The older adult volunteer compared to the nonvolunteer

Gender and Work History in the Placement and Perceptions of Elder Community Volunteers

This study explored factors that determine the types of volunteer jobs older adults are placed in, as well as factors that define the meaning of their roles. With a sample of 169 elder community volunteers (mean age, 73 years), we investigated the patterns of job perceptions of women and men in two types of volunteer positions: jobs that involved leadership and jobs that did not. A two-way MANOVA with gender and leadership as independent variables revealed that there was a significant interaction effect. When men are leaders, their sense of interpersonal feedback is higher than when they are non-leaders, but their sense of influence and autonomy is lower. Women in leadership jobs feel more influential and autonomous than their peers in non-leadership jobs. Subsequent analyses probing differences in job placement suggested that work history was a significant predictor of leadership jobs for men, but not for women. Correspondingly, men with prestigious preretirement work histories perceived their volunteer roles as less influential than men who had been in lower status jobs before retirement. Work history was not a predictor of job perception for women. These placement and perception issues are discussed within the context of an historical perspective on paid work, with special emphasis on gender.

Voluntary Work in the Lives of Post-Retirement Adults

The ability of an individual to adapt to either role loss or role gain when he or she enters a period of retirement is influenced by many factors and several attempts have been made to describe both successful and unsuccessful role adaptation. This study aimed to examine the relationship between leisure activities and life satisfaction in a sample of 40 retired adults, aged 60–83 years. The difference in life satisfaction and leisure activities in one group of 20 subjects who undertook volunteer work was compared with a second group of 20 subjects who did not undertake volunteer work. Three data collection instruments were used: a demographic questionnaire, a leisure activity questionnaire and a life satisfaction questionnaire.

When Spearman's rank order correlation coefficient was applied to the data to examine the relationship between leisure activities and life satisfaction levels for the full sample of subjects, a positive correlation was found at the 5% level. However, when the groups were examined separately, only the non-volunteer group scores showed a positive relationship. In order to compare life satisfaction levels and leisure activity patterns of those subjects who participated in voluntary work with those who did not, the Mann Whitney test was applied to the data. The results for both groups were not significant at the 5% level.

The Effects of Volunteering on the Physical and Mental Health of Older People

The purpose of this study is to build on the growing body of literature examining the correlations between volunteering and health among older persons. Longitudinal data from the 1993 and 2000 panels of the Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old Study (AHEAD) were used to measure health and mental health outcomes of people over age 70 who volunteered at least 100 hours in 1993. The findings provide empirical support to earlier claims that volunteering slows the decline in self-reported health and functioning levels, slows the increase in depression levels, and improves mortality rates for those who volunteer. However, volunteering had no effect on the number of physician-diagnosed health conditions or nursing home residence rates. The findings provide support for the concept of role enhancement.

Beyond the Call of Duty: Older Volunteers Committed to Children and Families

Research on volunteerism has focused primarily on the recipients of this activity as opposed to the volunteers themselves. We examined the characteristics and experiences of older adults who volunteered with Family Friends, a program designed to assist families who have children with chronic illnesses or disabilities living at home. A profile of volunteers who remained involved in the program after their requested 9-month commitment and those who did not was also developed Results suggested that Family Friends volunteers experienced a mutually beneficial relationship between themselves and families that provided them with a sense of purpose and personal competence. Volunteers who stayed with the program beyond their required commitment were more highly educated, received a higher annual income, were more likely to volunteer with other organizations, and reported higher life satisfaction. Implications for volunteer recruiting and longevity are discussed.

Does the Relation between Volunteering and Well-Being Vary with Health and Age?

Previous studies have established a positive association between organizational volunteering and well-being. In the current study, we examined whether the relations between organizational volunteering and positive affect, negative affect, and resilience are modified by respondents' age and number of chronic health conditions. This study used cross-sectional data from the 2008 Arizona Health Survey of residents 18 years old and older ( N = 4,161). Multiple regression analyses provided no support for the hypothesis that age moderates the association between volunteer status and positive affect, negative affect, and resilience. In contrast, there was a significant ( p < .05) interaction between volunteer status and chronic health conditions on positive affect and resilience. Consistent with the compensatory hypothesis, as number of chronic health conditions increased, the relations between volunteering and positive affect and resilience scores increased. Implications of these findings for increasing volunteering among adults with multiple chronic health conditions are discussed.

