Children who spend part of their spare time volunteering can not only help others, but also themselves.
That’s according to a new study that found American kids who spend time in community service often do well, both physically and mentally.
Overall, children who volunteered in the past year had better physical health, had a more positive outlook on life, and were less likely to experience anxiety, depression, or behavioral problems than their peers who did not volunteer.
The findings, published May 30 in the journal JAMA network opened, don’t answer the chicken-and-egg question, researchers noted: Kids who were already high on the well-being scale may have been more likely to volunteer.
“We can’t say this is cause and effect,” said lead researcher Kevin Lanza, an assistant professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health.
That said, Lanza thinks the findings pave the way for a study that follows children over time to see if volunteering promotes better physical and mental well-being later on.
There are, of course, enough reasons to encourage volunteering, Lanza emphasized. But if it also benefits the well-being of young volunteers, then it would be a “win-win,” he said.
“There could be a great opportunity to promote volunteerism as a public health measure,” Lanza said.
Many studies over the years have associated volunteering with better physical and mental health, but almost all of them have focused on adults, often older adults. A number of studies have found that teen volunteers may be in better health and more engaged in school than their peers. But the studies involved only small groups of teenagers.
So Lanza’s team decided to dig into the data from a long-running national survey of the health and well-being of American children and teens. They focused on nearly 52,000 children ages 6 to 17 who were part of the 2019-2020 survey period.
Overall, one-third of children and just over half of teens had volunteered in the past year, according to parent responses.
In general, those parents gave higher ratings for their children’s well-being than parents whose children did not volunteer. They were a third more likely to say their child was in “very good” to “excellent” health, and 18% to 35% less likely to say their child had experienced depression, anxiety, or had behavior problems , in the past year.
Kids who volunteered were also 66% more likely to “bloom” — which, Lanza said, could be summed up as a “general drive for life.” In this study, children’s flourishing was based on how parents answered questions about their children’s curiosity, willingness to complete tasks, and ability to remain calm in the face of challenges.
Ying Chen is a researcher at Harvard University’s Center for Health and Happiness. She praised the study’s focus on children and the way it looked at multiple facets of well-being.
But like Lanza, she warned about the issue of cause and effect. First, Chen said, parents who encourage their children to volunteer are likely “pro-social” and may be quite healthy and happy themselves.
She also noted that the study results are based on reports from parents, which may be biased.
These caveats, there are also reasons to believe that volunteering can boost children’s well-being, both researchers said.
When volunteering gets kids off their devices and into the world, there’s the social engagement, Lanza said. And it’s a certain kind of involvement – with other people who want to work for a common, positive cause.
“Volunteering is community building,” Lanza said.
And with younger kids, he pointed out, any volunteer work will likely involve their parents or other adults in their lives — whether that means planting trees, helping clean up the neighborhood park, or packing boxes of donated food.
A chance to spend more time with that pro-social parent, in action, could boost children’s well-being, Lanza said.
No child should be forced to volunteer, both researchers stressed. What’s important, Lanza said, is that all children — regardless of family income and resources — have the opportunity.
Historically, he noted, volunteering has been a “luxury” — done by people who had the time and resources to do it.
“The burden of proof should be on society to make volunteering opportunities more accessible,” Lanza said.
That’s especially true, he noted, if those opportunities also benefit the well-being of volunteers.
More information:
The University of Maryland has more on the health benefits of volunteer work.
Kevin Lanza et al, Child and adolescent volunteerism, health and well-being in the United States, JAMA network opened (2023). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.15980
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Quote: Helping Others Volunteer Helps Kids “Thrive,” Finds Study (2023, June 2) Retrieved June 2, 2023 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-06-volunteers-kids-flourish.html
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