The beauty of volunteering is that an outward focus is required, when often, we are nominally inward looking. As a volunteer of my local Community Fire Unit, I can personally attest to the community-minded benefits this form of service provides.
Within the Australian context, 1 in 4 Australians over the age of 15-years participated in voluntary (unpaid) work in 2020, and trends suggest that volunteering rates are decreasing.
Peak body Volunteering Australia reports that volunteering leads to ‘more inclusive and flourishing communities’. Indeed, our most iconic organisations such as Surf Life Saving Australia and Rural Fire Service are community driven volunteering organisations which have wider benefits beyond the immediate heroic acts they provide to others.
A longitudinal study from the School of Public Health in Boston revealed that people (of a sample size of 12,998 participants) who did 100 hours of volunteering per year (versus those who did none) had-
- Reduced risk of mortality and physical functioning limitations.
- Higher physical activity.
- Better psychosocial outcomes (higher: positive affect, optimism, and purpose in life; lower: depressive symptoms, hopelessness, loneliness, and infrequent contact with friends).
Volunteering study
To examine further the effects volunteering has on individual aspects of health, an umbrella study was conducted by researchers at Northumbria University in the UK to; assess the effects of volunteering on the social, mental and physical health and well-being of volunteers.
Physical health benefits of volunteering
- The evidence showed that volunteerism was associated with a decrease in mortality.
- Evidence that volunteering improved blood pressure, BMI, grip strength, smoking cessation, frailty or living in a nursing home were inconsistent and sparse.
- The effects volunteering had on physical health and wellbeing were the least investigated by research studies.
Psychological benefits of volunteering
- Psychological benefits were the most reported and studied effects in relation to volunteering.
- Several studies reported significant improvements in affect, mood and depression.
- Additional studies demonstrated (to varied effect) improvements in purposefulness, meaningfulness, pride, empowerment and self-esteem following interventions of volunteerism.
Social benefits of volunteering
- When a combination of social support, social networks and sense of community were combined, the review found evidence that social outcomes were improved following volunteerism.
- Social connectedness, increased friendships and improved social integration were generally reported across most studies.
Key findings & conclusions
Age was the most supported moderator, ‘namely that those of older age received greater health benefits from volunteering’. One possible reason is that volunteering ‘compensates for the loss of the health and wellbeing benefits of career success easing the adjustment to retirement’.
No link was established between gender and volunteering on overall health, with the studies included in this umbrella review showing that women are more likely to volunteer than men.
A ‘complex relationship’ was noted by the researchers, namely that people from higher socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds were twice as likely to volunteer compared to those from lower SES backgrounds.
Whilst more research into the health benefits of volunteering is required, what has been observed is that the social and communal effects of volunteering is experienced across the globe, providing meaning and purpose for many people.
