Happy to Help? Exploring the Factors Associated with Variations in Rates of Volunteering Across Europe

The frequency of formal volunteering varies widely across European countries, and rates of formal volunteering are especially low among Eastern European countries. Why are there such large differences in volunteering rates when it is known that volunteering is beneficial for well-being? Using data from the latest round of the European Social Survey, we test three hypotheses to explain these cross-national differences in volunteering. We ask whether people in countries with low frequencies of volunteering spend more of their time on informal volunteering activities; whether they differ on socio-demographic variables which are known to be linked to volunteering rates; or whether they show less well-being benefit from formal volunteering. Contrary to the first hypothesis, we find a positive correlation between formal and informal volunteering. We further conclude that national differences in rates of volunteering cannot be fully explained by differences in the social, psychological or cultural factors associated with volunteering nor the outcome of volunteering. It is likely that contextual factors, such as a country’s historical background or institutions, determine levels of volunteering to a large extent.     

Need Satisfaction Mechanism Linking Volunteer Motivation and Life Satisfaction: A Mediation Study of Volunteers Subjective Well-Being

A mediation model explaining volunteers’ subjective well-being was tested in this paper. It examined the effect of intrinsic motivation on volunteers’ life satisfaction, using the need satisfaction experienced through volunteering as an intervening variable. A questionnaire was administered to 443 participants, not all of whom had previous experience of volunteering. Mediation analysis suggested a path from intrinsic motivation to volunteers’ life satisfaction through the need satisfaction experienced during volunteering. Neither volunteer participation per se nor extrinsic motivation was related to life satisfaction. The roles of motivation and need satisfaction in volunteers’ life satisfaction were identified, with implications for future volunteer programs.     

中老年女性劳动供给及代际转移在子女间的差异

本文运用美国健康与退休研究数据和多种计量方法研究代际财富转移、时间转移与中老年女性劳动力供给之间的关系,以及代际转移在子女间的差异。结果表明,中老年女性更可能通过参加工作来对子女提供资金支持;同时在保持其原有工作量的条件下,牺牲闲暇时间照顾孙子女。此外,与儿子相比,她们更可能向女儿提供财富和时间转移;与继子女相比,则倾向于向亲生子女进行转移。     

Ethnic disparities in social and economic well-being of the immigrant aged in Australia

The paper examines ethnic differences in the social and economic well-being of the immigrant aged in Australia and the factors affecting older immigrants’ well-being as measured by a number of indicators. The data analysis is guided by the concept of the ‘Third Age’ as the basis for a more positive approach to the discussion of ageing and as a life-cycle stage of independent living in old age, focusing on the pursuit of an active retirement and the absence of core activity restrictions. Data from the 2006 population census on living arrangements, need for assistance with daily activities, income, participation in paid work and volunteering, and provision of care to other family members are used to examine the social and economic well-being of the immigrant population aged 65 and over identified by their country or region of origin and in comparison with the Australian-born aged. Policy implications of the research findings are discussed.     

Relatively Different? How do Gender Differences in Well-Being Depend on Paid and Unpaid Work in Europe?

Absolute as well as relative hours of paid and unpaid work may influence well-being. This study investigates whether absolute hours spent on paid work and housework account for the lower well-being among women as compared to men in Europe, and whether the associations between well-being and hours of paid work and housework differ by gender attitudes and social context. Attitudes towards women’s and men’s paid work and housework obligations may influence how beneficial or detrimental it is to spend time on these activities, as may social comparison of one’s own hours to the number of hours commonly spent among similar others. A group of 13,425 women and men from 25 European countries are analysed using country fixed-effects models. The results suggest that while men’s well-being appears to be unaffected by hours of paid work and housework, women’s well-being increases with increased paid working hours and decreases with increasing housework hours. Gender differences in time spent on paid work and housework account for a third of the European gender difference in well-being and are thus one reason that women have lower well-being than men have. Gender attitudes do not appear to modify the associations between hours and well-being, but there is a tendency for women’s well-being to be higher the less housework they do compared to other women in the same family situation and country. However, absolute hours of paid work and housework appear to be more important to women’s well-being than relative hours.

Correlates of subjective well-being in Northern Wisconsin

This paper presents the results of an attempt to relate socioeconomic status, family status, social participation and personal disruptions of statuses and roles to an index of life satisfaction in rural sectors of Northern Wisconsin. While income, education and occupational status and level of living explain very little of life satisfaction, social participation variables explain somewhat more and disruptions of marital ties, job, physical well-being and residence explain most. Analyses by age and sex show that contacts with friends, relatives and church attendance are more important for the young, employment for the middle-aged and village residence more important for the older persons. The analysis supports the notion that life satisfaction results from the discrepancy between the aspirations and expectations of the individual and his ability to satisfy them within his environment. Education is negatively associated with subjective well-being when other variables are controlled. The influence of social involvement upon life satisfaction suggests the need for a modification of the aspiration-attainment model to include the integrative-expressive as well as the adaptive-instrumental processes of the individual.     

