The Role of Family Social Background and Inheritance in Later Life Volunteering

Abstract

Building on a tripartite model of capitals necessary to perform productive activities and on work suggesting that cumulative (dis-) advantage processes are important mechanisms for life-course inequalities, our study set out to investigate the potential role of family social background and inheritance in later-life volunteering. We hypothesized that older individuals who inherited work-relevant economic and cultural capitals from their family of origin are more likely to be engaged in voluntary activities than their counterparts with a less advantageous family social background. Our main findings from the analysis of a representative sample of community-dwelling Israelis aged 50 and over provide strong support for this hypothesis: the likelihood to volunteer is significantly higher among those who received substantial financial transfers from their family of origin (‘inherited economic capital’) and among those having a ‘white collar’ parental background (‘inherited cultural capital’). We conclude with perspectives for future research.

A Rapid Review of Barriers to Volunteering for Potentially Disadvantaged Groups and Implications for Health Inequalities

“…This review contributes to a growing body of evidence identifying broader exclusionary mechanisms relating to social, economic, and human capital as a crosscutting concern to participation in volunteering (Lee and Brudney 2012;Mainar et al 2015;Marta and Pozzi 2008;Smith 2012;Wilson and Musick 1998;Youssim et al 2015). This is not to diminish the unique experience of individuals or groups.…”

“…The final theme is how the unequal distribution of social, human, and economic capital resources profoundly affects volunteering. Studies conducting regression analyses of data from the USA (Lee and Brudney 2012; Wilson and Musick 1998), Canada (Smith 2012), Israel (Youssim et al 2015), Italy (Marta and Pozzi 2008), and Spain (Mainar et al 2015) all point to factors associated with broader exclusionary mechanisms-social, economic, and human capital-being significant influences on volunteering.…”

“…The effects of social capital may be compounded by other factors such as education, being religious, and family background (Lee and Brudney 2012). A linked concept is 'cultural capital', with the ability to 'act' in a given social context in order to identify and avail volunteering opportunities transmitted from one generation to another within social groups (Youssim et al 2015).…”

“…Goethem et al 2014), do not hold strong social justice values (Webber 2011), or do not see volunteering as part as their identity(Marta and Pozzi 2008) are likely to dissuade youth volunteering. Individuals are also influenced by their social environments across the life course, including norms, values, customs, and habits, which all affect volunteering behaviour(Davis Smith 1999;Ishizawa 2015;McNamara and Gonzales 2011;Youssim et al 2015). For example, being religious may encourage volunteering through the teaching of obligation(Son and Wilson 2012), whilst the process of…”

Short- and long-term determinants of social detachment in later life

“…These findings suggest that successful ageing is not something that people can decide to do after retirement. This is because social engagement is intrinsically linked with outcomes during the lifecourse which cumulatively lead to greater inequalities in later life (Stowe and Cooney in press; Youssim, Hank and Litwin 2015).…”