Volunteering in Environmental Organizations and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from a Nationally Representative, Longitudinal Dataset in the US

Onur Sapci, Aliaksandr Amialchuk () and Jon D. Elhai
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Onur Sapci: Department of Economics, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606, USA
Aliaksandr Amialchuk: Department of Economics, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606, USA
Jon D. Elhai: Department of Psychology, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606, USA

World, 2025, vol. 6, issue 3, 1-15

Abstract: This study uses a nationally representative longitudinal dataset in the US to examine the long-term association of volunteering for environmental, recycling, and conservation groups with a person’s (a) willingness to continue to volunteer later in life and (b) several measures of their mental and physical well-being including perceived social status, optimism, psychological stress, suicidal thoughts and attempts, depressive symptoms and general self-reported physical health. By using Add Health data, we match responses to an environmental volunteerism question in Wave III (2002) with subjective well-being responses in Wave V (2016–2018) to examine the long-term association between these variables. After excluding missing responses, the analysis sample consists of 9800 individuals. After using linear survey regression analyses and several techniques based on propensity scores (stratification, weighting, matching) two key results emerged: first, being involved in environmental groups and organizations early in life showed a significant positive association with more hours spent on volunteering or community service work later in life; and second, people who volunteer in early adulthood are more optimistic, more sociable, have a higher perceived social status, display less stress and depressive symptoms.

Keywords: volunteering in environmental organizations; well-being; longitudinal; the US; nationally representative (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G15 G17 G18 L21 L22 L25 L26 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 R51 R52 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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