Activity Participation and Well-Being Among European Adults Aged 65 years and Older

Increasing evidence suggests that different patterns of activity participation confer several positive well-being outcomes through the later years of life. The aim of the present study is to examine the likelihood of higher well-being linked with a socially engaged lifestyle with a view to extending prior research. Data on a nationally representative sample of adults aged 65 and older from eleven European countries (n = 7025) was drawn from the first Wave of the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE, 2004/5). Socially and productively oriented activities were administered as salient aspects of activity participation and were rated on frequency of involvement. Well-being was defined by the clustering of six indicators including life satisfaction, quality of life, self-rated health, psychological distress, chronic diseases and Body Mass Index (BMI). The effect of activity participation on the clustering of well-being indicators was estimated according to complex samples ordinal regression models. The overall pattern was that of a significantly increased likelihood for frequently active participants to present multiple presence of positive well-being outcomes (p < 0.05). This held true not only at the individual level but also across most SHARE countries. Although the findings of the current analysis cannot identify the direction of causality of the observed effects, they still lend some support to the reasonable conjecture that old-age activity engagement matters for individuals’ wellbeing and testify to the suggestion that public health and social care interventions should consider the respective potential well-being gains and therefore foster the facilitation of activities and attachments.     

Participation in different types of volunteering at young, middle and older adulthood

Around 35?% of Australian adults volunteer. It has been found that participation in volunteering varies with life course stage: people tend to participate less in early adulthood, which has been referred to as a ??demographically dense?? period, and more in middle adulthood, which has been characterized as a more stable period of life. This paper extends this research to investigate the types of organizations for which people volunteer at different life course stages. This paper uses data from the Negotiating the Life Course project (2003 and 2006) to examine participation in volunteering for different types of organizations. The focus is on the type of organizations for which people volunteer and how that differs in young, middle and older adulthood. There are three dominant types of organizations that people volunteer for: welfare and community, sport and recreation, and education and training, and volunteering with each of these groups varies with a person??s life course stage. Younger adults tend to be more likely to volunteer for religious groups. People in middle adulthood, and particularly those with school-aged children, tend to volunteer in sport and recreation groups and education and training organizations, and volunteering with welfare, community and health organizations is dominant in older adulthood.     

The Subjective Well-Being of Immigrants Aged 50 and Older in Israel

The present study evaluated the integration of elderly people who migrated to Israel during their lifetimes. Subjective well-being, as measured by the immigrants’ perception of quality of life, satisfaction with life and emotional state, served as a general indicator of integration. The integration of elderly immigrants has not received adequate attention in the literature. A unique database (SHARE-Israel) that was recently released has made study of this topic possible. The current study sample was composed of former migrants aged 50 and older (n = 930). The analytic model examined ethnic origin and migration variables in relation to the respective subjective outcomes, controlling for sociodemographic background, human and social capital and health. The findings show that in general, ethnic origin seems to matter less for the evaluation of immigrants’ subjective well-being than other socio economic factors such as economic status, social capital and health status. However, recent arrivals from the Former Soviet Union do differ from all other immigrant groups in their lower levels of well-being. In addition, the study points to the importance of language proficiency as a central means for integration in the destination country.     

Healthy,Wealthy, Wise,and Happy? Assessing Age Differences in Evaluative and Emotional Well-Being Among Mature Adults from Five Low- and Middle-Income Countries

This study assesses the relationship between age and two dimensions of subjective well-being—evaluative and emotional—among mature adults from five low-and middle-income countries. We use data from the World Health Organization’s Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health to contrast the associations of age with subjective well-being when controlling only for gender with the corresponding partial associations when including a richer set of covariates. Adjusting only for gender, we find negative associations of age with evaluative well-being, while the corresponding age gradients for emotional well-being are relatively flat. By contrast, adjusting for further socio-demographic factors results in positive associations of age with both evaluative and emotional well-being. Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions allow us to explore the roles of two factors to account for any unadjusted age differences in subjective well-being: age-group differences in individual characteristics and life circumstances, and age-specific associations of individual characteristics and life circumstances with subjective well-being. While adverse circumstances such as poor health and low income contribute to lower levels of evaluative well-being among older adults, age per se is—ceteris paribus—positively associated with subjective well-being. Even in poorer countries, older age does not need to be a time of low subjective well-being. Policies aimed at preserving income and limiting or compensating old-age disability appear to be key for maintaining subjective well-being among older adults.

