having positive role models, and receiving useful feedback significantly increased self-efficacy to perform community service, while experiencing service stress diminished self-efficacy development.
In this article, we attempt to distinguish between the properties of moderator and mediator variables at a number of levels. First, we seek to make theorists and researchers aware of the importance of not using the terms moderator and mediator interchangeably by carefully elaborating, both conceptually and strategically, the many ways in which moderators and mediators differ. We then go beyond this largely pedagogical function and delineate the conceptual and strategic implications of making use of such distinctions with regard to a wide range of phenomena, including control and stress, attitudes, and personality traits. We also provide a specific compendium of analytic procedures appropriate for making the most effective use of the moderator and mediator distinction, both separately and in terms of a broader causal system that includes both moderators and mediators. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The population approaching social services for help is often characterized by poverty, passivity, helplessness, and an external locus of control. This population expects improvement in its situation but develops a dependent relationship with the help agents. The literature shows that volunteer work contributes toward developing empowerment among volunteers, but to date only a relatively small number of welfare clients have been activated as volunteers, serving more as the object of others' volunteer work. This article describes a classic experimental study, checking the connection between welfare clients' volunteering and their individual feeling of empowerment. The main and most significant finding in the study demonstrated that individual feeling of empowerment among clients who engaged in volunteer work was higher than that of clients not engaged in such work. The findings suggest that volunteer work may serve as an effective intervention tool in social work, whose aim is change in welfare clients' feelings of empowerment.
Volunteers play a vital role in modern societies by boosting the labor force within both the public and private sectors. While the factors that may lead people to volunteer have been investigated in a number of studies, the means by which volunteering contributes to the well-being of such volunteers is poorly understood. It has been suggested through studies that focus on the absence of depression in volunteers that self-esteem and sense of control may be major determinants of the increased well-being reported by volunteers. This is consistent with the homeostatic model of subjective well-being, which proposes that self-esteem, optimism, and perceived control act as buffers that mediate the relationship between environmental experience and subjective well-being (SWB). Using personal well-being as a more positive measure of well-being than absence of depression, this study further explored the possible mediating role of self-esteem, optimism, and perceived control in the relationship between volunteer status and well-being. Participants (N = 1,219) completed a 97-item survey as part of the Australian Unity Wellbeing project. Variables measured included personal well-being, self-esteem, optimism, and a number of personality and psychological adjustment factors. Analyses revealed that perceived control and optimism, but not self-esteem, mediated the relationship between volunteer status and personal well-being.
The study developed 2 measures of belongingness based on H. Kohut's (1984) self psychology theory. The Social Connectedness Scale and the Social Assurance Scale were constructed with a split-sample procedure on 626 college students. Internal reliability estimates for the 2 scales were .91 and .82, respectively. Test-retest correlations revealed good test stability over a 2-week period (
rs = .96 and .84, respectively). Cross-validation for the 2 measures was achieved with confirmatory factor analysis with an incremental fit index greater than .90. Scale functions are described and results are discussed in light of current research and theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Self-reported altruistic activity and social capital were examined as predictors of perceived happiness and life satisfaction among a sample of 4,486 Canadians aged 65 or more years from the 2003 Canadian General Social Services Survey, Cycle 17. Altruistic behaviour was measured by number of volunteer hours per month and helping others (not including family and friends). Social capital was measured using dimensions of belonging to one's community, community and neighbour trust, and group activities. Drawing on generativity and role-identity theories, it was hypothesised that altruistic behaviour and social capital are positively associated with well-being (using perceived happiness and life satisfaction), and that social capital mediates the relationship. For both perceived happiness and life satisfaction, after controlling for demographic, health status, and social support variables, measures of altruistic behaviour demonstrated statistically significant associations. Once measures of social capital were entered into the analysis in the final block, however, the altruistic behaviour variables were no longer statistically significant. Robust associations were found for social capital and the two measures of well-being, particularly between sense of belonging, trust in neighbours, and perceived happiness and life satisfaction. The findings suggest that altruistic behaviour is mediated by social capital. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to understanding the well-being of older Canadians.
