- Email: [email protected]
Correlates of volunteering among aging Texans: The roles of health indicators, spirituality, and social engagement
Maturitas 69 (2011) 257–262
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Maturitas journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/maturitas
Correlates of volunteering among aging Texans: The roles of health indicators, spirituality, and social engagement SangNam Ahn a,∗ , Karon L. Phillips b , Matthew Lee Smith a , Marcia G. Ory a a b
Texas A&M Health Science Center, School of Rural Public Health, Department of Social and Behavioral Health, United States Scott & White Healthcare, Program on Aging and Care, United States
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 6 February 2011 Received in revised form 25 March 2011 Accepted 2 April 2011
Keywords: Volunteering Older adults Informal caregiving Mental health Spiritual participation Community interactions
a b s t r a c t Objectives: This study aimed to identify participant characteristics associated with volunteering among older adults. Methods: Based on data from the 2008 Aging Texas Well (ATW) Indicators Survey, we examined the degree to which demographic factors, health status, spiritual participation, and community involvement are associated with volunteering among adults aged 60 years or older (n = 525). Results: Rates of volunteering varied by race/ethnicity: non-Hispanic Whites (56.4%), African Americans (51.1%), and Hispanics (43.2%). Bivariate analyses showed that non-Hispanic White older adults were more likely to participate in formal volunteering activities, while their African American and Hispanic counterparts tended to participate in informal volunteering activities. Logistic regression analyses revealed that volunteering was less observed among Hispanics (OR = 0.48, 95% CI 0.29–0.78). Volunteering was more observed among those who reported providing informal care (OR = 1.93, 95% CI 1.14–3.28), having very good or excellent mental health (OR = 1.90 and 2.07, 95% CI 1.09–3.32 and 1.20–3.55, respectively), having weekly or daily spiritual participation (OR = 2.15 and 2.35, 95% CI 1.28–3.63 and 1.29–4.28, respectively), perceiving community involvement very important (OR = 2.37, 95% CI 1.55–3.62), and being very satisfied with the community interaction (OR = 1.81, 95% CI 1.15–2.85). Conclusions: Given the positive associations of mental health, spirituality, and social engagement with volunteering among older adults, system-level efforts to increase the sense of community among older adults and recognize their roles as volunteers will be helpful in recruiting and retaining older volunteers. © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Recently, increased attention has been given to civic engagement among older populations and the associated health benefits [1]. The most common and widely known form of civic engagement is volunteerism, including both formal activities through structured community service as well as informal activities for family, friends or neighbors, and faith-based groups [2,3]. Over the past thirty years, there has been a steady increase in volunteer activities among older adults, compared to younger populations [4]. This trend is anticipated to continue as society ages and the potential of baby boomers for participating in activities related to civic engagement is realized [3].
∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Social and Behavioral Health, School of Rural Public Health, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, 117 Administration Building, College Station, TX 77843-1266, United States. Tel.: +1 979 862 4941; fax: +1 979 458 4264. E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Ahn). 0378-5122/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.maturitas.2011.04.002
For older populations, various informal and formal volunteer activities have both mental and physical health benefits [2,5,6]. Older volunteers experience fewer health issues, diminishing symptoms for existing health conditions, and reduced feelings of depression [6]. Additionally volunteering has been viewed as a mediator in the relationship between functional limitations and mortality in late life [7]. Volunteering not only benefits the older volunteers, but has a positive impact on the communities served [2]. The benefits of volunteering among seniors include increased economic productivity and stronger intergenerational relationships [8]. It is estimated that American adults aged 55 and older contributed approximately $161.7 billion to society through formal volunteering (i.e., 28% of $161.7 billion), spousal care (24%), caring for grandchildren (24%), caring for parents (13%), and informal volunteering (11%) in 2002 [8]. Previous studies have found that older volunteers tend to be more educated, wealthier, healthier, have better social integration, and have more religious involvement [4,6]. Women were more likely to volunteer in formal opportunities, while men tended to
258
S. Ahn et al. / Maturitas 69 (2011) 257–262
participate in informal opportunities [10]. Volunteering variations by racial/ethnic backgrounds have also been examined. Prior studies that compared volunteer rates among older diverse populations found that Whites tend to be involved with more formal volunteering activities [10], while African Americans and other racial/ethnic minorities tend to be involved with more informal volunteering opportunities in their churches [4,11] and communities [12]. The objectives of this study are to address existing research gaps by examining: (1) study participant characteristics associated with volunteering; (2) ethnic differences in general volunteer behavior, as well as types of volunteering; and (3) factors associated with volunteering among older adults. 2. Methods 2.1. Data source We examined data from 1138 adults aged 60 years or older who participated in the 2008 Aging Texas Well (ATW) Indicators Survey. The ATW survey was conducted to evaluate and measure successful aging activities in older, community-dwelling Texans. This survey utilized a standard random-digit dialing technique to give all Texans aged 60 years or older an equal chance to be included in the sample. Then, Hispanics were oversampled to approximate Texans’ race/ethnicity distribution aged 60 or older. The overall cooperation rate was 40.3%. The cooperation rate is the percentage of people interviewed of those who were contacted [13]. Approval for this study was granted by the Texas A&M University Institutional Review Board. 2.2. Study sample The ATW survey collected information from participants about volunteer activities, demographic characteristics, health status, and community interaction factors. Participants were excluded from study analyses for the following reasons: not reporting their race/ethnicity (n = 10); reporting themselves as a race/ethnicity other than non-Hispanic White, African American, or Hispanic (n = 48); and not reporting volunteering-related information (n = 555). The final sample for this study included 525 residents [i.e., non-Hispanic White (n = 362), African American (n = 45), Hispanic (n = 118)]. Because of the survey instrument’s length, a module approach was utilized with volunteerism-related questions only asked to half of the total survey population. When comparing the study sample with those who did not have volunteerism information in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, there was no significant difference between the two samples for variables such as age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, income, and marital status. 3. Measurement 3.1. Volunteer activities To explore the extent to which respondents engaged in either informal or formal (i.e., organized) volunteer activities of older adults in this study, respondents were asked, “do you currently participate in an organized volunteer program run by a group or organization, or have your volunteered in the past?” They were also asked, “do you currently perform volunteer work without being a member of an organized program by helping others on a recurring basis (monthly)?” Responses were coded as “yes; no, not currently; no, but have in the past; and no, never.” For the purpose of this study, these responses were used to create types of volunteering by classifying volunteering as none, only organized, only informal,
and both organized and informal. These responses were further combined and recoded to identify if the respondent participated in either organized or informal volunteerism or if they did not participate in either organized or informal volunteerism. 3.2. Correlates 3.2.1. Informal caregiving Study respondents were asked, “do you provide care for a family member that is over the age of 60, a child 18 or younger, or both: care for person over the age of 60; primary caregiver of relative child 18 or younger; both; and not a caregiver?” We coded this variable as providing informal care or not. 3.2.2. Demographic characteristics The respondents were asked about age (i.e., 60–69, 70–79, and 80 or older), sex, and race/ethnicity (i.e., non-Hispanic White, African American, and Hispanic). 3.2.3. Health status The current study included three aspects of health: physical, mental, and spiritual. Physical health was represented by number of co-morbidities based on the presence of arthritis, lung/breathing problem, cardiovascular/heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, stroke, and cancer. The number of self-reported co-morbidities were summed and trichotomized into none, 1–2, and 3 or more co-morbidities. Respondents were also asked, “Would you say that in general your mental health is . . .” response choices included excellent, very good, good, fair, and poor, which were coded as good/fair/poor, very good, and excellent. Spiritual health was represented by the frequency of spiritual activities reported by the respondents. Respondents were asked, “how often do you participate in activities that are spiritually satisfying?” Responses “daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and never,” were coded as never to monthly, weekly, and daily. 3.2.4. Community interactions Community interactions were represented by the degree of community involvement and satisfaction with community interactions. Respondents were asked, how important is being involved in your community: very important, somewhat important, somewhat unimportant, and not at all important. This variable was recoded into less than very important and very important because of the distribution characteristics. Respondents were also asked, “would you say you are very satisfied, somewhat satisfied, somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with your interactions with friends, family neighbors, and others in your community,” which we coded as less than very satisfied and very satisfied. 4. Analysis strategy Stata Version 11 was used for all data analyses [14]. Two separate bivariate analyses were conducted. We separately compared the study participants’ characteristics by race/ethnicity (nonHispanic Whites vs. Hispanics vs. African Americans), and then by volunteer status (e.g., classified as a volunteer or not). Next, multiple logistic regression models were used to identify factors associated with volunteerism among older adults in this sample after excluding African American participants due to their small sample size. The final models were introduced after comparing models using the log-likelihood ratio tests. The Hosmer–Lemeshow statistic was used to show the goodness-of-fit of the final model to the data and the mean value of variance inflation factor (VIF) was used to identify multicollinearity among the correlates. Logistic regression models were used to calculate odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals.
