A presentation designed to explain the mental health benefits of teens (and adults) volunteering.

1. Benefits to Overall Health

2. 1) Veterans and Volunteering
2) Positive Emotions
3) Altruism and Health
4) Volunteering and Health
5) The State of Volunteering
6) Volunteering and Mental Health
7) Prosocial Development
8) Volunteer Resources

4. Recognizing the
mental health
benefits for
returning
Veterans with
PTSD

5. Number of Iraq and
Afghanistan vets who
received a provisional
dx of PTSD at VA
medical facilities from
2002 though the first
quarter 2013

6. • Service-based Fellowship Program based in St Louis,
created by Eric Greitens (39, Rhodes Scholar and
former Navy Seal)
• Veterans are building houses, working in health care,
teaching, counseling, farming and taking care of their
more seriously wounded comrades.

8. • Initial research outcomes for 52 TMC fellows,
conducted by Washington Univ showed dramatic
improvements in well-being after a 6 month
fellowship: 86% of the fellows reported a positive life
changing experience, 71% went on to further their
education, and 86% said the program helped them
transfer their military skills to civilian employment.
Fifty-two% of those studied had suffered TBIs and
64% had been dx’d with PTS.

9. • Based in Los Angeles, co-founded by TMC
Fellow Jake Wood.
• Has a roster of 7,000 veterans ready to do
disaster-relief missions around the world.
• TMC Fellows are working with Team Rubicon
for post-tornado disaster relief in Oklahoma.

11. • Dr Nancy Morrow-Howell (Washington Univ) conducted
several studies for the White House Conference on Aging
for AARP, and co-authored the TMC study
• Community Service provides clear health and
psychological benefits, including greater longevity,
reduced depression and a greater sense of purpose.
• “Actually, the elderly are a really good comparison group
for wounded veterans. They have to cope with a reduced
ability to function physically. Many of them lose their
sense of purpose and community after retirement. If
they’re widowed, they feel isolated. They need to rebuild
their lives, rejoin the world.”

12. • Two groups of elderly patients in senior day care
were asked to make gift baskets. One group made
them for themselves; a second group was told they
were making the baskets for homeless people in the
community.
• The second group experienced
a greater sense of satisfaction
and psychological well-being than
those who were simply making
the baskets for themselves

13. • Danner et al. (2001) Nun Study
• Reviewed short personal essays, written by
nuns in the 1930s.
• The nuns who expressed more positive
emotions were living about
10 years longer than those
who expressed the fewest
such emotions, and they were
protected from the onset
of dementia.

14. • Fredrickson (2003) summarized two decades of
investigation and concluded:
• Positive emotions were linked with a “broader thought-
action repertoire,” which is to say that a “big picture”
creative thinking was enhanced.
• “When people feel good, their thinking becomes more
creative, integrative, flexible and open to information”.
• Positive emotions enhanced psychological and
physical resilience. These effects were interpreted as a
result of the “undoing” of negative emotions that are
clearly harmful. “Helpful compassionate acts” allow
people to feel elevated and good about themselves and
others.

15. • Anderson (2003) asserted that positive emotions
(kindness, love, compassion, etc.) enhance health by
virtue of pushing aside negative emotions.
• It is difficult to be angry, resentful, or fearful when one is
showing unselfish love toward another person.
• Volunteer work might stimulate the development of
empathic emotions. Those who give away a valuable
resource such as one’s own time are most likely to
be aware of the needs of others (Batson, 1991).

16. • Cultivating loving emotions,
engaging in helping and self-
forgetful activities, and a serene
spirituality may thus contribute to
good health and longevity by
preventing the acceleration of
aging at the cellular level (Epel et
al., 2004).

17. • When Scrooge became benevolent, he became more
buoyant, effervescent and fit.
• He experienced the “helper high” (Luks, 1988)
• “People who live generous lives soon become aware that
in the giving of self lies the unsought discovery of self as
the old selfish pursuit of happiness is subjectively
revealed as futile and short sighted (Frankl, 1956).”

18. • The therapeutic use of altruism can be found in the
12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous – Specifically
Step 12.
• “Having had a spiritual
awakening as the result
of these steps, we tried to
carry this message to
alcoholics, and to practice
these principles in all
our affairs.”

19. • Luks (1988) found that immediate physiological
changes may occur as a result of volunteering and
helping others, leading to the “helper’s high.”
• Two-thirds of helpers reported a distinct physical sensation
associated with helping; about half reported that they
experienced a “high” feeling, whereas 43% felt stronger and
more energetic, 28% felt warm, 22% felt calmer and less
depressed, 21% experienced greater self-worth, and 13%
experienced fewer aches and pains.
• Field et al. (1998) showed that older adults who
volunteer to give massages to infants have lowered
stress hormones, including salivary cortisol and
plasma norepinephrine and epinephrine. Lowering of
cortisol is associated with less stress.

20. • Kumar et al., (2012) analyzed data from 139 countries
and found positive associations between social
support and volunteering with self-rated health.
• Ages 15+ from Gallup World Poll 2005-2009
• Social Support = access to support from family and
friends.
• Volunteering = volunteering with an organization in
the past month.
• Self-Reported Health = Are you satisfied or
dissatisfied with your personal health?

21. • Schreir et al., (April 2013) assigned adolescents to
volunteer with elem school-aged children as a means of
improving teens’ cardiovascular risk profiles.
• Urban public high school in western Canada; N = 106
10th grade students free of chronic illnesses.
• Weekly volunteering for 2 months vs control group.
• Results showed lower - cholesterol, BMI and interleukin
levels compared to controls.
• Those who increased the most in empathy and altruistic
bxs, and who decreased the most in neg mood, also
showed the greatest decreases in cardiovascular risk
over time.

