Cheng Grand H-L, Chan Angelique, Østbye Truls, Malhotra Rahul
School of Arts and Social Sciences; Public and Social Policy Research Centre, The Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Programme in Health Services and Systems Research; Centre for Ageing Research and Education, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Singapore.
Eur J Ageing. 2021 Jan 25;19(1):95-105. doi: 10.1007/s10433-021-00605-x. eCollection 2022 Mar.
Volunteering can be critical to late middle-aged adults' well-being. Hence, it is essential to understand the antecedents of volunteering in this age group. The present study of Singaporeans aged 50 to 59 ( = 1620) considered 18 volunteering acts and used latent class analysis (LCA) to identify volunteering profiles. The relationships between human, social, and cultural capital and the derived profiles were then examined with reference to resource theory. We observed three prevalent volunteering profiles: (having a low tendency to engage in any volunteering acts), (primarily offering instrumental help in informal settings), and (exhibiting instrumental and relational acts in formal and informal settings). Using volunteering as the reference group, we found that volunteering was only predicted by the strength of social networks (social capital). In contrast, volunteering was predicted by several factors including education level, work status, depressive symptoms (human capital), household size, the strength of social networks, attendance at community events (social capital), and religious affiliation (cultural capital). The LCA-derived volunteering profiles reveal population heterogeneity in terms of volunteering acts. The observed relationships between capital and volunteering profiles have implications for policies promoting volunteering in Singapore.
志愿服务对中老年成年人的幸福感可能至关重要。因此，了解这个年龄组参与志愿服务的前因很有必要。本研究以1620名年龄在50至59岁的新加坡人为对象，考量了18种志愿行为，并运用潜在类别分析（LCA）来识别志愿服务类型。随后，参照资源理论考察了人力、社会和文化资本与所衍生类型之间的关系。我们观察到三种普遍的志愿服务类型：（参与任何志愿行为的倾向较低）、（主要在非正式场合提供工具性帮助）以及（在正式和非正式场合都表现出工具性和关系性行动）。以志愿服务类型为参照组，我们发现志愿服务类型仅由社交网络的强度（社会资本）预测。相比之下，志愿服务类型则由多个因素预测，包括教育水平、工作状态、抑郁症状（人力资本）、家庭规模、社交网络的强度、参加社区活动的情况（社会资本）以及宗教信仰（文化资本）。潜在类别分析得出的志愿服务类型揭示了志愿行为方面的人群异质性。所观察到的资本与志愿服务类型之间的关系对新加坡促进志愿服务的政策具有启示意义。
