Volunteering in Later Life: Research Frontiers
The Journals of Gerontology Series BPublished 16 April 2010Open access
Nancy Morrow‐Howell
Citations402
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score2.00
SNIP1.68
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
TL;DR
This review summarizes the current knowledge about volunteering in later life and suggests 5 research questions at the forefront of knowledge development that are needed to guide program development.
Abstract
Research on the dynamics of volunteering over the life course as well as the patterns of activities that co-occur with volunteering is needed to guide program development. Research methods and findings from transdisciplinary work on the mechanisms through which psychosocial conditions affect health must be extended to the study of the effects of volunteering on older adults. Finally, we need to engage in more applied social science aimed at improving volunteer management, especially recruitment and retention of older volunteers.
Keywords
Social SciencesHealth Professions
Journal of democracyBowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital
13,990 Citations1995Robert D. Putnam
Social Science & MedicineFrom social integration to health: Durkheim in the new millennium
4,781 Citations2000Lisa Berkman, Thomas A. Glass +2 more
A conceptual model of how social networks impact health is presented and it is argued that networks operate at the behavioral level through four primary pathways: (1) provision of social support; (2) social influence; (3) on social engagement and attachment; and (4) access to resources and material goods.
Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyUnderstanding and assessing the motivations of volunteers: A functional approach.
2,520 Citations1998E. Gil Clary, Mark Snyder +5 more
Journal of Health and Social BehaviorVolunteer Work and Well-Being
1,606 Citations2001Peggy A. Thoits, Lyndi N. Hewitt
Using two waves of panel data from Americans' Changing Lives (House 1995), the relationships between volunteer work in the community and six aspects of personal well-being are examined: happiness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, sense of control over life, physical health, and depression.
Psychology and AgingSocial and emotional patterns in adulthood: Support for socioemotional selectivity theory.
1,405 Citations1992Laura L. Carstensen
Findings suggest that individuals begin narrowing their range of social partners long before old age, particularly in relationships with relatives and close friends.
American Sociological ReviewWho Cares? Toward an Integrated Theory of Volunteer Work
1,373 Citations1997John F. Wilson, Marc A. Musick
Social Science & MedicineVolunteering and depression: the role of psychological and social resources in different age groups
952 Citations2002Marc A. Musick, John F. Wilson
Analysis of three waves of data from the Americans' Changing Lives data set reveals that volunteering does lower depression levels for those over 65, while prolonged exposure to volunteering benefits both populations.
The Journals of Gerontology Series BDifferential Benefits of Volunteering Across the Life Course
754 Citations2000Marieke Van Willigen
It is found that older volunteers experienced greater increases in life satisfaction over time as a result of their volunteer hours than did younger adult volunteers, especially at high rates of volunteering.
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector QuarterlyDefining Who is a Volunteer: Conceptual and Empirical Considerations
687 Citations1996Ram A. Cnaan, Femida Handy +1 more
The Journals of Gerontology Series BFormal Volunteering as a Protective Factor for Older Adults' Psychological Well-Being
598 Citations2004Emily A. Greenfield, Nadine F. Marks
Results demonstrate that being a formal volunteer can protect older adults with a greater number of major role-identity absences from decreased levels of purpose in life and suggest that associations between volunteering and psychological well-being might be contingent upon the volunteer's role-Identity status and the dimension of psychologicalWell-being examined.
The Journals of Gerontology Series BVolunteering and Mortality Among Older Adults: Findings From a National Sample
588 Citations1999Marc A. Musick, A. Regula Herzog +1 more
Volunteering has a protective effect on mortality among those who volunteered for one organization or for forty hours or less over the past year, and the protective effects of volunteering are strongest for respondents who report low levels of informal social interaction and who do not live alone.
Research on AgingThe Effects of Volunteering on the Physical and Mental Health of Older People
504 Citations2004Terry Yat Sang Lum, Elizabeth Lightfoot
Empirical support is provided that volunteering slows the decline in self-reported health and functioning levels, slows the increase in depression levels, and improves mortality rates for those who volunteer, and the concept of role enhancement.
American Journal of SociologySuccessful Aging: A Life-Course Perspective on Women's Multiple Roles and Health
502 Citations1992Phyllis Moen, Donna Dempster‐McClain +1 more
Journal of HeredityA Social Model for Health Promotion for an Aging Population: Initial Evidence on the Experience Corps Model
501 Citations2004Linda P. Fried
In this pilot trial, physical, cognitive, and social activity increased, suggesting the potential for the Experience Corps to improve health for an aging population and simultaneously improve educational outcomes for children.