S. Ahn et al. / Maturitas 69 (2011) 257–262
5. Results Table 1 presents descriptive statistics by type of volunteer activity across three racial/ethnic groups. In general, non-Hispanic White participants (56.4%) were more likely to volunteer than their African American (51.1%) and Hispanic counterparts (43.2%). However, African American (28.9%) and Hispanic (22.9%) participants tended to participate more in informal volunteerism than their non-Hispanic White counterparts (19.1%). African American (30.2%) and Hispanic participants (27.9%) were also more likely than the non-Hispanic White participants (15.9%) to provide informal care and to perceive community involvement to be very important (53.3% for African American, 53.9% for Hispanic, and 41.2% for non-Hispanic White). Non-Hispanic White participants were more likely to be older and rate their mental health as excellent compared to non-White participants (46.7% for non-Hispanic White, 36.4% for African American, and 29.7% for Hispanic). Table 2 shows the characteristics of study participants by variables of interest, controlling for volunteerism, and addresses the question of factors differentiating volunteer behaviors (combining formal and informal types of activities). Among all study participants, over half reported having participated in volunteering activities. In general, volunteer activities were more common among those who reported having better mental health (p < 0.001), participating in spiritual activities more often (p < 0.001), perceiving community involvement as being very important (p < 0.001), and being very satisfied with their community interactions (p < 0.001). Conversely, the Hispanic participants were less likely to participate in volunteering activities than their non-Hispanic White counterparts (p = 0.044). When controlling for all other factors (Table 3), the multiple logistic regression shows that Hispanic participants were less likely to volunteer than their non-Hispanic White counterparts (OR 0.48; 95% CI 0.29–0.78; p for trend 0.003). However, volunteerism was more observed among those who reported providing informal care (OR 1.93; 95% CI 1.14–3.28; p for trend 0.015), having very good and excellent mental health (OR 1.90 and 2.07; 95% CI 1.09–3.32 and 1.20–3.55; p for trend 0.023 and 0.009, respectively), and participating in spiritual activities weekly or daily (OR 2.15 and 2.35; 95% CI 1.28–3.63 and 1.29–4.28; p for trend 0.004 and 0.005, respectively). Community interactions were likewise significantly and positively associated with volunteerism. Those who perceived their community involvement to be very important (OR 2.37; 95% CI 1.55–3.62; p for trend <0.001) and were very satisfied with their community interactions (OR 1.81; 95% CI 1.15–2.85; p for trend 0.010) were more likely to participate in volunteer activities.
6. Discussion Volunteerism is high among Texans aged 60 years or older, with over 53% of older Texans reporting they volunteer (32.2% for formal and 41.9% for informal volunteerism). Approximately 14% of these older volunteers were aged 80 or older. This volunteer rate is even higher than what is reported in national studies among adults aged 65 years or older from 2007 to 2009 (i.e., 25.2% for Texas; 23.7% for national rate) [15]. The current study indicates older Hispanics were less likely to volunteer, whereas older adults that did volunteer tended to provide informal care, have better mental health, have more spiritual participation, and have more community interactions. Given that society is aging and prosocial activities improve health status among older adults, it is critical to examine factors contributed to volunteerism among older adults. Consistent with other studies [11,16,17], the nature and extent of volunteerism did vary by race/ethnicity. The current study showed that Hispanics (18.4% for volunteers vs. 27.1% for non-
259
volunteers) were less likely to participate in volunteerism than their non-Hispanic White counterparts (73.4% for volunteers vs. 63.9% for non-volunteers) (Table 2). The results of our study were analogous with a previous national study where non-Hispanic Whites (29.5%) were more likely to participate in organized volunteer activities than Hispanics (15.3%) in Texas from 2007 to 2009 (15). Hispanic participants (22.9% for only informal volunteering) were more likely to participate in informal volunteering activities than their non-Hispanic White counterparts (19.1% for only informal volunteering) (Table 1). One possible explanation for this difference is that older adults who volunteer tend to have higher levels of human, social, cultural capital, and health resources (e.g., better self-reported health, less depressive symptoms) [4,11]. Disparities in financial resources may also explain the racial/ethnic differences in volunteering [16]. The current study partially supports the resource perspective where our additional analysis showed Hispanics were significantly poorer than their non-Hispanic White counterparts; however, this income effect disappeared and was excluded in the final model. Provision of informal care has a commonality with volunteerism given that both activities are based on altruism [18,19]. The current study compliments this concept, indicating that informal caregivers were almost twice as likely to be volunteers. In an effort to distinguish caregiving and volunteering activities, we ran an additional analysis and identified no significant associations between these activities. Only 23% (n = 63) of older volunteers reported providing informal care. Nevertheless, caregivers would be more exposed to opportunities for volunteering than non-caregivers and these caregiving activities may result in caregivers being more likely to be asked to volunteer [19]. As part of improving caregiver stress, caregivers may try to find outside activities such as volunteering, which helps them make friends and gain social recognition in their roles [18]. As such, the strong association between caregiving and volunteering among older adults can be understood as social engagement in groups, where older adults who had more roles (including caregiving, working, volunteering, etc.) were more likely to experience higher levels of positive well-being [4]. The current study showed respondents’ mental health was strongly related to volunteering. Older adults reporting having very good or excellent mental health were twice as likely to volunteer. We