Effects of Volunteering on the Well-Being of Older Adults

This study tests the effects of volunteering on the well-being of older adults, including the effect of level of engagement, the moderating effects of demographic and social factors, and the effects of the nature of the volunteer experience.

This is a secondary data analysis of three waves of data from the Americans' Changing Lives Study. Self-rated health, functional dependency, and depression are regressed on the well-being measures from the previous waves, other control variables and volunteer status, volunteer hours, type and number of volunteer organizations, and the perceived benefit to others of the volunteer work.