Journal of Health and Social BehaviorHealth Benefits of Volunteering in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study
473 Citations2007Jane Allyn Piliavin, Erica Siegl
Positive effects of volunteering on psychological well-being and self-reported health are investigated using all four waves of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, confirming previous research that volunteering was positively related to both outcome variables.
Journal of Health PsychologyVolunteerism and Mortality among the Community-dwelling Elderly
403 Citations1999Doug Oman, Carl E. Thoresen +1 more
Lower mortality rates for community service volunteers were only partly explained by health habits, physical functioning, religious attendance, and social support, while volunteering was slightly more protective for those with high religious involvement and perceived social support.
The Journals of Gerontology Series BMeaning in Life and Mortality
363 Citations2009Neal Krause
The data suggest that older people with a strong sense of meaning in life are less likely to die over the study follow-up period than those who do not have a strongsense of meaning.
The GerontologistThe Busy Ethic: Moral Continuity Between Work and Retirement
361 Citations1986David J. Ekerdt
Open Scholarship Institutional Repository (Washington University in St. Louis)Productive Aging: Concepts and Challenges
356 Citations2001Nancy Morrow‐Howell, James E. Hinterlong +1 more
Journal of Health and Social BehaviorVolunteering and Depression in Later Life: Social Benefit or Selection Processes?
350 Citations2005Yun-Qing Li, Kenneth F. Ferraro
Three-wave data from the Americans' Changing Lives study reveal a beneficial effect of formal volunteering on depression, but not for informal helping, suggesting voluntarism as a means of compensation.
The Journals of Gerontology Series BSocial Participation in Very Old Age: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Findings From BASE
331 Citations2002A. Bukov, Ineke Maas +1 more
Psychology and AgingAge and motives for volunteering: Testing hypotheses derived from socioemotional selectivity theory.
318 Citations2003Morris A. Okun, Amy S. Schultz
Contrary to expectations, age did not contribute to the prediction of enhancement, protective, and values volunteer motivations and the relation between age and making friends volunteer motivation was nonlinear.
Social Behavior and Personality An International JournalMOTIVE, ROLE IDENTITY, AND PROSOCIAL PERSONALITY AS PREDICTORS OF VOLUNTEER ACTIVITY
309 Citations2005Marcia A. Finkelstein, Louis A. Penner +1 more
Journal of Health and Social BehaviorIndividual Consequences of Volunteer and Paid Work in Old Age: Health and Mortality
305 Citations2002Ming‐Ching Luoh, A. Regula Herzog
Investigation of the impacts of the productive social activities of volunteer and paid work on health among the oldest Americans suggests that performing more than 100 annual hours of volunteer work and of paid work have independent and significant protective effects against subsequent poor health and death.
The GerontologistCivic Engagement and Older Adults: A Critical Perspective
304 Citations2006Marty Martinson, Meredith Minkler
The GerontologistExploring the Effects of an “Everyday” Activity Program on Executive Function and Memory in Older Adults: Experience Corps®
298 Citations2008Michelle C. Carlson, Jane S. Saczynski +8 more
This community-based program represents one potentially effective model to bring high doses of sustainable cognitive exercise to the greatest proportion of older adults, particularly those sedentary individuals at elevated risk for health disparities.
Social ForcesRace and Formal Volunteering: The Differential Effects of Class and Religion
295 Citations2000Marc A. Musick, John Wilson +1 more
Social Indicators ResearchProductive Activities And Subjective Well-Being Among Older Adults: The Influence Of Number Of Activities And Time Commitment
294 Citations2005Lindsey A. Baker, Lawrence P. Cahalin +2 more
The Journals of Gerontology Series AEvidence for Neurocognitive Plasticity in At-Risk Older Adults: The Experience Corps Program
286 Citations2009Michelle C. Carlson, Kirk I. Erickson +8 more
Using fMRI, intervention-specific short-term gains in executive function and in the activity of prefrontal cortical regions in older adults at elevated risk for cognitive impairment are demonstrated.