Perceived self-efficacy represents an optimistic sense of personal competence that seems to be a pervasive phenomenon accounting for motivation and accomplishments in human beings. The General Self-Efficacy scale, developed to measure this construct at the broadest level, has been adapted tomany languages. The psychometric properties of this instrument is examined among 19,120 participants from 25 countries. The main research question is whether the measure is configurally equivalent across cultures, that is, whether it corresponds to only one dimension. The findings confirm this assumption and suggest the globality of the underlying construct. They also point to a number of cross-cultural differences that merit further investigation.
There is a strong tradition in Britain of volunteering involving a wide range of activities and organisations. Increasingly volunteering is seen as a way of benefiting health and building sustainable communities. In a study in 2007 we aimed to address the research questions: what are the motivations for, barriers to, and benefits of formal practical environmental volunteering for those individuals involved? Qualitative and quantitative data collection was undertaken while spending a day each with ten volunteer groups as they undertook their practical conservation activities. In this paper we focus primarily on the physical, mental and social well-being benefits that volunteers derived from their activities. Our research involved 88 people volunteering regularly in a range of places from scenic natural landscapes to urban green spaces in northern England and southern Scotland. Respondents described a range of benefits they gained from their involvement including improved fitness, keeping alert, meeting others and reducing stress levels. We suggest that practical environmental volunteering has flexibility in the types of activity available and the time scale in which activities are undertaken and therefore can provide a range of physical, social and mental well-being benefits to people with very differing abilities and from different socio-economic backgrounds. © 2010 International Society for Third-Sector Research and The John's Hopkins University.
This study tested the hypothesis that volunteering in environmental organizations in midlife is associated with greater physical activity and improved mental and physical health over a 20-year period.
The study used data from two waves (1974 and 1994) of the Alameda County Study, a longitudinal study of health and mortality that has followed a cohort of 6,928 adults since 1965. Using logistic and multiple regression models, we examined the prospective association between environmental and other volunteerism and three outcomes (physical activity, self-reported health, and depression), with 1974 volunteerism predicting 1994 outcomes, controlling for a number of relevant covariates.
Midlife environmental volunteering was significantly associated with physical activity, self-reported health, and depressive symptoms.
This population-based study offers the first epidemiological evidence for a significant positive relationship between environmental volunteering and health and well-being outcomes. Further research, including intervention studies, is needed to confirm and shed additional light on these initial findings.
In this article, we attempt to distinguish between the properties of moderator and mediator variables at a number of levels. First, we seek to make theorists and researchers aware of the importance of not using the terms moderator and mediator interchangeably by carefully elaborating, both conceptually and strategically, the many ways in which moderators and mediators differ. We then go beyond this largely pedagogical function and delineate the conceptual and strategic implications of making use of such distinctions with regard to a wide range of phenomena, including control and stress, attitudes, and personality traits. We also provide a specific compendium of analytic procedures appropriate for making the most effective use of the moderator and mediator distinction, both separately and in terms of a broader causal system that includes both moderators and mediators.
This meta-analysis used 9 literature search strategies to examine 137 distinct personality constructs as correlates of subjective well-being (SWB). Personality was found to be equally predictive of life satisfaction, happiness, and positive affect, but significantly less predictive of negative affect. The traits most closely associated with SWB were repressive-defensiveness, trust, emotional stability, locus of control-chance, desire for control, hardiness, positive affectivity, private collective self-esteem, and tension. When personality traits were grouped according to the Big Five factors, Neuroticism was the strongest predictor of life satisfaction, happiness, and negative affect. Positive affect was predicted equally well by Extraversion and Agreeableness. The relative importance of personality for predicting SWB, how personality might influence SWB, and limitations of the present review are discussed.
