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Volunteering and Its Relationship With Personal and Neighborhood Well-Being
David Mellor*,
Yoko Hayashi,
Mark Stokes,
Lucy Firth,
Lucy Lake,
Michael Staples,
Sue Chambers,
and
Robert Cummins
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mellor{at}deakin.edu.au.
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Abstract |
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Although a relationship between volunteering and well-being has been demonstrated in numerous studies, well-being has generally been poorly operationalized and often defined by the relative absence of pathology. In this study, the authors take a positive approach to defining well-being and investigate the relationship between volunteering and personal and neighborhood well-being. The theoretical approach incorporates elements of the homeostatic model of well-being. A sample of 1,289 adults across Australia completed a questionnaire that assessed personal and neighborhood wellbeing, personality factors, and the psychosocial resources implicated in the homeostatic model of well-being. Analyses reveal that volunteers had higher personal and neighborhood well-being than nonvolunteers and that volunteering contributed additional variance in well-being even after psychosocial and personality factors were accounted for. The findings are discussed in terms of previous research and the homeostatic model of well-being, and it is argued that the relationship between volunteering and well-being is robust.
First published on May 23, 2008, doi:10.1177/0899764008317971
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 2009;38:144.
A more recent version of this article appeared on February 1, 2009
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