speculate that those with a good mental health outlook may seek out volunteer activities more actively [20] than their counterparts. Similarly, as indicated in prior studies, social ties (e.g., volunteerism) play a beneficial role in the maintenance of psychosocial well-being [21]. The role enhancement theory [22] suggests that involvement in a productive role such as volunteering can provide older adults with more resources, a larger social network, more power, and more prestige, and this in turn leads to better mental health [23]. Volunteer work may generate better mental health by giving people a sense of pride and reward [24]. However, future studies should examine if this protective effect of volunteering on mental health is uniform across subgroups in society [21]. Our findings regarding the positive association between religious involvements and volunteering are supported by previous studies [4,20]. Older adults who reported participating in activities that are spiritually satisfying were more than twice as likely to volunteer. Specific research about volunteering in Texas revealed that people were more likely to volunteer in religious settings (40.1%) than other settings including education (15.7%), civic (12.1%), social service (10.5%), and hospital (8.0%) [15]. Since religion may be a good predictor of having a social gathering, involvement in religious organizations is positively associated with participation in secular organizations [25]. However, there is caution in generalizing the positive association between religious values and volunteer encouragement [16,26]. Values may be less important in helping
260
S. Ahn et al. / Maturitas 69 (2011) 257–262
Table 1 Characteristics of study subjects, controlling for race/ethnicity (n = 525). Variable
Volunteering Types of volunteering
Informal caregiving Age
Sex Number of co-morbidities
Self-reported mental health
Spiritual participation
Community involvement Satisfaction with the community interactions a
Race/ethnicity
None Yes None Only organized Only informal Both No Yes 60–69 70–79 ≥80 Male Female 0 1–2 >3 Good/fair/poor Very good Excellent Never-monthly Weekly Daily
Non-Hispanic White (n = 362), % (n)
African American (n = 45), %(n)
Hispanic (n = 118), % (n)
p-Valuea
43.7(158) 56.4 (204) 43.7(158) 12.7 (46) 19.1 (69) 24.6 (89) 84.1(302) 15.9(57) 41.1(148) 40.0(144) 18.9(68) 30.1(109) 69.9 (253) 15.2(55) 51.1(185) 33.7(122) 19.6(71) 33.7(122) 46.7(169) 22.5 (80) 51.8(184) 25.6(91) 58.8(210) 41.2(147) 30.6(110) 69.4 (249)
48.9 (22) 51.1(23) 48.9(22) 8.9 (4) 28.9(13) 13.3 (6) 69.8 (30) 30.2(13) 61.9(26) 28.6(12) 9.5(4) 40.0(18) 60.0 (27) 4.4(2) 55.6 (25) 40.0(18) 13.6(16) 27.3 (12) 36.4(16) 13.3 (6) 55.6 (25) 31.1 (14) 46.7(21) 53.3(24) 30.6(110) 54.4(24)
56.8 (67) 43.2(51) 56.8(67) 6.8(8) 22.9(27) 13.6(16) 72.7 (85) 27.9 (33) 54.6 (24) 35.9 (42) 9.4(11) 26.3(31) 73.7 (87) 19.5 (23) 47.5 (56) 33.1(39) 36.4(43) 33.9 (40) 29.7(35) 27.4 (32) 47.9 (56) 24.8 (29) 46.1 (53) 53.9 (62) 27.4(32) 72.2(85)
0.044 0.020
0.003 0.008
0.232 0.213
0.001
0.430
0.029 0.081
p-Values for the chi-squared tests.
decide who volunteers than in helping decide what volunteering means to the people who do [16]. The definition of volunteering as an activity undertaken by an individual that is uncoerced, unpaid, structured by an organization, and directed toward a community concern [27] emphasizes the importance of examining the community context in which volunteering occurs. We also found that older volunteers perceived community involvement as very important and were very satisfied with their community interactions. Indeed, older adults were more likely to volunteer for social and community agencies and less
likely to volunteer for educational, recreational, and environmental programs [4]. Proximity can be one of the possible explanations of this positive association assuming that many volunteer opportunities exist as a community-based form. Relying on the social exchange perspective, we can understand the positive associations given volunteer work affords opportunities for people to meet their social needs by serving with friends or by gaining the approval of important others who view volunteerism favorably [28]. Our analysis had several limitations that could have affected our results. First these results are based on cross-sectional data that
Table 2 Characteristics of study subjects, controlling for volunteering (n = 525). Variable
Informal caregiving Age
Sex Race/ethnicity
Number of co-morbidities
Self-reported mental health
Spiritual participation
Community involvement Satisfaction with the community interactions a
p-Values for the chi-squared tests.
Volunteering
No Yes 60–69 70–79 ≥80 Male Female Non-Hispanic White African American Hispanic 0 1–2 ≥3 Good/fair/poor Very good Excellent Never-monthly Weekly Daily
No (n = 247), % (n)
Yes (n = 278), % (n)
83.7(206) 16.3 (40) 45.1(110) 36.5 (89) 18.4 (45) 27.9(69) 72.1(178) 63.9(158) 8.9 (22) 27.1 (67) 14.6(36) 46.2(114) 39.3 (97) 33.2(82) 31.2(77) 35.6 (88) 32.8(79) 45.6(110) 21.6(52) 64.1(155) 35.9 (87) 39.3(96) 60.7 (148)
77.0(211) 22.9 (63) 46.6(128) 39.6 (109) 13.8 (38) 32.0(89) 67.9(189) 73.4(204) 8.3 (23) 18.4(51) 15.8(44) 54.7(152) 29.5 (82) 17.3(48) 35.0(97) 47.7 (132) 14.1(39) 56.2(155) 29.7(82) 46.9(129) 53.1(146) 23.9(66) 76.1 (210)
p-Valuea 0.054 0.345
0.309 0.044
0.059
<0.001
<0.001
<0.001 <0.001
S. Ahn et al. / Maturitas 69 (2011) 257–262
261
Table 3 Logistic regression of volunteering among older adults (n = 454). Variable Informal caregiving Age
Sex Race/ethnicity Number of co-morbidities
Self-reported mental health
Spiritual participation
Community involvement Satisfaction with the community interaction
OR No Yes 60–69 70–79 ≥80 Male Female Non-Hispanic White Hispanic 0 1–2 >3 Good/fair/poor Very good Excellent Never-monthly Weekly Daily
1.00 1.93 1.00 0.95 0.56 1.00 0.79 1.00 0.48 1.00 0.89 0.60 1.00 1.90 2.07 1.00 2.15 2.35 1.00 2.37 1.00 1.81
p-Trend – 0.015 – 0.812 0.057 – 0.306 – 0.003 – 0.693 0.112 – 0.023 0.009 – 0.004 0.005 – <0.001 – 0.009
95% CI – 1.137 – 0.605 0.304 – 0.505 – 0.291 – 0.491 0.321 – 1.092 1.202 – 1.276 1.295 – 1.545 – 1.152
– 3.284 – 1.483 1.019 – 1.239 – 0.784 – 1.604 1.126 – 3.316 3.553 – 3.628 4.277 – 3.623 – 2.853
CI, confidence interval; the Hosmer–Lemeshow goodness-of-fit gave ap value of 0.65 for this model; the mean VIF (variance inflation factor) was 1.09, implying that there is no strong multicollinearity among the independent variables.