This chapter focuses on the relevance of SWB as a possible policy goal, and examines issues of measurement. It reviews and critiques different measures of health and well-being and explains the relevance of a measure of SWB for social policy. It describes how the concepts of mental health and quality of life have evolved within medicine and the social sciences. It then offers a critique of two of the most commonly used measures, Quality Adjusted Life Years and Health-related Quality of Life. It goes on to describe the concept of SWB and its measurement, drawing on the work as part of the International Wellbeing Group in developing the ‘Personal Wellbeing Index’. It explores the relevance of SWB measurement for social policy and argues that the development of new measures can inform policy decisions by providing comparable data about perceived quality of life across different groups in the population and between different communities.
Who tends to volunteer and why? What causes attract certain types of volunteers? What motivates people to volunteer? How can volunteers be persuaded to continue their service? Making use of a broad range of survey information to offer a detailed portrait of the volunteer in America, Volunteers provides an important resource for everyone who works with volunteers or is interested in their role in contemporary society. Mark A. Musick and John Wilson address issues of volunteer motivation by focusing on individuals' subjective states, their available resources, and the influence of gender and race. In a section on social context, they reveal how volunteer work is influenced by family relationships and obligations through the impact of schools, churches, and communities. They consider cross-national differences in volunteering and historical trends, and close with consideration of the research on the organization of volunteer work and the consequences of volunteering for the volunteer.
This paper reviews methods for handling missing data in a research study. Many researchers use ad hoc methods such as complete case analysis, available case analysis (pairwise deletion), or single-value imputation. Though these methods are easily implemented, they require assumptions about the data that rarely hold in practice. Model-based methods such as maximum likelihood using the EM algorithm and multiple imputation hold more promise for dealing with difficulties caused by missing data. While model-based methods require specialized computer programs and assumptions about the nature of the missing data, these methods are appropriate for a wider range of situations than the more commonly used ad hoc methods. The paper provides an illustration of the methods using data from an intervention study designed to increase students’ ability to control their asthma symptoms.
Understanding communication processes is the goal of most communication researchers. Rarely are we satisfied merely ascertaining whether messages have an effect on some outcome of focus in a specific context. Instead, we seek to understand how such effects come to be. What kinds of causal sequences does exposure to a message initiate? What are the causal pathways through which a message exerts its effect? And what role does communication play in the transmission of the effects of other variables over time and space? Numerous communication models attempt to describe the mechanism through which messages or other communication-related variables transmit their effects or intervene between two other variables in a causal model. The communication literature is replete with tests of such models. Over the years, methods used to test such process models have grown in sophistication. An example includes the rise of structural equation modeling (SEM), which allows investigators to examine how well a process model that links some focal variable X to some outcome Y through one or more intervening pathways fits the observed data. Yet frequently, the analytical choices communication researchers make when testing intervening variables models are out of step with advances made in the statistical methods literature. My goal here is to update the field on some of these new advances. While at it, I challenge some conventional wisdom and nudge the field toward a more modern way of thinking about the analysis of intervening variable effects.
The Moral Foundations of Trust seeks to explain why people place their faith in strangers, and why doing so matters. Trust is a moral value that does not depend upon personal experience or on interacting with people in civic groups or informal socializing. Instead, we learn to trust from our parents, and trust is stable over long periods of time. Trust depends on an optimistic world view: the world is a good place and we can make it better. Trusting people are more likely to give through charity and volunteering. Trusting societies are more likely to redistribute resources from the rich to the poor. Trust has been in decline in the United States for over 30 years. The roots of this decline are traceable to declining optimism and increasing economic inequality, which Uslaner supports by aggregate time series in the United States and cross-sectional data across market economies.
Social connectedness and its relationship with anxiety, self-esteem, and social identity was explored in the lives of women. Social connectedness was negatively related to trait anxiety and made a larger unique contribution to trait anxiety than social support or collective self-esteem. Women with high connectedness also reported greater social identification in high, as compared with low, cohesion conditions. Women with low connectedness exhibited no difference in either condition. Social connectedness was also positively related to state self-esteem across both conditions but did not have an effect on state anxiety. Future research in gender and cultural differences, self-evaluation process, and intervention strategies are discussed in light of the findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This paper, based on Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) data, analyzes the relation between volunteering and well-being among 30,023 Europeans aged 50 and above in 12 countries. There is an overall positive correlation between volunteering and perceived health, life satisfaction, and self-life expectancy and a negative correlation to depression. However, in some countries the correlation is much stronger than in others. © 2009 International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University.