The Journals of Gerontology Series BWomen's Caregiving and Paid Work: Causal Relationships in Late Midlife
283 Citations1997Eliza K. Pavalko, Julie E. Artis
The GerontologistWho Benefits From Volunteering? Variations in Perceived Benefits
279 Citations2009Nancy Morrow‐Howell, S.-I. Hong +1 more
It is suggested that characteristics of volunteer programs can be strengthened to maximize the benefits of volunteering to older adults, and focusing on the recruitment of lower socioeconomic status older adults may result in an increase in benefits from the growth of volunteering.
Journal of GerontologyWomen's Work and Caregiving Roles: A Life Course Approach
268 Citations1994Phyllis Moen, John Robison +1 more
This study drew on a life course approach and a sample of 293 women from four birth cohorts in upstate New York to examine the relationship over time between women's paid work and their informal caregiving of aging or infirm relatives.
The Journals of Gerontology Series BProductive Activities and Psychological Well-Being Among Older Adults
253 Citations2008Yanni Hao
The finding that full-time work combined with low-level volunteering is protective of mental health reveals the complementary effect of volunteering to formal employment.
Basic and Applied Social PsychologyVolunteerism and the Life Course: Investigating Age-Related Agendas for Action
243 Citations2000Allen M. Omoto, Mark Snyder +1 more
The GerontologistVolunteering and Psychological Well-Being Among Young-Old Adults: How Much Is Too Much?
240 Citations2008Tim D. Windsor, Kaarin J. Anstey +1 more
The results point toward optimal frequency of engagement in volunteer activity for psychological well-being as being bounded by upper and lower levels, outside of which benefits to well- being diminish.
Social ForcesVolunteering in Middle and Later Life: Is Health a Benefit, Barrier or Both?
240 Citations2006Yuelin Li, Kenneth F. Ferraro
Journal of Social Service ResearchPerformance and Commitment
230 Citations1999Ram A. Cnaan, Toni Cascio
Social ForcesFrom Paid Worker to Volunteer: Leaving the Paid Workforce and Volunteering in Later Life
228 Citations2003Jan Mutchler, Jennifer Burr +1 more
Journal of Applied GerontologyFactors Affecting Volunteerism among Older Adults
224 Citations2003Lona H. Choi
Journal of GerontologyMultiple Roles and Psychological Well-being in a National Sample of Older Adults
207 Citations1994Pamela K. Adelmann
A significant interaction shows larger regression coefficients for roles among men than women on life satisfaction, and a three-way interaction indicates a stronger association of roles with self-efficacy for Black men than the other three gender-ethnicity combinations.
Volunteer Management Practices and Retention of Volunteers
201 Citations2004Mark A. Hager
Journal of Urban HealthVolunteering: A Physical Activity Intervention for Older Adults—The Experience Corps® Program in Baltimore
162 Citations2006Erwin J. Tan, Qian‐Li Xue +3 more
The pilot results suggest that a high intensity volunteer program that is designed as a health promotion intervention can lead, in the short-term, to significant improvements in the level of physical activity of previously inactive older adult volunteers.
Research on AgingProductive Engagement and Late Life Physical and Mental Health
159 Citations2007James E. Hinterlong, Nancy Morrow‐Howell +1 more
American Journal of SociologyHow Social Processes Distort Measurement: The Impact of Survey Nonresponse on Estimates of Volunteer Work in the United States
152 Citations2009Katharine G. Abraham, Sara Helms +1 more
Research on AgingFormal and Informal Volunteer Activity and Spousal Caregiving Among Older Adults
146 Citations2007Namkee G. Choi, Jeffrey A. Burr +2 more
Journal of Aging StudiesFrom civil rights to … civic engagement? Concerns of two older critical gerontologists about a “new social movement” and what it portends
137 Citations2008Meredith Minkler, Martha Holstein
The Journals of Gerontology Series BRecovering From Spousal Bereavement in Later Life: Does Volunteer Participation Play a Role?
132 Citations2007Yuelin Li
Compared with their continually married counterparts, people who experienced spousal loss reported greater likelihood of pursuing volunteer roles, not immediately but a few years after the death of their spouse, highlighting the compensatory function of volunteer participation that helps to offset the negative impact of widowhood on well-being in later life.
Journal of Applied GerontologyWhat Resources Are Needed for Volunteerism? A Life Course Perspective
132 Citations2006Fengyan Tang
The GerontologistDynamics of Volunteering in Older Europeans
131 Citations2009Karsten Hank, Marcel Erlinghagen
This study finds that the societal context in which older persons live not only has a significant impact on the prevalence of volunteering at a given point in time but that the dynamics of volunteering also vary by country.
