Skip Navigation


The Gerontologist Advance Access originally published online on March 17, 2009
The Gerontologist 2009 49(1):91-102; doi:10.1093/geront/gnp007
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
49/1/91    most recent
gnp007v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Morrow-Howell, N.
Right arrow Articles by Tang, F.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Morrow-Howell, N.
Right arrow Articles by Tang, F.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Who Benefits From Volunteering? Variations in Perceived Benefits

Nancy Morrow-Howell, PhD1,2, Song-Iee Hong, PhD2 and Fengyan Tang, PhD3

2 Department of Social Work, National University of Singapore
3 University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work, Pennsylvania

1 Address correspondence to Nancy Morrow-Howell, PhD, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130. E-mail: morrow-howell{at}wustl.edu


  Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to document the benefits of volunteering perceived by older adults and to explain variation in these self-perceived benefits. Design and Methods: This is a quantitative study of 13 volunteer programs and 401 older adults serving in those programs. Program directors completed telephone interviews, and older volunteers completed mailed surveys. Volunteer-level and program-level data were merged. Results: Older volunteers reported a wide variety of benefits to the people they served, themselves, their families, and communities. More than 30% reported that they were "a great deal better off" because of volunteering, and almost 60% identified a benefit to their families. When considering only individual characteristics, lower-income and lower-educated volunteers reported more benefit. Yet, aspects of the volunteer experience, like amount of involvement, adequacy of training and ongoing support, and stipends, were more important in understanding who benefits from volunteering. Implications: These findings suggest that characteristics of volunteer programs can be strengthened to maximize the benefits of volunteering to older adults. These characteristics are more mutable by public policies and organizational procedures than individual characteristics. Focusing on the recruitment of lower socioeconomic status older adults may result in an increase in benefits from the growth of volunteering.

Keywords: Civic engagement, Older adults, Outcomes of volunteering

Received October 2, 2007; Accepted March 3, 2008

Decision Editor: William J. McAuley, PhD


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.