     

Cross-National Variation in Individual Life Satisfaction: Effects of National Wealth, Human Development, and Environmental Conditions

This study adds to the literature on subjective well-being and life satisfaction by exploring variation in individual life satisfaction across countries. Understanding whether and how individual life satisfaction varies across countries is important because if the goal of development is to increase well-being, we must identify the causes of well-being in different national and regional contexts. Using hierarchical linear modeling techniques, I test the hypothesis that individual well-being does vary across countries, and that national wealth, human development and environmental conditions explain this variation. I also test whether the effects of individual characteristics on life satisfaction (including age, marital status, education, income, employment status, and sex) vary across countries, and which country level characteristics explain these variations. Using individual level data from the World Values Survey, I find that there is significant variation in life satisfaction across countries. There is also significant variation in the slopes of individual predictors of life satisfaction across countries and regions. Regional differences in the effects of individual characteristics on life satisfaction explain most of the between country variation in life satisfaction. This indicates that universal development indicators may not adequately reflect differences in life satisfaction across countries, and that development measurements should better reflect regional differences.

城市老人从事志愿者活动对自身主观幸福感的影响——基于北京市朝阳区的调查

老年人是改善自身生活质量的主体力量。已有的研究多从老年人被照顾角度着手,鲜有对老年人自身从事公益活动对自身主观幸福感的研究。本文利用2010年开展的“北京市朝阳区城乡老年人口状况追踪调查”所获得的数据和二元logistic回归模型来研究老年人以参与志愿者活动的形式为他人提供支持与其自身主观幸福感的关系。结果证明。参与志愿者活动的城市老年人与不参与志愿者活动的城市老年人相比,前者的主观幸福感水平比后者高。因此,本研究认为应该重视老年人在提高自身生活质量方面的能动性,为老人创造更多发挥潜能的机会。     

The Impact of Having a Baby on the Level and Content of Women’s Well-Being

The primary objective of this study was to more fully understand the impact of having a baby on women’s well-being by attending to both the level and the content of well-being. To cover the judgemental and affective aspects of well-being we included global measures of life satisfaction and well-being and affective experience measures derived from the day reconstruction method. In a sample of 19 first-time mothers no differences between pre and postnatal reports of general life satisfaction, depression, anxiety, and experienced positive and negative affect were found, suggesting that the arrival of the newborn baby does not universally impact on women’s level of well-being. Changes in the content of well-being were studied by examining changes in the way women experience specific activities and interactions with various social partners. There appeared to be an upward shift in experienced positive affect during active leisure and a slight decrease in negative affect during time spent with relatives. The results are discussed in light of previously documented changes across the transition to motherhood in negative mood states, time use, women’s evaluation of various aspects of daily life, and relational satisfaction.     

Participation and well-Being Among Older Adults Living with Chronic Conditions

This study explored the unique contribution of participation (daily activities and social roles) in explaining well-being of older adults living with chronic conditions and examined which aspect of participation (accomplishment of participation or satisfaction with participation) was more important in describing their well-being. Two hundred older adults with chronic conditions completed the following assessments: Satisfaction with Life Scale to measure well-being; Assessment of Life Habits to evaluate two aspects of participation: (a) accomplishment of daily activities and social roles and (b) level of satisfaction with participation; Interpersonal Support Evaluation List to assess level of social support and Affect Balance scale to measure level of balance confidence. In addition, participants’ level of mobility was assessed using the Timed Up and Go test. Regression analysis was performed. Results indicated that number of chronic conditions, social support and satisfaction with participation had a significant contribution to well-being and altogether explained 31% of its variance whereas accomplishment of participation did not play as significant role in the model. In conclusion, participation has a unique contribution to older adults’ well-being where satisfaction with participation rather than the accomplishment of activities is of importance. Additional aspects of participation and level of disability are key factors identified for further inquiry.     

Women of Vision: Unique Insights into Women of the 20th Century. edited by Eileen A. Gavinn,Gavin, Aphrodite Clamar,and Mary Anne Siderits

The purpose of this study was to explore comparatively personality variables, subjective well-being variables, and participation in daily life activities in 150 women aged 50 to 82 years with different employment status. Moreover, we also analyzed the extent to which personality and participation in daily life activities accounted for life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Results from analyses of variance showed that there were significant differences between women with different working status. Multiple regression analyses revealed that self-esteem, optimism, and social activities accounted for a significant amount of variance in predicting life satisfaction and positive affect.     