Personality and Social Psychology BulletinCoping With Spousal Loss: Potential Buffering Effects of Self-Reported Helping Behavior
131 Citations2008Stephanie L. Brown, R. Michael Brown +2 more
Among bereaved participants who had experienced high loss-related grief, helping behavior was associated with an accelerated decline in depressive symptoms for the helper from 6 months to 18 months following spousal loss.
Social ForcesA Time to Join, A Time to Quit: The Influence of Life Cycle Transitions on Voluntary Association Membership
130 Citations2000Thomas Rotolo
The Journals of Gerontology Series BProductive Activity Clusters Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Intersecting Forms and Time Commitments
125 Citations2007Jennifer Burr, Jan Mutchler +1 more
The findings showed that middle-aged and older adults fell into four clusters: helpers, home maintainers, worker/volunteers, and super helpers, which provides a foundation for future research into how experts can employ productive activity clusters to understand better well-being across the life course.
The Journals of Gerontology Series BCaregiving and Volunteering: Are Private and Public Helping Behaviors Linked?
124 Citations2005Jennifer Burr, Nam‐Ki Choi +2 more
The results provide support for the hypothesis that caregivers are embedded in networks that provide them with more opportunities for volunteering and additional research on the motivations for volunteering are needed.
The Journals of Gerontology Series BVolunteerism and Socioemotional Selectivity in Later Life
123 Citations2004Jon Hendricks, Stephen J. Cutler
Logistic age patterns of slowly increasing then relatively stable volunteer activity suggest that socioemotional selectivity processes are operative in the realm of voluntary activities.
The Journals of Gerontology Series BVolunteer Dynamics of Older Americans
122 Citations2009Barbara A. Butrica, Wayne Johnson +1 more
The findings reveal considerable stability among both volunteers and nonvolunteers; however, older adults are more likely to stop volunteering than to start, pointing to the need to focus efforts on retaining older volunteers to maximize volunteer engagement during later years.
The Journals of Gerontology Series BProductive Roles, Gender, and Depressive Symptoms: Evidence From a National Longitudinal Study of Late-Middle-Aged Japanese
114 Citations2008Yoko Sugihara, Hidehiro Sugisawa +2 more
It was found that, among men, engaging in more hours of paid or volunteer work was related to fewer depressive symptoms, and volunteer work attenuated the negative effect of losing their paid work role.
The Journals of Gerontology Series BThe Long-Term Relationship Between High-Intensity Volunteering and Physical Activity in Older African American Women
98 Citations2009Eric J. Tan, George W. Rebok +8 more
The findings suggest that high-intensity senior service programs that are designed as health promotion interventions could lead to sustained improvements in physical activity in high-risk older adults, while simultaneously addressing important community needs.
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector QuarterlyInclusion of Diverse Older Populations in Volunteering
78 Citations2008Fengyan Tang, Nancy Morrow‐Howell +1 more
Civic Engagement, Older Adults, and Inclusion
74 Citations2006Amanda Moore McBride
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector QuarterlyEngaging Older Adults in Volunteering
68 Citations2008Song-Iee Hong, Nancy Morrow‐Howell +2 more
Value of Unpaid Activities by Older Americans Tops $160 Billion Per Year
37 Citations2005Richard W. Johnson
Many older Americans continue to make valuable contributions to society long after they withdraw from the labor force, and the value of help provided by older family caregivers alone reached nearly $100 billion in 2002.
The Journals of Gerontology Series BFelt Obligation to Help Others as a Protective Factor Against Losses in Psychological Well-being Following Functional Decline in Middle and Later Life
27 Citations2009Emily A. Greenfield
The importance for additional research on how aspects of altruism can promote psychological adaptation to declining functional health in middle and later life is suggested.
Civic Service across the Life Course
22 Citations2006Nancy Morrow‐Howell
Open Scholarship Institutional Repository (Washington University in St. Louis)Evaluation of Experience Corps Student Reading Outcomes
21 Citations2009Nancy Morrow‐Howell, Melissa Jonson‐Reid +6 more
Open Scholarship Institutional Repository (Washington University in St. Louis)A Case for Stipends in Volunteer Service
3 Citations2009Amanda Moore McBride