Using the first two waves from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) we explore dynamics of participation
in two different types of productive activities (voluntary work and care for a person) and test their association with changes
in well-being across 11 European countries (N=10,309) among people aged 50 and older. In order to measure changes in well-being, we use a standardized instrument of
quality of life in early old age (CASP-12) and assess relevant decreases and increases between both waves, applying the Edwards–Nunnally
method. Main findings demonstrate that older people who maintain or start their productive activity in terms of volunteering
between both waves have a lower probability of experiencing a relevant decrease in well-being, while no association with a
relevant increase in well-being is observed. In case of caring for a person changes in participation remain unrelated to changes
in well-being. These results are maintained after adjusting for important confounders, such as functional limitation, socioeconomic
position and living with a partner. These latter conditions were also strongly related to changes in well-being. Our results
support a core assumption of the activity theory of ageing claiming that the initiation and maintenance of a productive activity
is beneficial for older people’s well-being.
KeywordsSHARE-Social productivity-Well-being-Dynamics
A considerable body of data is now available to suggest that subjective well-being (SWB) is not free to vary over the theoretical
range offered by measurement scales. Rather, most people experience a moderately positive level of well-being, such that the
population average is normally held at about 75 percent of maximum. This has led to the proposal that SWB is under the influence
of a homeostatic system designed to hold its value within a narrow, positive, set-point-range for each individual. Our paper
offers a model that could account for such maintenance through an interlocking system of psychological devices as follows:
(a) Personality provides a steady affective background that determines the set-pointrange for the whole homeostatic system.
(b) A set of cognitive buffers involving perceived control, self-esteem and optimism, absorb the impact of different need
states and, together with personality, create subjective well-being (c) Met and unmet needs act directly on the cognitive
buffers, with the met needs reinforcing the buffering system and the unmet needs providing motivation. Personality is also
presented as having a powerful influence on motivational systems that seek satisfaction and, thus, predispose behavior that
is likely to maintain normal levels of SWB. (d) Finally, at the most fundamental level of the homeostatic system, the processes
of habituation and adaptation constitute the first line of defence against the threat of changed extrinsic conditions influencing
levels of SWB. Data are cited in support of all levels of the model and the implications of homeostatic control are discussed.
In particular, depression is described in terms of homeostatic failure, and the limitation of using SWB as a measure of intervention
outcome is emphasized. That is, interventions can only raise SWB if its initial levels were below the setpoint-range. It is
concluded that the model is consistent with a great deal of the literature and that testing its many propositions should prove
a fruitful approach to advancing knowledge in this area.
There is increasing interest in the “economics of happiness”, reflected by the number of articles that are appearing in mainstream economics journals that consider subjective well-being (SWB) and its determinants. This paper provides a detailed review of this literature. It focuses on papers that have been published in economics journals since 1990, as well as some key reviews in psychology and important unpublished working papers. The evidence suggests that poor health, separation, unemployment and lack of social contact are all strongly negatively associated with SWB. However, the review highlights a range of problems in drawing firm conclusions about the causes of SWB; these include some contradictory evidence, concerns over the impact on the findings of potentially unobserved variables and the lack of certainty on the direction of causality. We should be able to address some of these problems as more panel data become available.
This review summarizes the current knowledge about volunteering in later life and suggests 5 research questions at the forefront of knowledge development.
Rates of volunteering do not decline significantly until the middle of the 7th decade, and older volunteers commit more hours than younger volunteers. Older adults with more human and social capital tend to volunteer, and there is good evidence of a reciprocal relationship between volunteering and well-being. Program and policy developments in the field are outstripping production of knowledge to support evidence-based practices.
Research on the dynamics of volunteering over the life course as well as the patterns of activities that co-occur with volunteering is needed to guide program development. Research methods and findings from transdisciplinary work on the mechanisms through which psychosocial conditions affect health must be extended to the study of the effects of volunteering on older adults. Finally, we need to engage in more applied social science aimed at improving volunteer management, especially recruitment and retention of older volunteers.