limit our ability to determine causality. For example, the current study was limited to finding causal directions among mental health, sense of community, and volunteering. Secondly we were not able to distinguish formal and informal volunteering in the final model due to the small numbers of each volunteering type, which limited our study to examine the extent to which factors contribute to the participation in formal and informal volunteering among racial and ethnic subgroups. The current study did not include African American participants in the final model due to the small number of this subpopulation in this study, thus limiting our ability to examine three-way racial/ethnic comparisons. Thirdly, physical health was reflected by summing the number of co-morbidities [29], which limits the ability to dissect which specific disease is more likely to affect the volunteering activities in older adults. Nevertheless, we were more interested in examining the association between physical health status and providing volunteer activities, assuming that chronic conditions may collectively affect volunteering among older adults. Fourth, the low cooperation rate (40.3%) and only utilizing half of the total survey population may be a problem in terms of generalizability. Lastly, the current study also lacked information about participants’ employment status, which may affect volunteering activities, especially among younger cohorts within the older populations. Despite these limitations, our study findings have important policy implications. The results of the present study indicate that several variables differentiate between older adults who volunteer and those who do not (e.g., informal caregiving, race/ethnicity, mental health status, spiritual participation, and community interactions). Older adults may be more likely to volunteer when agencies and organizations emphasize how volunteering can be favorable for one’s own mental health, valuable in humanitarian perspective, and beneficial to the members of their community [30]. System-level facilitation may also be helpful in recruiting older adults who would otherwise not to volunteer due to their lack of socioeconomic resources [17]. Volunteer programs sponsored by agencies and organizations may also be successful in retaining older volunteers by providing monetary incentives and transportation for lower-income and racial/ethnic minority older adults and making their roles better recognized and more flexible [17]. Given the positive associations of mental health, spirituality, and social engagement with volunteering among older adults, it is important
to identify enabling and constraining factors associated with volunteerism in this population. Future research of volunteerism among older adults should investigate barriers and enablers of volunteer activities by racial and ethnic subpopulations to inform efforts to recruit and retain older volunteers. Contributors SA: analysis and interpretation of data, and writing of the manuscript; KP: interpretation of the data and writing of the manuscript; MS: organizing the study and editing the paper; MO: initiating, organizing the study, and editing the paper. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interests with respect to their authorship or the publication of this article. Funding The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services facilitated the current study by providing the 2008 Aging Texas Well (ATW) Indicators Survey dataset. This project was partially supported by Grant Number 90OP0001/03 from the Administration on Aging and Grant Number R01HD047143 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The authors thank Drs. Angelica P. Herrera and Nelda Mier for their valuable comments. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of Texas A&M University System Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health or funding agencies. Acknowledgements The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services facilitated the current study by providing the 2008 Aging Texas Well (ATW) Indicators Survey dataset. This project was partially supported by Grant number 90OP0001/03 from the Administration on Aging and Grant number R01HD047143 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The authors thank
262
S. Ahn et al. / Maturitas 69 (2011) 257–262
Drs. Angelica P. Herrera and Nelda Mier for their valuable comments. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of Texas A&M University System Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health or funding agencies. References [1] Martinson M, Minkler M. Civic engagement and older adults: a critical perspective. Gerontologist 2006;46(3):318–24. [2] Dabelko-Schoeny H, Anderson KA, Spinks K. Civic Engagement for older adults with functional limitations: piloting and intervention for adults day health participants. Gerontologist 2010;50(5):694–701. [3] Center for Health Communication. Reinventing aging: baby boomers and civic engagement. Boston, MA: Harvard School of Public Health; 2004. [4] Morrow-Howell N. Volunteering in later life: research frontiers. J Gerontol B Soc Sci 2010;65B(4):461–9. [5] Banerjee D, Perry M, Tran D, Arafat R. Self-reported health, functional status and chronic disease in community dwelling older adults: untangling the role of demographics. J Commun Health 2010;35:135–41. [6] The Urban Institute. Older adults engaged as volunteers. http://www. urban.org/UploadedPDF/311325 older volunteers.pdf 2010 [accessed 25.10.10]. [7] Okun MA, August KJ, Rook KS, Newsom JT. Does volunteering moderate the relation between functional limitations and mortality? Soc Sci Med 2010;71(9):1662–8. [8] Johnson R, Schaner S. Value of unpaid activities of older americans tops $160 billion per year. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute; 2005. [10] White SB. Volunteering in the United States, 2005. Mon Labor Rev 2006;129(2):65–76. [11] McBride AM. Civic engagement older adults, and inclusion. Generations 2007;30(4):66–71. [12] Rochester C, Hutchison R, Harris M, Keely C. A review of the home office older volunteers initiative. London, UK: Home Office; 2002. [13] Galea S, Vlahov D, Resnick H, et al. Trends of probable post-traumatic stress disorder in New York City after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Am J Epidemiol 2003;158(6):514–24.
[14] Stata Corp. Stata statistical software: release 11. College Station, TX: StataCorp LP; 2009. [15] Office of Research Policy Development. Volunteering in America 2010: national, state, and city information. Washington, DC: Corportation for National & Community Service; 2010. [16] Wilson J. Volunteering. Annu Rev Sociol 2000;26:215–40. [17] Tang F, Morrow-Howell N, Hong S. Inclusion of diverse older populations in volunteering. Nonprof Volunt Sec Q 2009;38(5):810–27. [18] Farkas JI, Himes CL. The influence of caregiving and employment on the voluntary activities of midlife and older women. J Gerontol B Soc Sci 1997;52(4):S180–9. [19] Burr JA, Choi NG, Mutchler JE, Caro FG. Caregiving and volunteering: are private and public helping behaviors linked? J Gerontol B Soc Sci 2005;60(5):S247– 56. [20] Thoits PA, Hewitt LN. Volunteer work and well-being. J Health Soc Behav 2001;42(2):115–31. [21] Kawachi I, Berkman LF. Social ties and mental health. J Urban Health 2001;78(3):458–67. [22] Marks SR. Multiple roles and role strain: some notes on human energy, time and commitment. Am Sociol Rev 1977;42(6):921–36. [23] Lum TY, Lightfoot E. The effects of volunteering on the physical and mental health of older people. Res Aging 2005;27(1):31–55. [24] Farrell C, Bryant W. Voluntary work for adults with mental health problems: a route to inclusion? A review of the literature. Brit J Occup Ther 2009;72(4):163–73. [25] Lam PY. As the flocks gather: how religion affects voluntary association participation. J Sci Stud Relig 2002;41(3):405–22. [26] Wilson J, Janoski T. The contribution of religion to volunteer work. Sociol Relig 1995;56(2):137–52. [27] Cnaan RA, Handy F, Wadsworth M. Defining who is a volunteer: conceptual and empirical considerations. Nonprof Volunt Sec Q 1996;25(3):364–83. [28] Lavelle JJ. What motivates OCB? Insights from the volunteerism literature. J Organ Behav 2010;31(6):918–23. [29] Jang SN, Choi YJUN, Kim DH. Association of socioeconomic status with successful ageing: differences in the components of successful ageing. J Biosoc Sci 2009;41(2):207–19. [30] Okun MA, Michel J. Sense of community and being a volunteer among the young–old. J Appl Gerontol 2006;25(2):173–88.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Maturitas journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/maturitas
Correlates of volunteering among aging Texans: The roles of health indicators, spirituality, and social engagement SangNam Ahn a,∗ , Karon L. Phillips b , Matthew Lee Smith a , Marcia G. Ory a a b
Texas A&M Health Science Center, School of Rural Public Health, Department of Social and Behavioral Health, United States Scott & White Healthcare, Program on Aging and Care, United States
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 6 February 2011 Received in revised form 25 March 2011 Accepted 2 April 2011
Keywords: Volunteering Older adults Informal caregiving Mental health Spiritual participation Community interactions
