IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v75y2020i8p1741-1746..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

More Than Selection Effects: Volunteering Is Associated With Benefits in Cognitive Functioning

Author

Listed:
  • Ben Lennox Kail
  • Dawn C Carr
  • Deborah S Carr

Abstract

ObjectivesVolunteering is a lifestyle behavior that bolsters cognitive resilience. However, previous studies have not assessed the degree to which cognitive functioning is predictive of becoming a volunteer (i.e., selection into volunteering), and how this might contribute to the superior cognitive performance observed among volunteers. The purpose of this brief report is to address the role of cognition-related selection into becoming a volunteer in the association between formal volunteering and two cognitive measures: (a) overall cognitive function and (b) self-rated memory.MethodThe Health and Retirement Study was used to assess whether, net of cognitive selection into volunteering, formal volunteering is associated with cognitive function.ResultsSelection explained between 4.9% and 29% of the effect of volunteering on cognitive function (depending on the cognitive outcome and the level of volunteering). However, net of cognitive selection into volunteering, among all cognitive measures there are beneficial effects of formal volunteering on cognitive function.DiscussionThese findings suggest a proportion of the positive association between volunteering and cognitive function is explained by selection. However, net of selection, formal volunteering is associated with benefits to cognitive function. These findings offer promise for the development of volunteer-based interventions designed to bolster cognitive functioning.

Suggested Citation

  • Ben Lennox Kail & Dawn C Carr & Deborah S Carr, 2020. "More Than Selection Effects: Volunteering Is Associated With Benefits in Cognitive Functioning," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 75(8), pages 1741-1746.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:75:y:2020:i:8:p:1741-1746.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbaa101
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:75:y:2020:i:8:p:1741-1746.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.