The structure of subjective well-being in nine western societies

The structure of subjective well-being is analyzed by multidimensional mapping of evaluations of life concerns. For example, one finds that evaluations of Income are close to (i.e., relatively strongly related to) evaluations of Standard of living, but remote from (weakly related to) evaluations of Health. These structures show how evaluations of life components fit together and hence illuminate the psychological meaning of life quality. They can be useful for determining the breadth of coverage and degree of redundancy of social indicators of perceived well-being. Analyzed here are data from representative sample surveys in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, and the United States (each N≈1000). Eleven life concerns are considered, including Income, Housing, Job, Health, Leisure, Neighborhood, Transportation, and Relations with other people. It is found that structures in all of these countries have a basic similarity and that the European countries tend to be more similar to one another than they are to USA. These results suggest that comparative research on subjective well-being is feasible within this group of nations.     

Rethinking of Economic Growth and Life Satisfaction in Post-Wwii Japan – A Fresh Approach

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been utilized by academics and policy makers to indicate the economic well-being of the people. However, economic growth measures cannot capture fully the overall well-being of the people. This paper has tested quality of economic growth in Japan after World War II as to whether it has brought about positive outcome in the well-being of its citizens. Comparison between GDP and GPI (Genuine Progress Index) has revealed that GDP does not fit as well with people’s life satisfaction trend as GPI. Prefecture-based rankings on GDP, Human Development Index (HDI) and Life Satisfaction have shown that there are clear gaps between objective measures and subjective measures to indicate the overall well-being of the people. Also, analysis on major determinants for people’s life satisfaction reveals that older people, women, non-employed people, and those who live in subsidized housings felt satisfied with their life.     

Different Things Make Different People Happy: Examining Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being by Gender and Parental Status

This paper addresses a number of key challenges in current subjective well-being (SWB) research: A new wave of studies should take into account that different things may make different people happy, thus going beyond a unitary ‘happiness formula’. Furthermore, empirical results need to be connected to broader theoretical narratives. Using a re-examination of the social context of well-being as its case study, this article therefore resorts to sociological theory and fills a gap by investigating how social capital is correlated in different ways with the SWB of men, women, parents, and non-parents. Ordered logit and OLS regression analyses systematically examine slope heterogeneity using UK data from the European Social Survey. It turns out that civic engagement is not at all associated with higher life satisfaction for mothers, while the relationship is positive for men and strongest for childless women. Moreover, informal socialising is positively and more strongly associated with life satisfaction among women, although only when OLS is used. In sum, the social context of well-being varies considerably by gender and parental status. Mothers do not seem to benefit from formal social capital, indicating a “motherhood penalty” (see Correll et al., Am J Sociol 112(5):1297–1338 in 2007) regarding the psychological rewards usually associated with volunteering. Given the high levels of formal social capital among mothers, the findings also highlight the importance of the homo sociologicus concept. Consequently, SWB research can be successfully used to provide new insights into long-standing interdisciplinary theory debates such as the one on homo economicus versus homo sociologicus.     

A Multilevel Analysis of the Compositional and Contextual Association of Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being in Seoul, South Korea

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between social capital and subjective well-being (life satisfaction) by using multilevel analysis considering both individual and area-level social capital while adjusting for various control variables at multiple-levels in Seoul, South Korea. The data was from the 2010 (Wave 2) Seoul Welfare Panel Study, conducted by Seoul Welfare Foundation. The final sample for this study consisted of 5,934 individuals aged 18 years or older in 2,847 households within 25 administrative areas. Three-level multilevel linear regression analyses, with random intercept models, were applied. Our results provide evidence that various dimensions of social capital both at the individual and area-level are positively associated with subjective life satisfaction, even after controlling for various factors at the individual, household, and area-levels. All of individual-level social capital variables including organizational participation, perceived helpfulness, trust in authorities were positively associated with subjective life satisfaction. Except for trust in authority, area-level organizational participation and perceived helpfulness were positively associated with subjective life satisfaction. These results suggest that decision makers should consider both individual and area-level social capital targeting to enhance one’s well-being.     

Family Constellations and Life Satisfaction in Europe

Existing research on family and well-being has generally focused on the traditional family, and has largely ignored the increasing diversity in family forms and relations. Our aim in this paper is to help fill this gap by investigating the extent of the relationship between living arrangements and life satisfaction (LS) in Europe. We examined variations in life satisfaction by applying a multilevel approach (i.e., individuals nested in countries) to data from the 2007 European Quality of Life Survey. First, we found that levels of life satisfaction among families consisting of couples with children were significantly higher than among people in other (less typical) family arrangements. Second, our results illustrate that after the socioeconomic situation of the family was taken into account, the influence of family status on LS disappeared almost completely. Overall, our findings suggest that the lower levels of life satisfaction experienced by people living in atypical families can be largely attributed to their weaker socioeconomic position.