Which types of giving are associated with reduced mortality risk among older adults?

Qu, Heng; Konrath, Sara; Poulin, Michael J.

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2019.109668

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The giving support findings in this study are consistent with some previous research. Specifically, our finding that some giving is beneficial for longevity is consistent with other studies that link giving instrumental support to lower mortality (10,12,36). It is also in line with experimental studies that randomly assigned participants to provide support to another person and observed reductions in blood pressure and sympathetic nervous system responses to acute stressors (37); with studies that randomly assigned participants to spend money on others and observed reductions in blood pressure compared to spending money on The balance of giving versus receiving social support and all-cause mortality in a US national sample oneself (38); with studies that randomly assigned participants to perform acts of kindness toward others and found reduced expression of genes responsible for the transcriptional response to adversity (39); and with studies that randomly assigned participants to volunteer and observed lower cardiovascular risk (40).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Similarly, giving social support had more robust associations with ambulatory blood pressure than did receiving social support (11). A recent study clarified that in particular, giving instrumental social support to others (e.g., help with errands or volunteering) predicted lower mortality over a 13-y follow-up (12). Consistent with this research, other types of behaviors that involve giving support to others, such as volunteering and caregiving, have been reported in meta-analyses to be associated with lower rates of mortality (13,14).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The balance of giving versus receiving social support and all-cause mortality in a US national sample

Chen

Lam

Finegood

et al. 2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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While numerous studies exist on the benefits of social support (both receiving and giving), little research exists on how the balance between the support that individuals regularly give versus that which they receive from others relates to physical health. In a US national sample of 6,325 adults from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, participants were assessed at baseline on hours of social support given and received on a monthly basis, with all-cause mortality data collected from the National Death Index over a 23-y follow-up period. Participants who were relatively balanced in the support they gave compared to what they received had a lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who either disproportionately received support from others (e.g., received more hours of support than they gave each month) or disproportionately gave support to others (e.g., gave many more hours of support a month than they received). These findings applied to instrumental social support (e.g., help with transportation, childcare). Additionally, participants who gave a moderate amount of instrumental social support had a lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who either gave very little support or those who gave a lot of support to others. Associations were evident over and above demographic, medical, mental health, and health behavior covariates. Although results are correlational, one interpretation is that promoting a balance, in terms of the support that individuals regularly give relative to what they receive in their social relationships, may not only help to strengthen the social fabric of society but may also have potential physical health benefits.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The balance of giving versus receiving social support and all-cause mortality in a US national sample

Chen

Lam

Finegood

et al. 2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It has been suggested that time devoted, for example, to giving (e.g., volunteering or helping friends) is related to reduced mortality, whereas giving money is not. A more detailed examination of various types of prosocial behaviors and their association with well-being is needed to understand why and how volunteering is a good indicator of enhanced well-being in aging (Qu, Konrath, & Poulin, 2020). Further, although life satisfaction is a commonly used scale, there are many other ways of capturing psychological well-being (Diener, Lucas, Schimmack, & Helliwell, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Helping out or helping yourself? Volunteering and life satisfaction across the retirement transition.

Bjälkebring¹,

Henning

Västfjäll³

et al. 2021

Psychology and Aging

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It has been suggested that volunteering leads to increases in well-being, particularly in older and retiring adults, and that volunteering could be used as a public health intervention to increase well-being. However, the causal relationship has been questioned. We investigated the association between voluntary work and life satisfaction in a bivariate dual-change score model, using 4 years of longitudinal data from 1,123 participants from the Health, Aging and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) study. Both the frequency of volunteering and the level of life satisfaction increased across the retirement transition. However, baseline life satisfaction and volunteering were only marginally associated. Further, the coupling parameters suggest that higher levels of volunteering were followed by decreases in life satisfaction and that higher levels of life satisfaction were followed by increases in volunteering. These findings suggest that increasing levels of volunteering might not be a fruitful strategy for improving life satisfaction for all older adults—if people engage too much in voluntary work, it might even be detrimental for their life satisfaction. More research is needed to better understand when and for whom increased levels of volunteering might have positive effects on life satisfaction.

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“…Together, this may induce egocentric thinking and selfish motives in the COVID-19-related prosocial condition, which could have dampened prosocial behavior’s emotional benefit (Todd et al, 2015; Todd & Simpson, 2016). Indeed, previous research suggests that prosocial actions motivated by selfish interests undermined the benefits of generous behavior (Hill & Howell, 2014; Wiwad & Aknin, 2017; see also Crocker et al, 2017; Konrath et al, 2012; Qu et al, 2020 on discussions of prosocial motives). Thus, this may help explain why the emotional benefits of prosocial behavior were attenuated in the COVID-19-related conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prosocial behavior promotes positive emotion during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Varma¹,

Chen²,

Lin³

et al. 2023

Emotion

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The COVID-19 pandemic has raised concerns about humans’ physical and mental well-being. In response, there has been an urgent “call to action” for psychological interventions that enhance positive emotion and psychological resilience. Prosocial behavior has been shown to effectively promote well-being, but is this strategy effective during a pandemic when ongoing apprehension for personal safety could acutely heighten self-focused concern? In two online preregistered experiments (N = 1,623) conducted during the early stage of pandemic (April 2020), we examined this question by randomly assigning participants to engage in other- or self-beneficial action. For the first time, we manipulated whether prosocial behavior was related to the source of stress (coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19]): Participants purchased COVID-19-related (personal protective equipment, PPE) or COVID-19-unrelated items (food/writing supplies) for themselves or someone else. Consistent with preregistered hypotheses, prosocial (vs. non-pro-social or proself) behavior led to higher levels of self-reported positive affect, empathy, and social connectedness. Notably, we also found that psychological benefits were larger when generous acts were unrelated to COVID-19 (vs. related to COVID-19). When prosocial and proself spending involved identical COVID-19 PPEs items, prosocial behavior’s benefits were detectable only on empathy and social connectedness, but not on posttask positive affect. These findings suggest that while there are boundary conditions to be considered, generous action offers one strategy to bolster well-being during the pandemic.

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Which types of giving are associated with reduced mortality risk among older adults?

Cited by 13 publications

References 26 publications

The balance of giving versus receiving social support and all-cause mortality in a US national sample

The balance of giving versus receiving social support and all-cause mortality in a US national sample

Helping out or helping yourself? Volunteering and life satisfaction across the retirement transition.

Prosocial behavior promotes positive emotion during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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