Volunteering improves life satisfaction in older adults, especially among those with fewer friends.
Researchers examined whether volunteering improves life satisfaction in older adulthood. They drew on data collected over four years from a sample of 1,591 older adults (mean age 67 years) from an Australian longitudinal study. Volunteering over a longer period of time was associated with a greater increase in life satisfaction that volunteering over shorter time periods. The improvement in life satisfaction was also greater in volunteers who had lost more friends and hence had a smaller social network size, than in volunteers who had lost fewer friends. People were also likely to engage in both short- and long-term volunteering if they were motivated by emotional goals (e.g., “to do something valuable”) than non-emotional goals.
doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12217
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