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Changes in Volunteering of Older Adults in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Motivations

This paper elucidates the relationship between possible changes in volunteering experienced by older people during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their motivation to volunteer, as well as the direct or indirect experience of COVID-19 symptoms. Given the well-known positive benefits of volunteering in ol...

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Autores principales: Principi, Andrea, Lucantoni, Davide, Quattrini, Sabrina, Di Rosa, Mirko, Socci, Marco
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9689984/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36429474
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192214755
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author Principi, Andrea
Lucantoni, Davide
Quattrini, Sabrina
Di Rosa, Mirko
Socci, Marco
author_facet Principi, Andrea
Lucantoni, Davide
Quattrini, Sabrina
Di Rosa, Mirko
Socci, Marco
author_sort Principi, Andrea
collection PubMed
description This paper elucidates the relationship between possible changes in volunteering experienced by older people during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their motivation to volunteer, as well as the direct or indirect experience of COVID-19 symptoms. Given the well-known positive benefits of volunteering in older age both for individuals (in terms of improved health and wellbeing) and society at large, there is a paucity of studies on older volunteers in the time of COVID-19. In this context, older people’s volunteering was highly challenged due to age-based physical and social restrictions put in place by national governments, which have been considered as ageist by a large part of the gerontological scientific community. This study was carried out on a sample of 240 Italian older volunteers. The results suggest that during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially older volunteers driven by social goals (e.g., opportunities to have relationships with others) were able to continue volunteer activities without needing to change them. The study also clarified that having directly or indirectly experienced COVID-19 symptoms did not influence changes in voluntary activities of older people. These results have important policy implications, given the indication that through volunteering, older individuals may try to counter the undesired calls by the governments for self-isolation and physical distancing. It is important that in emergency situations involving older people, policy makers should not treat them as only recipients of health and social care, but also as useful providers of help in the community.
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spelling pubmed-96899842022-11-25 Changes in Volunteering of Older Adults in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Motivations Principi, Andrea Lucantoni, Davide Quattrini, Sabrina Di Rosa, Mirko Socci, Marco Int J Environ Res Public Health Article This paper elucidates the relationship between possible changes in volunteering experienced by older people during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their motivation to volunteer, as well as the direct or indirect experience of COVID-19 symptoms. Given the well-known positive benefits of volunteering in older age both for individuals (in terms of improved health and wellbeing) and society at large, there is a paucity of studies on older volunteers in the time of COVID-19. In this context, older people’s volunteering was highly challenged due to age-based physical and social restrictions put in place by national governments, which have been considered as ageist by a large part of the gerontological scientific community. This study was carried out on a sample of 240 Italian older volunteers. The results suggest that during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially older volunteers driven by social goals (e.g., opportunities to have relationships with others) were able to continue volunteer activities without needing to change them. The study also clarified that having directly or indirectly experienced COVID-19 symptoms did not influence changes in voluntary activities of older people. These results have important policy implications, given the indication that through volunteering, older individuals may try to counter the undesired calls by the governments for self-isolation and physical distancing. It is important that in emergency situations involving older people, policy makers should not treat them as only recipients of health and social care, but also as useful providers of help in the community. MDPI 2022-11-10 /pmc/articles/PMC9689984/ /pubmed/36429474 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192214755 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Principi, Andrea
Lucantoni, Davide
Quattrini, Sabrina
Di Rosa, Mirko
Socci, Marco
Changes in Volunteering of Older Adults in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Motivations
title Changes in Volunteering of Older Adults in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Motivations
title_full Changes in Volunteering of Older Adults in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Motivations
title_fullStr Changes in Volunteering of Older Adults in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Motivations
title_full_unstemmed Changes in Volunteering of Older Adults in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Motivations
title_short Changes in Volunteering of Older Adults in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Motivations
title_sort changes in volunteering of older adults in the time of the covid-19 pandemic: the role of motivations
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9689984/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36429474
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192214755
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