Assets, Volunteering, and Self-esteem Among Older Adults: Latent Growth Curve Modeling

Purpose

Based on the stakeholder theory and productive aging perspective, this study aims to examine how wealth, volunteering, and self-esteem are interconnected. While the stakeholder theory tests whether assets ownership is positively associated with volunteering and self-esteem, the productive aging perspective investigates positive association between volunteering and self-esteem. Combining the two theoretical perspectives, this study examines 1) what patterns of trajectories in volunteering and self-esteem of older volunteers occur across three waves; 2) to what extent assets affect the initial level and longitudinal changes in volunteering and self-esteem of older adults; 3) to what extent volunteering influences self-esteem of older volunteers; and 4) whether volunteering mediates the relation between assets and self-esteem.

Methods

This study used three-wave data from the Americans' Changing Lives Study (ACL). This study used only older adults aged over 60 years to investigate predictors (assets) and impacts (self-esteem) of volunteering. Sample size of older adults was reduced to 741 because of attrition and missing observations across three waves.

We considered two types of assets: homeownership and the amount of total liquidated assets. Volunteering hours and self-esteem are analyzed as time-varying covariate and outcome measure. To capture the longitudinal trajectories of volunteering and their impacts on self-esteem, we performed the Latent Growth Curve Modeling (LGCM) by using LISREL 8.52. The LGCM has advantages in identifying the longitudinal patterns of time-varying factors by setting initial status and changes (slopes) over time. After two unconditional LGCM are examined, this study analyzes a conditional LGCM with socioeconomic demographics, wealth, and time variant covariate.

Results

Several findings of this study are noteworthy. First, older adults have significant variations in not only the initial status but also the changes of volunteering hours and self-esteem. While volunteering hours of older adults show a linear growth, the rate of increase in self-esteem is slowing as time progresses. Second, wealth is significantly associated with volunteering hours of older adults. Homeowners and older adults with more liquidated assets engage in volunteering more at the initial level. However, wealth is not significantly associated with the growth rates of volunteering hours. Third, wealth has independent effects on self-esteem of older adults, controlling for socioeconomic demographics and volunteering hours. Fourth, this study revealed a significant association between volunteer hours and self-esteem. However, the significant association is only through the levels of volunteering hours and self-esteem. Older adults who volunteer more at the baseline are likely to have better self-esteem at the initial level. Last, this study found that volunteering partially mediates the relationships between wealth and self-esteem. However, the mediating effects occur through the initial level of volunteering hours. Rather, wealth was found to have direct effects on the growth rates of self-esteem.

Conclusions and Implications

This study contributes to knowledge building of dynamic mechanisms of assets, volunteering, and self-esteem among older adults. The findings suggest that policymakers need to design more tailored programs which can link asset accumulation with volunteering to expand volunteering opportunities to less affluent older adults and to positively influence well-being of older adults.