Volunteering in Young Adulthood: Complex Associations With Later Health and Well-Being Outcomes

To investigate whether changes in volunteering from adolescence to young adulthood are associated with subsequent health and well-being outcomes in adulthood.

Longitudinal cohort study.

National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.

U.S. adults from Wave IV (2008/2009; N = 12,234) and Wave V (2016-2018; N = 9,971).

Any volunteering and nine types of volunteering (independent variables) and 41 health and well-being outcomes (dependent variables) using an outcome-wide approach with multiple linear-, logistic-, and generalized linear regressions.

Volunteering in young adulthood was associated with better health behaviors (e.g., 34% decreased risk of binge drinking, 95% CI [0.54, 0.81]) and improved psychosocial and civic outcomes (e.g., lower depressive symptoms (β = -0.08, 95% CI [-0.14, -0.02]) in adulthood. Volunteering showed little evidence of associations with other health and well-being outcomes (e.g., loneliness, (β = -0.04, 95% CI [-0.09, 0.01])). Assessing volunteering by organization types showed a range of positive and negative outcomes. For example, volunteering in hospitals/nursing homes was associated with a 36% increased risk of high cholesterol (95% CI [1.06, 1.73]) and volunteering with political clubs was associated with a 52% increased risk of an anxiety diagnosis (95% CI [1.13, 2.05]).

Our findings suggest more work is needed to determine the conditions under which volunteering is health promoting and to minimize potential adverse effects associated with some types of volunteering.