Volunteering is an activity that makes us happier

There is now quite a bit of international research which shows that volunteering has very positive effects on health and wellbeing. That is, those who take part in activities to help others without pay (often older retired people) report more happiness and better health. Of course questions remain about whether it is only those with better health who are able to volunteer, however, some well controlled studies indicate that volunteering is truly beneficial to the volunteer.

Dr Patrick Dulin, an expert in volunteer research from Alaska, and Jahn Gavala, a Maori researcher from Massey University, used the HWR responses to study volunteering and happiness in New Zealanders. Their results showed that the more often people reported taking part in volunteer activities on a weekly basis, the higher their happiness.

There were no differences in this result for Maori or non-Maori participants, although we still have some questions for our future research about the different ways people may decide what is volunteering and what is obligation to family or whanau.

The important differences were found between those with lower and higher standards of living. Those in more hardship were more likely to be happier when they volunteered more, than those with greater comfort in their living standards. These researchers also found that Maori and those with greater hardship volunteered more often than non-Maori and those with comfortable living standards.

^{_{Dulin, P. L., Gavala, J., Stephens, C., Kostick, M., & McDonald, J. (in press). Volunteering predicts happiness among older Ma-ori and Non-Ma-ori in the New Zealand Health, Work and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Aging and Mental Health.}}