Nonprofit Administration and Management Commons^™

Health Outcomes And Volunteering: The Moderating Role Of Religiosity, Lindsey Mcdougle, Femida Handy, Sara Konrath, Marlene Walk

Lindsey McDougle

In this paper, we examine whether and what extent public and private forms of religiosity act as moderators of the volunteering and well-being relationship in mid- to later- life. We use data from the second wave of the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (n = 1,805). We analyzed the relationships between volunteering and indicators of well-being (self-rated physical and mental health), and tested the moderating effects of public and private religiosity on the volunteering and well-being relationship. Our findings suggest that salubrious effects of volunteering on the self-perceived physical and mental health of middle- aged and …