a b s t r a c t Objectives: This study aimed to identify participant characteristics associated with volunteering among older adults. Methods: Based on data from the 2008 Aging Texas Well (ATW) Indicators Survey, we examined the degree to which demographic factors, health status, spiritual participation, and community involvement are associated with volunteering among adults aged 60 years or older (n = 525). Results: Rates of volunteering varied by race/ethnicity: non-Hispanic Whites (56.4%), African Americans (51.1%), and Hispanics (43.2%). Bivariate analyses showed that non-Hispanic White older adults were more likely to participate in formal volunteering activities, while their African American and Hispanic counterparts tended to participate in informal volunteering activities. Logistic regression analyses revealed that volunteering was less observed among Hispanics (OR = 0.48, 95% CI 0.29–0.78). Volunteering was more observed among those who reported providing informal care (OR = 1.93, 95% CI 1.14–3.28), having very good or excellent mental health (OR = 1.90 and 2.07, 95% CI 1.09–3.32 and 1.20–3.55, respectively), having weekly or daily spiritual participation (OR = 2.15 and 2.35, 95% CI 1.28–3.63 and 1.29–4.28, respectively), perceiving community involvement very important (OR = 2.37, 95% CI 1.55–3.62), and being very satisfied with the community interaction (OR = 1.81, 95% CI 1.15–2.85). Conclusions: Given the positive associations of mental health, spirituality, and social engagement with volunteering among older adults, system-level efforts to increase the sense of community among older adults and recognize their roles as volunteers will be helpful in recruiting and retaining older volunteers. © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Recently, increased attention has been given to civic engagement among older populations and the associated health benefits [1]. The most common and widely known form of civic engagement is volunteerism, including both formal activities through structured community service as well as informal activities for family, friends or neighbors, and faith-based groups [2,3]. Over the past thirty years, there has been a steady increase in volunteer activities among older adults, compared to younger populations [4]. This trend is anticipated to continue as society ages and the potential of baby boomers for participating in activities related to civic engagement is realized [3].
∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Social and Behavioral Health, School of Rural Public Health, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, 117 Administration Building, College Station, TX 77843-1266, United States. Tel.: +1 979 862 4941; fax: +1 979 458 4264. E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Ahn). 0378-5122/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.maturitas.2011.04.002
For older populations, various informal and formal volunteer activities have both mental and physical health benefits [2,5,6]. Older volunteers experience fewer health issues, diminishing symptoms for existing health conditions, and reduced feelings of depression [6]. Additionally volunteering has been viewed as a mediator in the relationship between functional limitations and mortality in late life [7]. Volunteering not only benefits the older volunteers, but has a positive impact on the communities served [2]. The benefits of volunteering among seniors include increased economic productivity and stronger intergenerational relationships [8]. It is estimated that American adults aged 55 and older contributed approximately $161.7 billion to society through formal volunteering (i.e., 28% of $161.7 billion), spousal care (24%), caring for grandchildren (24%), caring for parents (13%), and informal volunteering (11%) in 2002 [8]. Previous studies have found that older volunteers tend to be more educated, wealthier, healthier, have better social integration, and have more religious involvement [4,6]. Women were more likely to volunteer in formal opportunities, while men tended to
258
S. Ahn et al. / Maturitas 69 (2011) 257–262
participate in informal opportunities [10]. Volunteering variations by racial/ethnic backgrounds have also been examined. Prior studies that compared volunteer rates among older diverse populations found that Whites tend to be involved with more formal volunteering activities [10], while African Americans and other racial/ethnic minorities tend to be involved with more informal volunteering opportunities in their churches [4,11] and communities [12]. The objectives of this study are to address existing research gaps by examining: (1) study participant characteristics associated with volunteering; (2) ethnic differences in general volunteer behavior, as well as types of volunteering; and (3) factors associated with volunteering among older adults. 2. Methods 2.1. Data source We examined data from 1138 adults aged 60 years or older who participated in the 2008 Aging Texas Well (ATW) Indicators Survey. The ATW survey was conducted to evaluate and measure successful aging activities in older, community-dwelling Texans. This survey utilized a standard random-digit dialing technique to give all Texans aged 60 years or older an equal chance to be included in the sample. Then, Hispanics were oversampled to approximate Texans’ race/ethnicity distribution aged 60 or older. The overall cooperation rate was 40.3%. The cooperation rate is the percentage of people interviewed of those who were contacted [13]. Approval for this study was granted by the Texas A&M University Institutional Review Board. 2.2. Study sample The ATW survey collected information from participants about volunteer activities, demographic characteristics, health status, and community interaction factors. Participants were excluded from study analyses for the following reasons: not reporting their race/ethnicity (n = 10); reporting themselves as a race/ethnicity other than non-Hispanic White, African American, or Hispanic (n = 48); and not reporting volunteering-related information (n = 555). The final sample for this study included 525 residents [i.e., non-Hispanic White (n = 362), African American (n = 45), Hispanic (n = 118)]. Because of the survey instrument’s length, a module approach was utilized with volunteerism-related questions only asked to half of the total survey population. When comparing the study sample with those who did not have volunteerism information in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, there was no significant difference between the two samples for variables such as age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, income, and marital status. 3. Measurement 3.1. Volunteer activities To explore the extent to which respondents engaged in either informal or formal (i.e., organized) volunteer activities of older adults in this study, respondents were asked, “do you currently participate in an organized volunteer program run by a group or organization, or have your volunteered in the past?” They were also asked, “do you currently perform volunteer work without being a member of an organized program by helping others on a recurring basis (monthly)?” Responses were coded as “yes; no, not currently; no, but have in the past; and no, never.” For the purpose of this study, these responses were used to create types of volunteering by classifying volunteering as none, only organized, only informal,
and both organized and informal. These responses were further combined and recoded to identify if the respondent participated in either organized or informal volunteerism or if they did not participate in either organized or informal volunteerism. 3.2. Correlates 3.2.1. Informal caregiving Study respondents were asked, “do you provide care for a family member that is over the age of 60, a child 18 or younger, or both: care for person over the age of 60; primary caregiver of relative child 18 or younger; both; and not a caregiver?” We coded this variable as providing informal care or not. 3.2.2. Demographic characteristics The respondents were asked about age (i.e., 60–69, 70–79, and 80 or older), sex, and race/ethnicity (i.e., non-Hispanic White, African American, and Hispanic). 3.2.3. Health status The current study included three aspects of health: physical, mental, and spiritual. Physical health was represented by number of co-morbidities based on the presence of arthritis, lung/breathing problem, cardiovascular/heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, stroke, and cancer. The number of self-reported co-morbidities were summed and trichotomized into none, 1–2, and 3 or more co-morbidities. Respondents were also asked, “Would you say that in general your mental health is . . .” response choices included excellent, very good, good, fair, and poor, which were coded as good/fair/poor, very good, and excellent. Spiritual health was represented by the frequency of spiritual activities reported by the respondents. Respondents were asked, “how often do you participate in activities that are spiritually satisfying?” Responses “daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and never,” were coded as never to monthly, weekly, and daily. 3.2.4. Community interactions Community interactions were represented by the degree of community involvement and satisfaction with community interactions. Respondents were asked, how important is being involved in your community: very important, somewhat important, somewhat unimportant, and not at all important. This variable was recoded into less than very important and very important because of the distribution characteristics. Respondents were also asked, “would you say you are very satisfied, somewhat satisfied, somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with your interactions with friends, family neighbors, and others in your community,” which we coded as less than very satisfied and very satisfied. 4. Analysis strategy Stata Version 11 was used for all data analyses [14]. Two separate bivariate analyses were conducted. We separately compared the study participants’ characteristics by race/ethnicity (nonHispanic Whites vs. Hispanics vs. African Americans), and then by volunteer status (e.g., classified as a volunteer or not). Next, multiple logistic regression models were used to identify factors associated with volunteerism among older adults in this sample after excluding African American participants due to their small sample size. The final models were introduced after comparing models using the log-likelihood ratio tests. The Hosmer–Lemeshow statistic was used to show the goodness-of-fit of the final model to the data and the mean value of variance inflation factor (VIF) was used to identify multicollinearity among the correlates. Logistic regression models were used to calculate odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals.
