Journal ArticleDOI
The benefits associated with volunteering among seniors: : A critical review and recommendations for future research
Nicole D. Anderson,Thecla Damianakis,Edeltraut Kröger,Laura Wagner,Deirdre R. Dawson,Malcolm A. Binns,Syrelle Bernstein,Eilon Caspi,Suzanne L. Cook +8 more
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TLDR
The extant evidence provides the basis for a model proposing that volunteering increases social, physical, and cognitive activity which, through biological and psychological mechanisms, leads to improved functioning and that these volunteering-related functional improvements should be associated with reduced dementia risk.Abstract:
There is an urgent need to identify lifestyle activities that reduce functional decline and dementia associated with population aging. The goals of this article are to review critically the evidence on the benefits associated with formal volunteering among older adults, propose a theoretical model of how volunteering may reduce functional limitations and dementia risk, and offer recommendations for future research. Database searches identified 113 papers on volunteering benefits in older adults, of which 73 were included. Data from descriptive, cross-sectional, and prospective cohort studies, along with 1 randomized controlled trial, most consistently reveal that volunteering is associated with reduced symptoms of depression, better self-reported health, fewer functional limitations, and lower mortality. The extant evidence provides the basis for a model proposing that volunteering increases social, physical, and cognitive activity (to varying degrees depending on characteristics of the volunteer placement) which, through biological and psychological mechanisms, leads to improved functioning; we further propose that these volunteering-related functional improvements should be associated with reduced dementia risk. Recommendations for future research are that studies (a) include more objective measures of psychosocial, physical, and cognitive functioning; (b) integrate qualitative and quantitative methods in prospective study designs; (c) explore further individual differences in the benefits associated with volunteering; (d) include occupational analyses of volunteers' specific jobs in order to identify their social, physical, and cognitive complexity; (e) investigate the independent versus interactive health benefits associated with volunteering relative to engagement in other forms of activity; and (f) examine the relationship between volunteering and dementia risk.read more
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Providing support to others and well-being in later life
TL;DR: Findings from a recent nationwide survey of the elderly suggest that giving informal assistance to others appears to bolster feelings of personal control in later life, and is related to lower levels of depressive symptomatology.
Journal ArticleDOI
Social participation as an indicator of successful aging: an overview of concepts and their associations with health.
TL;DR: It is argued that the use of a measure that can be segmented into each of the three forms of social participation will predict more of the variance in health outcomes than any measure on its own.
Journal ArticleDOI
Increasing Opportunities for the Productive Engagement of Older Adults: A Response to Population Aging
TL;DR: This work describes the current state of engagement in each of the three productive activities and summarizes some current policies and programs that affect engagement, and highlights challenges that cross-cut productive engagement.
Journal ArticleDOI
Rewards of kindness? A meta-analysis of the link between prosociality and well-being.
TL;DR: A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the strength of the prosociality to well-being link under different operationalizations, and how a set of theoretical, demographic, and methodological variables moderate the link.
Journal ArticleDOI
Impacts of Adolescent and Young Adult Civic Engagement on Health and Socioeconomic Status in Adulthood.
TL;DR: Volunteering and voting are favorably associated with subsequent mental health and health behaviors, and activism is associated with more health-risk behaviors and not associated with mental health.
References
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