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Health outcomes of Experience Corps®: A high-commitment volunteer program

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  • Hong, S.I.
  • Morrow-Howell, Nancy

Abstract

Experience Corps® (EC) is a high-commitment US volunteer program that brings older adults into public elementary schools to improve academic achievement of students. It is viewed as a health promotion program for the older volunteers. We evaluated the effects of the EC program on older adults' health, using a quasi-experimental design. We included volunteers from 17 EC sites across the US. They were pre-tested before beginning their volunteer work and post-tested after two years of service. We compared changes over time between the EC participants (n = 167) and a matched comparison group of people from the US Health and Retirement Study (2004, 2006). We developed the comparison group by using the nearest available Mahalanobis metric matching within calipers combined with the boosted propensity scores of those participating in the EC. We corrected for clustering effects via survey regression analyses with robust standard errors and calculated adjusted post-test means of health outcomes, controlling for all covariates and the boosted propensity score of EC participants. We found that compared to the comparison group, the EC group reported fewer depressive symptoms and functional limitations after two years of participation in the program, and there was a statistical trend toward the EC group reporting less decline in self-rated health. Results of this study add to the evidence supporting high-intensity volunteering as a social model of health promotion for older adults.

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  • Hong, S.I. & Morrow-Howell, Nancy, 2010. "Health outcomes of Experience Corps®: A high-commitment volunteer program," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 414-420, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:71:y:2010:i:2:p:414-420
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    1. repec:mpr:mprres:6244 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Nancy Morrow-Howell & Jim Hinterlong & Philip A. Rozario & Fengyan Tang, 2003. "Effects of Volunteering on the Well-Being of Older Adults," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 58(3), pages 137-145.
    3. Marieke Van Willigen, 2000. "Differential Benefits of Volunteering Across the Life Course," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 55(5), pages 308-318.
    4. Musick, Marc A. & Wilson, John, 2003. "Volunteering and depression: the role of psychological and social resources in different age groups," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 259-269, January.
    5. Nancy Morrow-Howell & Melissa Jonson-Reid & Stacey McCrary & YungSoo Lee & Ed Spitznagel & Emily Dwoyer & Kathy Sonnenfeld & Susan Sprachman, "undated". "Evaluation of Experience Corps: Student Reading Outcomes," Mathematica Policy Research Reports cdee0691dd6d4875a17f072f8, Mathematica Policy Research.
    6. Erwin J. Tan & George W. Rebok & Qilu Yu & Constantine E. Frangakis & Michelle C. Carlson & Tao Wang & Michelle Ricks & Elizabeth K. Tanner & Sylvia McGill & Linda P. Fried, 2009. "The Long-Term Relationship Between High-Intensity Volunteering and Physical Activity in Older African American Women," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 64(2), pages 304-311.
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    2. Han, Sae Hwang & Kim, Kyungmin & Burr, Jeffrey A., 2018. "Stress-buffering effects of volunteering on salivary cortisol: Results from a daily diary study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 120-126.
    3. Thomas Akintayo & Niina Häkälä & Katja Ropponen & Elsa Paronen & Sari Rissanen, 2016. "Predictive Factors for Voluntary and/or Paid Work among Adults in their Sixties," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 1387-1404, September.
    4. Heng Qu, 2022. "Differential Associations Between Volunteering and Subjective Well-Being by Labor Force Status: An Investigation of Experiential and Evaluative Well-Being Using Time Use Data," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1737-1770, April.
    5. Kim, Eric S. & Konrath, Sara H., 2016. "Volunteering is prospectively associated with health care use among older adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 122-129.
    6. Zhong, Sinan & Lee, Chanam & Foster, Margaret J. & Bian, Jiahe, 2020. "Intergenerational communities: A systematic literature review of intergenerational interactions and older adults’ health-related outcomes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).

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