School of Health Sciences, Massey University, Private Bag 11 222, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Institute of Education, Massey University, Private Bag 11 222, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
J Aging Stud. 2020 Jun;53:100848. doi: 10.1016/j.jaging.2020.100848. Epub 2020 May 11.
Volunteering is promoted as a way to improve wellbeing for older people as well as providing needed community services. Although there is evidence that volunteering is beneficial, there is less recognition of the ways that volunteering reflects and reinforces what it means to be an older person. Many older people volunteer for organisations that serve older people, which makes ageing particularly salient in these roles. Expectations that older people volunteer in later life can promote narrow conceptualisations of a valued identity which play out in these volunteer interactions. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with volunteer visitors, we identified five rhetorical strategies used to negotiate the unknown territory of ageing and anticipate future ageing identities: refusing certain ageing futures, asserting that a positive attitude is available to all regardless of health, suggesting that there has never been a better time to be old, viewing themselves as uniquely knowledgeable about the experience of ageing, and anticipating being a good recipient of later life services. Using these strategies, volunteer visitors positioned themselves as prepared for their ageing futures by their volunteering experiences. These strategies are likely to influence the experience of receiving visiting services as well as the volunteers' ability to accommodate future vulnerability. Understanding the impact of these rhetorical strategies will support the development of volunteering opportunities that are beneficial for the volunteers and considerate towards service recipients.
志愿服务被宣传为一种既能增进老年人福祉，又能提供社区所需服务的方式。尽管有证据表明志愿服务是有益的，但人们对志愿服务如何反映和强化老年人的意义认识不足。许多老年人为服务老年人的组织做志愿者，这使得老年人在这些角色中显得尤为突出。人们期望老年人在晚年时做志愿者，这可能会导致对有价值身份的狭隘观念的认同，而这些观念会在志愿者的互动中体现出来。通过对志愿者访客进行深入的定性访谈，我们确定了五种用于协商老龄化未知领域和预测未来老龄化身份的修辞策略：拒绝某些老龄化未来，断言无论健康状况如何，所有人都可以拥有积极的态度，暗示现在是老年人最好的时代，将自己视为对老龄化经验有独特了解的人，并期待成为晚年服务的良好接受者。通过使用这些策略，志愿者访客通过他们的志愿服务经验，为自己的老龄化未来做好了准备。这些策略可能会影响接受探访服务的体验，以及志愿者适应未来脆弱性的能力。了解这些修辞策略的影响将有助于开发对志愿者和服务接受者都有益的志愿服务机会。
