A Comparison of Office and Adult Day Care Center Older Volunteers: Social-Psychological and Demographic Differences

Numerous researchers have compared older adults who volunteer with those who do not volunteer on several demographic variables. In contrast, in the present study we compared older adults (minimum age = 55 years old) who volunteered to work for a community organization at an office or in a day care center on social-psychological and demographic predictors. It was hypothesized that day care center volunteers would have higher scores than office volunteers on sympathy, role taking, and self-based salience of volunteer role (i.e., personal identity). In addition, office volunteers were expected to have higher scores than day care center volunteers on other-based salience of volunteer role (i.e., social identity). Discriminant function analysis indicated that day care center volunteers were higher than office volunteers on sympathy whereas office volunteers were higher than day care center volunteers on educational attainment, involvement in clubs and organizations, and role taking.