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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Formal volunteering as a protective factor for older adults' psychological well-being | | Author(s) | Emily A Greenfield, Nadine F Marks |
| Journal title | Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, vol 59B, no 5, September 2004 |
| Pages | pp S258-S264 |
| Source | http://www.geron.org |
| Keywords | Voluntary work [elderly] ; Well being ; Social surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Guided by interactional role theory and employing a resilience framework, this study investigated whether formal volunteering protects older people with more role-identity absences in major life domains (partner, employment and parental) from poorer psychological well-being. The authors used data for 373 participants aged 65-74 from the 1995 National Survey of Midlife Development in the US (MIDUS). Multivariate and regression models estimated the effects of major role-identity absences, formal volunteering, and the interaction between major role-identity absences and volunteering on respondents' negative affect, positive affect, and purpose in life. Participants with a greater number of major role-identity absences reported more negative affect, less positive affect, and less purpose in life. Being a formal volunteer was associated with more positive affect and moderated the negative effect of having more major role-identity absences on respondents' feelings of purpose in life. These findings are consistent with previous studies. The results further demonstrate that being a formal volunteer can protect older people with a greater number of role-identity absences from decreased levels of purpose in life. The findings suggest that associations between volunteering and psychological well-being might be contingent upon the volunteer's role-identity status and the dimension of psychological well-being examined. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-051124204 A |
| Classmark | GHH: D:F:5HH: 3F: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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