Elderly Volunteering in Europe: The Relationship Between Volunteering and Quality of Life Depends on Volunteering Rates

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This paper investigates the effect of volunteering on quality of life (QoL) in 50+ populations across European countries...     

Ethnographies of Volunteering: Providing Nuance to the Links Between Volunteering and Development

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This paper explores how ethnographic approaches to third sector and nonprofit studies allow for context-based...     

Episodic Volunteering in Sport Events: A Seven-Country Analysis

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Given its ubiquitous nature, sport events are one of the most popular venues for episodic volunteering around the world....     

Volunteering and Wellbeing Among Ageing Adults: A Longitudinal Analysis

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Previous scholarship has shown evidence of a positive relationship between volunteering and improved measures of mental...     

Explaining the Varieties of Volunteering in Europe: A Capability Approach

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Volunteer rates vary greatly across Europe despite the voluntary sector’s common history and tradition. This...     

Volunteering and the gender division of labour: A Franco-British comparison

Cross-national analyses of the gender division of labour usually focus on employment and domestic labour. This paper argues that formal and informal voluntary work should be included in such analyses. Using available secondary sources, the paper compares the gender division of voluntary work in Britain and France – two countries with well-documented differences and similarities concerning employment and domestic labour. The paper reveals that French women, with a higher commitment to the labour market and a slightly larger share of the burden of domestic labour, have a higher commitment to formal voluntary activity but engage less in informal volunteering than their British counterparts whereas French men, with shorter hours in employment and a slightly smaller contribution to domestic labour, undertake more formal and informal voluntary work than their British counterparts. In France, men consistently undertake more voluntary work than women whilst in Britain, there is a degree of gender equality in formal voluntary work but women undertake significantly more informal voluntary work than men. The paper explains the differences and similarities found by considering the role of the state and social policy, the question of ‘time availability’, and the question of what motivates individuals to undertake voluntary work.     

Collective and Reflexive Styles of Volunteering: A Sociological Modernization Perspective

This paper presents a theory-guided examination of the (changing) nature of volunteering through the lens of sociological modernization theories. Existing accounts of qualitative changes in motivational bases and patterns of volunteering are interpreted against the background of broader, modernization-driven social-structural transformations. It is argued that volunteer involvement should be qualified as a biographically embedded reality, and a new analytical framework of collective and reflexive styles of volunteering is constructed along the lines of the ideal-typical biographical models that are delineated by modernization theorists. Styles of volunteering are understood as essentially multidimensional, multiform, and multilevel in nature. Both structural-behavioral and motivational-attitudinal volunteering features are explored along the lines of six different dimensions: the biographical frame of reference, the motivational structure, the course and intensity of commitment, the organizational environment, the choice of (field of) activity, and the relation to paid work.     

青年志愿者心理资本对志愿行为影响的分析研究

志愿者心理资本包括感恩感戴、责任使命、乐观希望、坚强韧性和自我效能5个维度,且各维度正向影响志愿行为。在对18名青年志愿者研究基础上,构建了志愿者心理资本影响志愿行为的机制模型,即社会支持和志愿动机在心理资本与志愿行为关系中起链式中介效应,角色认同在其关系中起调节效应。为促进志愿行为可持续发展,就要培育志愿者为国谋发展、为民造福祉的价值理念,赋予其更加崇高美丽的价值形象;培育志愿者理性强烈的需要动机,促使其坚守自利利他,法皆具足的初心和使命;培育志愿者积极乐观的心理预期和理性的归因方式,涵养强大的心理复原力;构建完备、体贴、温馨的社会支持系统,形成志愿行为产生、稳定和可持续发展的合力。     

Elderly Volunteering and Well-Being: A Cross-European Comparison Based on SHARE Data

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.     

Volunteering and Income Inequality: Cross-National Relationships

Wilkinson and Pickett, in their 2009 book The Spirit Level, found that, in rich countries, income inequality was negatively associated with a range of indicators of well-being, but they did not consider the relationship with volunteering. This paper seeks to fill that gap. Using existing data sources, it shows that, among European countries, higher levels of volunteering are associated with lower levels of income inequality. The relationship is particularly strong for regular and sport-related volunteering. The basic Spirit Level thesis is therefore confirmed as applicable to volunteering. However, while the thesis involves just one theoretical explanation for the income inequality/well-being relationship, namely status anxiety, in the case of volunteering, other variables are also found to be at play, including government social spending, available leisure time and geo-historical traditions. It is concluded that, while high levels of volunteering, as a form of social capital, can be seen as one of a number of features of more equal societies, disentangling cause and effect may require a more holistic approach to understanding its contribution to the generation and sustaining of social well-being.     

