Discretion and Obligation Across Volunteering and Caring: Shining Light on Non-Voluntary Carers in the Retiring Encore Segment

John Rodwell (), Dianne Johnson and Lara Thynne
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John Rodwell: Swinburne University of Technology
Dianne Johnson: Griffith University
Lara Thynne: Swinburne University of Technology

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2024, vol. 174, issue 2, No 7, 589-610

Abstract: Abstract This paper seeks to understand pathways into volunteering in the encore life stage and contribute to policy interventions. There is a need for more clarity regarding the delineation of formal volunteering from informal volunteering and from adult kin-caring. A sample of 4,464 respondents from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey was analysed using a set of logistic regressions, to explore three frames of volunteering —substitution (of former work time), complementary focus (gradual adjustment to less paid work or other change in personal circumstance), and obligation (compulsion to provide care or unpaid labour). Results indicate that formal volunteering was largely discretionary and a result of substitution, that informal volunteering, particularly caring for children, was complementary and partly obligatory, and the area of greatest potential policy intervention, adult kin caring was found to be largely obligatory.

Keywords: Volunteering; Caring; Obligations; Discretion; Encore; Age; Career; Retirement; Disability; Gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s11205-024-03398-5

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