Age and motives for volunteering: Further evidence
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Universidad Complutense de Madrid
info
ISSN: 1841-0413
Year of publication: 2009
Volume: 5
Issue: 2
Pages: 82-95
Type: Article
More publications in: Europe’s Journal of Psychology
Abstract
This work has explored the socioemotional selectivity theory (Cartensen, 1995) with thepurpose of evaluating how people selectively optimize their activities involving socialinvestments as they increase in age, investing more in self-relevant and emotionallymeaningful goals. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to test hypotheses derivedfrom the socioemotional selectivity theory regarding the effects of age on motives forvolunteering. The Volunteer Functions Inventory (Clary et al., 1998) was completed by214 volunteers affiliated with different organizations. Results indicated that, as ageincreases, career, understanding and making friends volunteer motivations decrease,while social and values volunteer motivations increase. Possible implications for volunteermanagement in organizations are analyzed.