This study tested a theoretical model of volunteering benefits and examined the mechanism through which volunteering benefits older adults.
This is a 2-wave study of 253 older adult volunteers serving in 10 volunteer programs. Older volunteers completed the mailed surveys in 2005 and 2006. Structural equation modeling was used to define the latent variables and to test direct and indirect relationships among organizational support, socioemotional benefits, and self-reported health.
Organizational support (measured by choice of volunteer activity, training, and ongoing support) had significant direct associations with 2 latent factors of socioemotional benefits, that is, perceived contribution and personal benefits. Perceived contribution was significantly related to mental health. Additionally, older volunteers with lower socioeconomic status (SES) committed more hours and perceived more personal benefits than higher SES peers.
These findings suggest that volunteer programs can provide various organizational supports to older volunteers, especially to low-SES volunteers, in order to promote the socioemotional and health benefits of volunteering to older adults. Psychological well-being of older adults can be improved through engagement in meaningful volunteer activities and contribution to others.
Hypotheses involving mediation are common in the behavioral sciences. Mediation exists when a predictor affects a dependent variable indirectly through at least one intervening variable, or mediator. Methods to assess mediation involving multiple simultaneous mediators have received little attention in the methodological literature despite a clear need. We provide an overview of simple and multiple mediation and explore three approaches that can be used to investigate indirect processes, as well as methods for contrasting two or more mediators within a single model. We present an illustrative example, assessing and contrasting potential mediators of the relationship between the helpfulness of socialization agents and job satisfaction. We also provide SAS and SPSS macros, as well as Mplus and LISREL syntax, to facilitate the use of these methods in applications.
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.
To cross-validate the selection of the questionnaire items for the SF-12 in an Australian sample.
The sample comprised respondents with complete data on the SF-36 summary measures and the 12 items that comprise the SF-12 (n = 17,671) from the 1995 Australian National Health Survey. Two sets of mental and physical summary scales were analysed, based on either scoring from Australian normative data or the standard United States normative data scoring. Forward stepwise linear regression analyses of weighted data provided the proportion of variance in the summary scales explained by the SF-12 items.
The SF-12 items predicted at least 90% of the variance in both the physical and mental summary scales of the SF-36, whether they were scored with Australian or United States normative data. Implications: The SF-12 is an appropriate substitute for the SF-36 when the summary scales are of interest but a briefer instrument is required.
To derive and assess the validity of an Australian version of the SF-12 quality-of-life questionnaire.
Using regression methods and structural equation modelling to obtain item weights, an Australian version of the SF-12 was derived from Australian population survey data and compared to the existing United States (US) SF-12 variable set.
The Australian version of the SF-12 explained 94% of the variation for physical components summary (PCS) and the mental components summary (MCS) of the SF-36 questionnaire. There was high level of agreement on the MCS and PCS summary scores between both versions of the SF-12 and the SF-36.
Although it is possible to derive a valid Australian version of the SF-12 it is concluded the US version of the SF-12 be used for reasons of international comparability, but using item weights derived from structural equation modelling.
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.
In this paper, we examine whether engaging in voluntary work leads to greater well-being, as measured by self-reported health and happiness. Drawing on data from the USA, our estimates suggest that people who volunteer report better health and greater happiness than people who do not, a relationship that is not driven by socio-economic differences between volunteers and non-volunteers. We concentrate on voluntary labor for religious groups and organizations and using second stage least square regressions we find that religious volunteering has a positive, causal influence on self-reported happiness but not on self-reported health. We explore reasons that could account for the observed causal effect of volunteering on happiness. Findings indicate that low relative socio-economic status is associated with poor health both among those who volunteer and those who do not. Low status, however, is associated with unhappy states only among those who do not volunteer, while volunteers are equally likely to be happy whether they have high or low status. We propose that volunteering might contribute to happiness levels by increasing empathic emotions, shifting aspirations and by moving the salient reference group in subjective evaluations of relative positions from the relatively better-off to the relatively worse-off.
Population by age and sex
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