Volunteering, religiosity and well-being: interrelationships among Australian churchgoers

Abstract

Existing research has mostly found positive, but sometimes inconclusive and contradictory, results about the relationships between volunteering and well-being, as well as between church attendance and volunteering. This paper aims to clarify how volunteering and religious beliefs and practices are related to well-being among Christian churchgoers. Utilising data from the 2011 Australian National Church Life Survey, volunteering was found to partially mediate the positive relationship between religiosity and well-being (life satisfaction), but only for some denominational groupings. Part of the reason why church attenders with high religiosity have higher well-being is because they are more likely to volunteer. The implications of these findings are discussed within the context of economic, managerial, public health and religious parameters.

Do interactions cancel associations of subjective well-being with individual-level socioeconomic characteristics? An exploratory analysis using the European Social Survey

“…Religiosity In prior studies, people with strong religious beliefs have, on average, reported feeling happier than others (Abdel-Khalek 2011; Clark and Lelkes 2005;Lechner and Leopold 2015;Mollidor et al 2015). This is confirmed in the present analysis: the respective variable's coefficient had a positive sign and was statistically significant in all three models, as shown in Table 2.…”

Volunteering research in Australia: A narrative review

“…Moreover, volunteering was a source of pride and satisfaction. Mollidor, Hancock, and Pepper () found some support for a partially mediating effect of volunteering between religiosity and wellbeing among Australian churchgoers. They used a large survey sample to show that some religious denominations prompted more volunteering, which subsequently improved a person's wellbeing (i.e., general satisfaction).…”

Volunteering and Wellbeing Among Ageing Adults: A Longitudinal Analysis

“…Protestant, Catholic, and other religious denomination). The variables included in the PSM model were chosen because they are known correlates of volunteer participation and wellbeing (Mollidor et al 2015;McDougle et al 2013;Taniguchi and Thomas 2011).…”