Effects of Spouses' Characteristics on the Social Roles and Activities of Married Elderly Persons in Israel

In this paper, we present findings from a recent national study of elderly persons in Israel which cover two related questions: I. How do spouses' characteristics and activities affect the social participation of married older men and women? 2. Is the effect of husbands' characteristics and activities on wives equivalent or symmetrical to that of wives' characteristics and activities on husbands? The study is based on analyses of data collected in the Israel Survey of Persons Aged 60 and Over in Households, 1985, a national sample survey of households conducted by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics which included approximately 4,500 persons age 60 and over. An innovation of our study has been the design of a data file which enables us to study the activities, role incumbency, and participation of the respondents in relation to the characteristics and activities of their spouses.

We study the performance by husbands and wives of social roles designated as ‘major commitment’ roles (MCRs), in that they are roles performed in social contexts invoving commitments over time to the activity and to the social units in which they are carried out: (a) employment, (b) continued parenting involving assistance to adult children, (c) full housekeeping, and (d) volunteer activity. Characteristics and roles of the wives of older married male respondents, and of the husbands of older married female respondents in Israel, are significantly associated with the respondents' performance of the MCRs which we have identified. However, the ‘marginal effects coefficients’ based on logistic regression equations show that the relative weight of spouses' characteristics and roles is small compared with that of the respondents' own characteristics and other competing or mutually supportive roles. There are both symmetries and assymmetries in the patterns of effects of husbands' and wives' characteristics and roles on prevalences of MCRs among the older married respondents.

Differential benefits of volunteering across the life course

OBJECTIVES

Studies often fail to adequately test the causal relationship between volunteering and well-being. Yet the media and empirical research have focused attention on the impact of volunteering on the well-being of elderly persons. This study addresses two questions: First, does volunteering improve the psychological and physical well-being of elderly persons? Second, do elderly volunteers experience different benefits than younger adults?

METHODS

Using nationally representative panel data, I assessed the long-term impact of volunteering on the life satisfaction and perceived health of persons aged 60 and over. I then compared ordinary least squares regression results for seniors with those for younger adults.

RESULTS

I found that older volunteers experienced greater increases in life satisfaction over time as a result of their volunteer hours than did younger adult volunteers, especially at high rates of volunteering. Older adults experienced greater positive changes in their perceived health than did younger adult volunteers.

DISCUSSION

The type of volunteer work in which older and younger adults engage may be part of the reason for these differential effects. But the context in which older and younger adults volunteer and the meaning of their voluntarism are more likely explanations. Researchers should take into account volunteer commitment when studying volunteering's effect on well-being, not simply volunteer role.

Age differences in voluntary association memberships: fact or artifact

OBJECTIVES

To determine if the curvilinear relationship between age and voluntary association memberships is due to compositional differences between age groups.

METHODS

Data are drawn from 12 nationally representative surveys covering the period 1974-1994 and including items on membership in 16 types of associations. Age is categorized into 14 groups ranging from 18-24 through 85+. Patterns of age differences in number of association memberships are examined before and after controlling for several variables related both to age and to memberships.

RESULTS

At the bivariate level, number of memberships increases through ages 40-44 and then declines fairly steadily. When controls for compositional differences are introduced, the curvilinear pattern of age differences is replaced by one showing an increasing number of memberships through ages 55-59, a slight decrease in the 60-64 age group, and then generally stable membership levels through the 85+ age group.

DISCUSSION

The lower levels of voluntary association memberships of older persons consistently identified in bivariate analyses appear to be largely due to differences in compositional characteristics between the older and other age groups.

The beneficial effects of volunteering for older volunteers and the people they serve: a meta-analysis

The current political-economic climate, which is generally supportive of both private and public sector down-sizing, increasingly demands that human service workers assess, engage, and creatively use consumer strengths and resources. This meta-analysis of thirty-seven independent studies provided the means of inferring not only that elder volunteers' sense of well-being seemed to be significantly bolstered through volunteering, but also that such relatively healthy older people represent a significant adjunct resource for meeting some of the service needs of more vulnerable elders, as well as those of other similarly vulnerable groups such as disabled children. Averaging across studies, 85 percent of the "clients" who received service from an older volunteer (e.g., peer-counseling of nursing home residents) scored better on dependent measures (e.g., diminished depression) than the average person in comparison conditions did (U3 = .847 [Cohen, 1988], combined p < .001). The policy implications of such beneficial effects among both older volunteers and the people they serve are discussed.

Psychosocial differences between elderly volunteers and non-volunteers

Volunteer workers over age sixty-five were compared to retired elderly who did not engage in any type of work activity. Volunteers were found to have significantly higher degree of life satisfaction, stronger will to live, and fewer symptoms of depression, anxiety, and somatization. Since no differences were found on most demographic or background variables, participation in volunteer work appears to be the salient factor in explaining psychosocial differences between volunteers and non-volunteers.