S. Ahn et al. / Maturitas 69 (2011) 257–262
5. Results Table 1 presents descriptive statistics by type of volunteer activity across three racial/ethnic groups. In general, non-Hispanic White participants (56.4%) were more likely to volunteer than their African American (51.1%) and Hispanic counterparts (43.2%). However, African American (28.9%) and Hispanic (22.9%) participants tended to participate more in informal volunteerism than their non-Hispanic White counterparts (19.1%). African American (30.2%) and Hispanic participants (27.9%) were also more likely than the non-Hispanic White participants (15.9%) to provide informal care and to perceive community involvement to be very important (53.3% for African American, 53.9% for Hispanic, and 41.2% for non-Hispanic White). Non-Hispanic White participants were more likely to be older and rate their mental health as excellent compared to non-White participants (46.7% for non-Hispanic White, 36.4% for African American, and 29.7% for Hispanic). Table 2 shows the characteristics of study participants by variables of interest, controlling for volunteerism, and addresses the question of factors differentiating volunteer behaviors (combining formal and informal types of activities). Among all study participants, over half reported having participated in volunteering activities. In general, volunteer activities were more common among those who reported having better mental health (p < 0.001), participating in spiritual activities more often (p < 0.001), perceiving community involvement as being very important (p < 0.001), and being very satisfied with their community interactions (p < 0.001). Conversely, the Hispanic participants were less likely to participate in volunteering activities than their non-Hispanic White counterparts (p = 0.044). When controlling for all other factors (Table 3), the multiple logistic regression shows that Hispanic participants were less likely to volunteer than their non-Hispanic White counterparts (OR 0.48; 95% CI 0.29–0.78; p for trend 0.003). However, volunteerism was more observed among those who reported providing informal care (OR 1.93; 95% CI 1.14–3.28; p for trend 0.015), having very good and excellent mental health (OR 1.90 and 2.07; 95% CI 1.09–3.32 and 1.20–3.55; p for trend 0.023 and 0.009, respectively), and participating in spiritual activities weekly or daily (OR 2.15 and 2.35; 95% CI 1.28–3.63 and 1.29–4.28; p for trend 0.004 and 0.005, respectively). Community interactions were likewise significantly and positively associated with volunteerism. Those who perceived their community involvement to be very important (OR 2.37; 95% CI 1.55–3.62; p for trend <0.001) and were very satisfied with their community interactions (OR 1.81; 95% CI 1.15–2.85; p for trend 0.010) were more likely to participate in volunteer activities.
6. Discussion Volunteerism is high among Texans aged 60 years or older, with over 53% of older Texans reporting they volunteer (32.2% for formal and 41.9% for informal volunteerism). Approximately 14% of these older volunteers were aged 80 or older. This volunteer rate is even higher than what is reported in national studies among adults aged 65 years or older from 2007 to 2009 (i.e., 25.2% for Texas; 23.7% for national rate) [15]. The current study indicates older Hispanics were less likely to volunteer, whereas older adults that did volunteer tended to provide informal care, have better mental health, have more spiritual participation, and have more community interactions. Given that society is aging and prosocial activities improve health status among older adults, it is critical to examine factors contributed to volunteerism among older adults. Consistent with other studies [11,16,17], the nature and extent of volunteerism did vary by race/ethnicity. The current study showed that Hispanics (18.4% for volunteers vs. 27.1% for non-
259
volunteers) were less likely to participate in volunteerism than their non-Hispanic White counterparts (73.4% for volunteers vs. 63.9% for non-volunteers) (Table 2). The results of our study were analogous with a previous national study where non-Hispanic Whites (29.5%) were more likely to participate in organized volunteer activities than Hispanics (15.3%) in Texas from 2007 to 2009 (15). Hispanic participants (22.9% for only informal volunteering) were more likely to participate in informal volunteering activities than their non-Hispanic White counterparts (19.1% for only informal volunteering) (Table 1). One possible explanation for this difference is that older adults who volunteer tend to have higher levels of human, social, cultural capital, and health resources (e.g., better self-reported health, less depressive symptoms) [4,11]. Disparities in financial resources may also explain the racial/ethnic differences in volunteering [16]. The current study partially supports the resource perspective where our additional analysis showed Hispanics were significantly poorer than their non-Hispanic White counterparts; however, this income effect disappeared and was excluded in the final model. Provision of informal care has a commonality with volunteerism given that both activities are based on altruism [18,19]. The current study compliments this concept, indicating that informal caregivers were almost twice as likely to be volunteers. In an effort to distinguish caregiving and volunteering activities, we ran an additional analysis and identified no significant associations between these activities. Only 23% (n = 63) of older volunteers reported providing informal care. Nevertheless, caregivers would be more exposed to opportunities for volunteering than non-caregivers and these caregiving activities may result in caregivers being more likely to be asked to volunteer [19]. As part of improving caregiver stress, caregivers may try to find outside activities such as volunteering, which helps them make friends and gain social recognition in their roles [18]. As such, the strong association between caregiving and volunteering among older adults can be understood as social engagement in groups, where older adults who had more roles (including caregiving, working, volunteering, etc.) were more likely to experience higher levels of positive well-being [4]. The current study showed respondents’ mental health was strongly related to volunteering. Older adults reporting having very good or excellent mental health were twice as likely to volunteer. We