Volunteering and mental health: Benefits of engagement or social selection?

Yunqing Li, Purdue University

Abstract

While studies have focused exclusively on explicating the beneficial effects of volunteer work, little is known about whether social selection processes also influence the relationship between volunteering and health at different stages of the adulthood. Given the fact that people experience numerous life transitions over the life course, their social engagement and personal well-being are likely to be affected. Scarce research has explored whether stressful life event such as widowhood influences subsequent volunteer participation, and whether volunteering mitigates the negative impact of widowhood on well-being. This research uses 3-wave panel data from the Americans' Changing Lives study to examine these broad aspects in the relationship between volunteer work and health. This is a multistage stratified area probability sample of persons 24 years of age or older who lived in the continental United States. The baseline data were collected in 1986 (N = 3,617) and include an over-sample of Black adults (n = 1,174) and persons 60 years of age or older (n = 1,669). The analyses entail three interrelated but distinct projects. The first project addresses whether social benefit and selection processes exist in the relationship between volunteer work and depressive symptoms in later life. The results show that formal volunteering exerts a beneficial effect on depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms are also associated with a subsequent increase in formal volunteer work (compensation effect). Functional impairment—-not depressive symptoms—emerged as an important barrier to volunteer participation. Project two extends the first project by examining the relationship among formal volunteering, depressive symptoms, and functional limitations over middle and late adulthood. The health benefits of volunteering are evident in the sample of older adults. While functional limitations are a barrier to volunteering in later life, depressive symptoms appear to be a barrier to volunteering in middle age. Depressive symptoms increase volunteer participation over time among older adults. The last project investigates the impacts of widowhood on volunteering and well-being in later life. The analyses show that widowhood increases subsequent volunteer participation. Widowhood exacerbates depressive symptoms and self-efficacy over time, but volunteering moderates these negative effects. The time elapsed since widowhood also influences psychosocial adjustments to spousal loss.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Ferraro, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Sociology|Gerontology

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