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Volunteering as a Productive Aging Activity: Incentives and Barriers to Volunteering by Australian Seniors

Volunteering as a Productive Aging Activity: Incentives and Barriers to Volunteering by... Recent research demonstrates that involvement in productive activities, particularly volunteering, has important societal and individual benefits in the contemporary aging environment. However, less attention has been paid to the structural dimension of volunteering or what encourages or discourages older people regarding volunteering. The authors present the findings from a two-phase Australian case study that explores the incentives and barriers to volunteering by those aged 50 and older, all members of a national seniors organization. Results suggest that governments and organizations need to consider many issues if more seniors are to be attracted to volunteering. Ensuring appropriate incentives to encourage volunteering was viewed as particularly important, with incentives including the need for more training, more flexible and diverse options, and more opportunities for intergenerational volunteering. Potential barriers included negative perceptions of volunteer activities, fear of encountering ageism, and concerns about the increasingly regulatory organizational environment. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Applied Gerontology SAGE

Volunteering as a Productive Aging Activity: Incentives and Barriers to Volunteering by Australian Seniors

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References (46)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
Copyright © by SAGE Publications
ISSN
0733-4648
eISSN
1552-4523
DOI
10.1177/0733464807304568
Publisher site
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Abstract

Recent research demonstrates that involvement in productive activities, particularly volunteering, has important societal and individual benefits in the contemporary aging environment. However, less attention has been paid to the structural dimension of volunteering or what encourages or discourages older people regarding volunteering. The authors present the findings from a two-phase Australian case study that explores the incentives and barriers to volunteering by those aged 50 and older, all members of a national seniors organization. Results suggest that governments and organizations need to consider many issues if more seniors are to be attracted to volunteering. Ensuring appropriate incentives to encourage volunteering was viewed as particularly important, with incentives including the need for more training, more flexible and diverse options, and more opportunities for intergenerational volunteering. Potential barriers included negative perceptions of volunteer activities, fear of encountering ageism, and concerns about the increasingly regulatory organizational environment.

Journal

Journal of Applied Gerontology – SAGE

Published: Aug 1, 2007

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