Helping out or helping yourself? Volunteering and life satisfaction across the retirement transition.

Abstract

It has been suggested that volunteering leads to increases in well-being, particularly in older and retiring adults, and that volunteering could be used as a public health intervention to increase well-being. However, the causal relationship has been questioned. We investigated the association between voluntary work and life satisfaction in a bivariate dual-change score model, using 4 years of longitudinal data from 1,123 participants from the Health, Aging and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) study. Both the frequency of volunteering and the level of life satisfaction increased across the retirement transition. However, baseline life satisfaction and volunteering were only marginally associated. Further, the coupling parameters suggest that higher levels of volunteering were followed by decreases in life satisfaction and that higher levels of life satisfaction were followed by increases in volunteering. These findings suggest that increasing levels of volunteering might not be a fruitful strategy for improving life satisfaction for all older adults—if people engage too much in voluntary work, it might even be detrimental for their life satisfaction. More research is needed to better understand when and for whom increased levels of volunteering might have positive effects on life satisfaction.

They are Doing Well, but is it by Doing Good? Pathways from Nonpolitical and Political Volunteering to Subjective Well-Being in Age Comparison

“…It is also conceivable that volunteering does not yield noteworthy effects across outcomes when actual intraindividual change is considered (cf. Bjälkebring et al, 2021). The positive associations between volunteering and SWB found in prior longitudinal research may partly represent selection effects, because cross-lagged panel models confound intraindividual change with interindividual differences (Hamaker et al, 2015;Wang & Maxwell, 2015).…”

“…Indeed, the between-person associations we found-albeit small in size-suggest that more satisfied individuals self-select particularly into nonpolitical volunteering (cf. Bjälkebring et al, 2021;Hansen et al, 2018;Son & Wilson, 2012;Thoits & Hewitt, 2001).…”

“…Associations at the within-person level represent how well-being changes within an individual if they volunteer more frequently (cf. Bjälkebring et al, 2021), are controlled for unobserved time-invariant variables, and are less likely to be confounded by selection effects because interindividual differences are modeled at a separate level. As we were interested in intraindividual change, we employed multilevel modeling and tested all hypotheses at the within-person level; nevertheless, we also investigated between-person associations to inspect potential selection effects.…”

“…Does formal volunteering-unpaid voluntary work conducted in an organization to serve a common benefit (Wilson, 2012)-improve the subjective well-being (SWB) of volunteers? 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).…”

Nonpolitical Versus Political Participation: Longitudinal Associations with Mental Health and Social Well-Being in Different Age Groups

“…De Wit and colleagues (2015) concluded that about 75% of the well-being differences between volunteers and non-volunteers can be attributed to selection effects. Recently, researchers have increasingly addressed the within-person associations between voluntary participation and well-being and found modest effects at best (Bjälkebring et al, 2021;Dawson-Townsend, 2019;De Wit et al, 2015;Fiorillo et al, 2017;Lawton et al, 2020;Lühr et al, 2021;Meier & Stutzer, 2008). Therefore, it is important to examine within-person associations separately from between-person differences, which is possible when longitudinal data from multiple measurements are available.…”