speculate that those with a good mental health outlook may seek out volunteer activities more actively [20] than their counterparts. Similarly, as indicated in prior studies, social ties (e.g., volunteerism) play a beneficial role in the maintenance of psychosocial well-being [21]. The role enhancement theory [22] suggests that involvement in a productive role such as volunteering can provide older adults with more resources, a larger social network, more power, and more prestige, and this in turn leads to better mental health [23]. Volunteer work may generate better mental health by giving people a sense of pride and reward [24]. However, future studies should examine if this protective effect of volunteering on mental health is uniform across subgroups in society [21]. Our findings regarding the positive association between religious involvements and volunteering are supported by previous studies [4,20]. Older adults who reported participating in activities that are spiritually satisfying were more than twice as likely to volunteer. Specific research about volunteering in Texas revealed that people were more likely to volunteer in religious settings (40.1%) than other settings including education (15.7%), civic (12.1%), social service (10.5%), and hospital (8.0%) [15]. Since religion may be a good predictor of having a social gathering, involvement in religious organizations is positively associated with participation in secular organizations [25]. However, there is caution in generalizing the positive association between religious values and volunteer encouragement [16,26]. Values may be less important in helping
260
S. Ahn et al. / Maturitas 69 (2011) 257–262
Table 1 Characteristics of study subjects, controlling for race/ethnicity (n = 525). Variable
Volunteering Types of volunteering
Informal caregiving Age
Sex Number of co-morbidities
Self-reported mental health
Spiritual participation
Community involvement Satisfaction with the community interactions a
Race/ethnicity
None Yes None Only organized Only informal Both No Yes 60–69 70–79 ≥80 Male Female 0 1–2 >3 Good/fair/poor Very good Excellent Never-monthly Weekly Daily
Non-Hispanic White (n = 362), % (n)
African American (n = 45), %(n)
Hispanic (n = 118), % (n)
p-Valuea
43.7(158) 56.4 (204) 43.7(158) 12.7 (46) 19.1 (69) 24.6 (89) 84.1(302) 15.9(57) 41.1(148) 40.0(144) 18.9(68) 30.1(109) 69.9 (253) 15.2(55) 51.1(185) 33.7(122) 19.6(71) 33.7(122) 46.7(169) 22.5 (80) 51.8(184) 25.6(91) 58.8(210) 41.2(147) 30.6(110) 69.4 (249)
48.9 (22) 51.1(23) 48.9(22) 8.9 (4) 28.9(13) 13.3 (6) 69.8 (30) 30.2(13) 61.9(26) 28.6(12) 9.5(4) 40.0(18) 60.0 (27) 4.4(2) 55.6 (25) 40.0(18) 13.6(16) 27.3 (12) 36.4(16) 13.3 (6) 55.6 (25) 31.1 (14) 46.7(21) 53.3(24) 30.6(110) 54.4(24)
56.8 (67) 43.2(51) 56.8(67) 6.8(8) 22.9(27) 13.6(16) 72.7 (85) 27.9 (33) 54.6 (24) 35.9 (42) 9.4(11) 26.3(31) 73.7 (87) 19.5 (23) 47.5 (56) 33.1(39) 36.4(43) 33.9 (40) 29.7(35) 27.4 (32) 47.9 (56) 24.8 (29) 46.1 (53) 53.9 (62) 27.4(32) 72.2(85)
0.044 0.020
0.003 0.008
0.232 0.213
0.001
0.430
0.029 0.081
p-Values for the chi-squared tests.
decide who volunteers than in helping decide what volunteering means to the people who do [16]. The definition of volunteering as an activity undertaken by an individual that is uncoerced, unpaid, structured by an organization, and directed toward a community concern [27] emphasizes the importance of examining the community context in which volunteering occurs. We also found that older volunteers perceived community involvement as very important and were very satisfied with their community interactions. Indeed, older adults were more likely to volunteer for social and community agencies and less
likely to volunteer for educational, recreational, and environmental programs [4]. Proximity can be one of the possible explanations of this positive association assuming that many volunteer opportunities exist as a community-based form. Relying on the social exchange perspective, we can understand the positive associations given volunteer work affords opportunities for people to meet their social needs by serving with friends or by gaining the approval of important others who view volunteerism favorably [28]. Our analysis had several limitations that could have affected our results. First these results are based on cross-sectional data that
Table 2 Characteristics of study subjects, controlling for volunteering (n = 525). Variable
Informal caregiving Age
Sex Race/ethnicity
Number of co-morbidities
Self-reported mental health
Spiritual participation
Community involvement Satisfaction with the community interactions a
p-Values for the chi-squared tests.
Volunteering
No Yes 60–69 70–79 ≥80 Male Female Non-Hispanic White African American Hispanic 0 1–2 ≥3 Good/fair/poor Very good Excellent Never-monthly Weekly Daily
No (n = 247), % (n)
Yes (n = 278), % (n)
83.7(206) 16.3 (40) 45.1(110) 36.5 (89) 18.4 (45) 27.9(69) 72.1(178) 63.9(158) 8.9 (22) 27.1 (67) 14.6(36) 46.2(114) 39.3 (97) 33.2(82) 31.2(77) 35.6 (88) 32.8(79) 45.6(110) 21.6(52) 64.1(155) 35.9 (87) 39.3(96) 60.7 (148)
77.0(211) 22.9 (63) 46.6(128) 39.6 (109) 13.8 (38) 32.0(89) 67.9(189) 73.4(204) 8.3 (23) 18.4(51) 15.8(44) 54.7(152) 29.5 (82) 17.3(48) 35.0(97) 47.7 (132) 14.1(39) 56.2(155) 29.7(82) 46.9(129) 53.1(146) 23.9(66) 76.1 (210)
p-Valuea 0.054 0.345
0.309 0.044
0.059
<0.001
<0.001
<0.001 <0.001
S. Ahn et al. / Maturitas 69 (2011) 257–262
261
Table 3 Logistic regression of volunteering among older adults (n = 454). Variable Informal caregiving Age
Sex Race/ethnicity Number of co-morbidities
Self-reported mental health
Spiritual participation
Community involvement Satisfaction with the community interaction
OR No Yes 60–69 70–79 ≥80 Male Female Non-Hispanic White Hispanic 0 1–2 >3 Good/fair/poor Very good Excellent Never-monthly Weekly Daily
1.00 1.93 1.00 0.95 0.56 1.00 0.79 1.00 0.48 1.00 0.89 0.60 1.00 1.90 2.07 1.00 2.15 2.35 1.00 2.37 1.00 1.81
p-Trend – 0.015 – 0.812 0.057 – 0.306 – 0.003 – 0.693 0.112 – 0.023 0.009 – 0.004 0.005 – <0.001 – 0.009
95% CI – 1.137 – 0.605 0.304 – 0.505 – 0.291 – 0.491 0.321 – 1.092 1.202 – 1.276 1.295 – 1.545 – 1.152
– 3.284 – 1.483 1.019 – 1.239 – 0.784 – 1.604 1.126 – 3.316 3.553 – 3.628 4.277 – 3.623 – 2.853
CI, confidence interval; the Hosmer–Lemeshow goodness-of-fit gave ap value of 0.65 for this model; the mean VIF (variance inflation factor) was 1.09, implying that there is no strong multicollinearity among the independent variables.