Individuals and Communities: the Importance of Neighbors Volunteering

In this analysis, I examine the effects of community-level volunteering on an individual’s choices regarding time – whether to work and whether to volunteer. In order to better explain the decision to volunteer, a classic pure public goods structure is contrasted with a less restrictive impure public goods model that admits other possible private motivations. The results of this study undermine the neoclassical notion that volunteering can be understood solely as a pure public good that is provided less when others are seen to be contributing. In fact, individuals are found to be more, not less, likely to volunteer when others in their communities do so. An innovative instrumental variables strategy is used to account for reflection bias and the possible endogeneity caused by selective sorting of individuals into neighborhoods, which allows for a causal interpretation of these results. Employment regressions provide preliminary evidence that average volunteering relates, to some extent, with the decision of whether to participate in the labor force. Variations in the effect of average volunteering across age and gender are also explored. The present work is unique by virtue of its use of a large and representative dataset, along with rigorous statistical testing. I use United States Census 2000 Summary File 3 and Current Population Survey (CPS) 2004–2007 September Supplement file data and control for various individual and community-level characteristics.     

Volunteering in Retirement and Its Impact on Seniors Subjective Quality of Life Through Personal Outlook: A Study of Older Australians

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This study examines the subjective quality of life of globally expanding senior citizens post-retirement, from a...     

The Limits of Monetizing and Paying for Volunteering in Eldercare: A Behavioral-Economic Approach

The monetary value of informal eldercare in the family and voluntary sector has drawn much attention as it concerns a resource of welfare governments and nonprofit organizations try to activate via cash benefits. Studies addressing the issue in order to assess the economic impact of non-market activities and the willingness to accept financial rewards have largely ignored differences in the utility function of caregivers. Applying a behavioral-economic approach, we report a profound and formerly unobserved distinction between care in the household and non-household care for a family member or in a voluntary framework: whereas caregivers within the household perceive care as a burden and a positive shadow price arises, in the non-household context—and particularly in the volunteering case–care extends well-being and leads to negative shadow prices. The results show that non-market activities can only be measured in monetary terms to a limited extent and contribute to explaining the boundaries of monetary incentive policies.     

Discrimination and Well‐Being: Perceptions of Refugees in Western Australia

This paper reports the apparent paradox of high levels of discrimination experienced by humanitarian migrants to Australia, in the labor market and everyday life, yet simultaneous reporting of positive well‐being. How can people feel discriminated against, yet still be relatively satisfied with life? The study draws on quantitative and qualitative data from a study of 150 refugees from the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East, and Africa. Possible reasons for the level of well‐being are explored, including “relative deprivation theory,” as well as various resiliency and mitigating factors, including personal and social supports. The notion of eudaimonic well‐being – whereby experiences of difficulty produce positive well‐being – is also applied to the findings. The negative experiences and perceptions appear to map onto low‐level dissatisfaction or disgruntlement, and specifically directed or contained disappointment, rather than serious dissatisfaction with life generally, orientation to Australia, or negative subjective well‐being.     

Examining the Benefits of Intergenerational Volunteering in Long-Term Care: A Review of the Literature

This review examines the benefits of intergenerational interactions between youth volunteers and residents of long-term care homes. Five articles met the criteria for review. Benefits for youth included developing new communication and career-related skills, improved attitudes toward older adults, and the development of meaningful relationships and friendships. Benefits for residents were engagement in activities with the students, enhanced well-being and, for residents with aphasia, improved communication abilities. Further research is needed to evaluate the impact of intergenerational volunteer programs, especially for secondary students as volunteers.     

What Affects Hispanic Volunteering in the United States: Comparing the Current Population Survey, Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and the AIM Giving and Volunteering Survey

This study examines Hispanic formal volunteering and the cultural, social, and community context factors that affect their decision to volunteer. Using data from three surveys in the United States, the study finds that religious attendance, cultural background, and education are the most consistent and significant predictors of Hispanic formal volunteering. Religious attendance has a stronger positive impact on Hispanic volunteering than on non-Hispanics. The impacts of income, social resources, and community characteristics on Hispanics’ volunteering vary by surveys. Secular organizations serving children and youth and religious organizations are the favorite organizations for Hispanic volunteers.     

Inequality in Volunteering: Building a New Research Front

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Volunteering research focuses predominantly on predicting participation in volunteering, proceeding from the...