limit our ability to determine causality. For example, the current study was limited to finding causal directions among mental health, sense of community, and volunteering. Secondly we were not able to distinguish formal and informal volunteering in the final model due to the small numbers of each volunteering type, which limited our study to examine the extent to which factors contribute to the participation in formal and informal volunteering among racial and ethnic subgroups. The current study did not include African American participants in the final model due to the small number of this subpopulation in this study, thus limiting our ability to examine three-way racial/ethnic comparisons. Thirdly, physical health was reflected by summing the number of co-morbidities [29], which limits the ability to dissect which specific disease is more likely to affect the volunteering activities in older adults. Nevertheless, we were more interested in examining the association between physical health status and providing volunteer activities, assuming that chronic conditions may collectively affect volunteering among older adults. Fourth, the low cooperation rate (40.3%) and only utilizing half of the total survey population may be a problem in terms of generalizability. Lastly, the current study also lacked information about participants’ employment status, which may affect volunteering activities, especially among younger cohorts within the older populations. Despite these limitations, our study findings have important policy implications. The results of the present study indicate that several variables differentiate between older adults who volunteer and those who do not (e.g., informal caregiving, race/ethnicity, mental health status, spiritual participation, and community interactions). Older adults may be more likely to volunteer when agencies and organizations emphasize how volunteering can be favorable for one’s own mental health, valuable in humanitarian perspective, and beneficial to the members of their community [30]. System-level facilitation may also be helpful in recruiting older adults who would otherwise not to volunteer due to their lack of socioeconomic resources [17]. Volunteer programs sponsored by agencies and organizations may also be successful in retaining older volunteers by providing monetary incentives and transportation for lower-income and racial/ethnic minority older adults and making their roles better recognized and more flexible [17]. Given the positive associations of mental health, spirituality, and social engagement with volunteering among older adults, it is important
to identify enabling and constraining factors associated with volunteerism in this population. Future research of volunteerism among older adults should investigate barriers and enablers of volunteer activities by racial and ethnic subpopulations to inform efforts to recruit and retain older volunteers. Contributors SA: analysis and interpretation of data, and writing of the manuscript; KP: interpretation of the data and writing of the manuscript; MS: organizing the study and editing the paper; MO: initiating, organizing the study, and editing the paper. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interests with respect to their authorship or the publication of this article. Funding The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services facilitated the current study by providing the 2008 Aging Texas Well (ATW) Indicators Survey dataset. This project was partially supported by Grant Number 90OP0001/03 from the Administration on Aging and Grant Number R01HD047143 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The authors thank Drs. Angelica P. Herrera and Nelda Mier for their valuable comments. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of Texas A&M University System Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health or funding agencies. Acknowledgements The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services facilitated the current study by providing the 2008 Aging Texas Well (ATW) Indicators Survey dataset. This project was partially supported by Grant number 90OP0001/03 from the Administration on Aging and Grant number R01HD047143 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The authors thank
262
S. Ahn et al. / Maturitas 69 (2011) 257–262
Drs. Angelica P. Herrera and Nelda Mier for their valuable comments. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of Texas A&M University System Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health or funding agencies. References [1] Martinson M, Minkler M. Civic engagement and older adults: a critical perspective. Gerontologist 2006;46(3):318–24. [2] Dabelko-Schoeny H, Anderson KA, Spinks K. Civic Engagement for older adults with functional limitations: piloting and intervention for adults day health participants. Gerontologist 2010;50(5):694–701. [3] Center for Health Communication. Reinventing aging: baby boomers and civic engagement. Boston, MA: Harvard School of Public Health; 2004. [4] Morrow-Howell N. Volunteering in later life: research frontiers. J Gerontol B Soc Sci 2010;65B(4):461–9. [5] Banerjee D, Perry M, Tran D, Arafat R. Self-reported health, functional status and chronic disease in community dwelling older adults: untangling the role of demographics. J Commun Health 2010;35:135–41. [6] The Urban Institute. Older adults engaged as volunteers. http://www. urban.org/UploadedPDF/311325 older volunteers.pdf 2010 [accessed 25.10.10]. [7] Okun MA, August KJ, Rook KS, Newsom JT. Does volunteering moderate the relation between functional limitations and mortality? Soc Sci Med 2010;71(9):1662–8. [8] Johnson R, Schaner S. Value of unpaid activities of older americans tops $160 billion per year. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute; 2005. [10] White SB. Volunteering in the United States, 2005. Mon Labor Rev 2006;129(2):65–76. [11] McBride AM. Civic engagement older adults, and inclusion. Generations 2007;30(4):66–71. [12] Rochester C, Hutchison R, Harris M, Keely C. A review of the home office older volunteers initiative. London, UK: Home Office; 2002. [13] Galea S, Vlahov D, Resnick H, et al. Trends of probable post-traumatic stress disorder in New York City after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Am J Epidemiol 2003;158(6):514–24.
[14] Stata Corp. Stata statistical software: release 11. College Station, TX: StataCorp LP; 2009. [15] Office of Research Policy Development. Volunteering in America 2010: national, state, and city information. Washington, DC: Corportation for National & Community Service; 2010. [16] Wilson J. Volunteering. Annu Rev Sociol 2000;26:215–40. [17] Tang F, Morrow-Howell N, Hong S. Inclusion of diverse older populations in volunteering. Nonprof Volunt Sec Q 2009;38(5):810–27. [18] Farkas JI, Himes CL. The influence of caregiving and employment on the voluntary activities of midlife and older women. J Gerontol B Soc Sci 1997;52(4):S180–9. [19] Burr JA, Choi NG, Mutchler JE, Caro FG. Caregiving and volunteering: are private and public helping behaviors linked? J Gerontol B Soc Sci 2005;60(5):S247– 56. [20] Thoits PA, Hewitt LN. Volunteer work and well-being. J Health Soc Behav 2001;42(2):115–31. [21] Kawachi I, Berkman LF. Social ties and mental health. J Urban Health 2001;78(3):458–67. [22] Marks SR. Multiple roles and role strain: some notes on human energy, time and commitment. Am Sociol Rev 1977;42(6):921–36. [23] Lum TY, Lightfoot E. The effects of volunteering on the physical and mental health of older people. Res Aging 2005;27(1):31–55. [24] Farrell C, Bryant W. Voluntary work for adults with mental health problems: a route to inclusion? A review of the literature. Brit J Occup Ther 2009;72(4):163–73. [25] Lam PY. As the flocks gather: how religion affects voluntary association participation. J Sci Stud Relig 2002;41(3):405–22. [26] Wilson J, Janoski T. The contribution of religion to volunteer work. Sociol Relig 1995;56(2):137–52. [27] Cnaan RA, Handy F, Wadsworth M. Defining who is a volunteer: conceptual and empirical considerations. Nonprof Volunt Sec Q 1996;25(3):364–83. [28] Lavelle JJ. What motivates OCB? Insights from the volunteerism literature. J Organ Behav 2010;31(6):918–23. [29] Jang SN, Choi YJUN, Kim DH. Association of socioeconomic status with successful ageing: differences in the components of successful ageing. J Biosoc Sci 2009;41(2):207–19. [30] Okun MA, Michel J. Sense of community and being a volunteer among the young–old. J Appl Gerontol 2006;25(2):173–88.