24. • 57% Agree – great for job training,
learning experiences, and nat’l unity.
• 38% Disagree – find our own ways to
give back, too costly to fed gov’t, and
not the right time.

25. • 80% Favor Voluntary
• Top Reasons for Favoring
• 20% learning experiences and training
• 12% based on volunteerism not mandatory
• 12% helps our communities and country
• Top Reasons for Opposing
• 25% would cost too much
• 10% criticism of gov’t programs
• 10% volunteering should be for
its own sake, not benefits
• 22% Favor Mandatory

26. • Hunter & Lin (1980-81) compared retirees >65 who
volunteered with those who did not.
• Volunteers scored sign higher in life satisfaction
and will to live and had fewer symptoms of
depression, anxiety, and somatization.
• Midlarsky (1991) posed five reasons why older adults
benefit:
• Enhanced social integration
• Distraction from the agent’s own problems
• Enhanced meaningfulness
• Increased perception of self-efficacy and
competence
• Improved mood or more physically active lifestyle

27. • Data from the Americans Changing Lives Study
(1995) was examined by Musick & WIlson (2003) at
three separate time periods with populations in the
+2k, ages <65 and 65< to measure the mental health
effects of volunteering.
• 65+ group = vol had neg effect on depression (vol
work is elevated in significance among populations
whose other roles have been diminished).
• With sustained volunteering, a switch occurs from
more external to internal motivation, which is more
rewarding.

28. • Mental health benefits of volunteerism
include:
• Reduction in depressive symptoms
(Musick & Wilson, 2003)
• Happiness and well-being (Krueger, Hicks,
& McGue, 2001)
• Schwartz et al. (2003) focused on 2,016
members of the Presbyterian Church
located across the US.
• Both receiving help and giving help were
associated with reducing anxiety and
depression. Giving help was more sign
associated with better mental health than
was receiving help.

29. • Current consensus indicates that helping behavior
contributes to diminished depression rates in
Adolescents (Commission on Children at Risk, 2003).
• Midlarsky (1991) volunteering generates positive
cognition and affect and thereby counters negative
moods like depression and anxiety.
• Improves well-being because it increases self-esteem
(Wuthnow, 1991) and low self-esteem is a powerful
predictor of sub-clinical depression (Turner et al.,
1999)

30. • Altruistic emotions can gain dominance
over anxiety and fear, turning off the fight-
flight response.
• This in-turn can reduce the damaging
physiological effects of chronic PTSD on
the immune system, malignant cell
degeneration, and cardiovascular
complications

31. • Definition = Unambiguous, healthy, ethical standards,
beliefs and behavior guidelines that promote prosocial
behavior and minimize health hazards (Hawkins &
Catalano, 1992).
• Examples include: reciprocity, responsibility,
volunteerism, altruism, focusing on the needs of others,
and empathy.

32. • Many prevalent prosocial norms are acquired early in
life through social learning and identification with
role models
• Parents can model emotional expressivity, sympathy,
and perspective taking, which can play an important
role in the prosocial dev among children (Zahn-
Waxler & Smith, 1992).
• Parents, schools, and/or youth centers can require
teens to fulfill prosocial tasks which gradually help to
modify their attitudes about prosocial
norms/behavior (“foot in the door” socialization
technique, Freedman & Fraser, 1966)

34. • JAMA Pediatrics April 2013
Volunteering Youth.pdf

35. • McGuire & Gamble (2006) examined the relative
contribution of psychological engagement (finding value
in the service activity) with a service activity and # of
hours spent in that activity, as predictors of change over
time in community belonging (affiliation, inclusion and
membership) and social responsibility (resp to others,
other-orientation). Sixty-eight teens participated as teen
leaders in a sexuality education program.
• Youth valued the service activity and cared about the
issue, thus reported greater benefits from the activity with
regards to improvements in community belonging and
social responsibility.
• Time does not predict Value

36. • Longitudinal studies by Eisenberg et al.
(1999) showed that prosocial moral reasoning
generally increases between 11 and 20 years
of age. Hedonistic reasoning decreases with
age, while needs-oriented reasoning
increases till late childhood and then remains
stable.
• High-level prosocial reasoning (empathic and
internalized) emerge in mid-to late
adolescence and early adulthood.

37. In addition to the above academic requirements, the
following is also required for graduation:
1) Students must pass the California High School Exit
Exam (CAHSEE) in order to earn a high school
diploma.
2) 20 Hours of Community Service.
3) All students must earn a cumulative grade point
average of
2.0 (over 4 years) in order to earn a J.L.H.S. diploma.
4) All freshmen must take Life Skills in their freshman
year.

38. • Volunteer Opportunities at HHS
• Parent Resources
• Athletic Boosters
• Band Boosters
• Volunteer Opportunities around Hayward
• Keep Hayward Clean & Green (third Saturday of each month, see
pix below)
• The Kids' Breakfast Club
• Other Volunteer Opportunities for Teens in the Hayward area
• Explorer Post (Hayward Police Department)
• Hayward Historical Society
• Hayward Public Library
• St. Rose Hospital: SHINE
• Volunteer Opportunities around the East Bay
• Alameda County Community Food Bank
• Bay Area Volunteer Information Center
• Volunteer Center of the East Bay
• Volunteers of America, Bay Area

39. • Empathy is positively connected to
prosocial behavior and neg linked to
aggression in early adolescence. In 2005,
a Chinese study showed that empathy
increased significantly from 12 to 15 years
old, which may fuel the increase in
prosocial bx in early adolescence.

40. • Mothers have been shown to contribute
more strongly to the prosocial development
of both sons and daughters (Hastings et
al., 2007). Mothers with an authoritative
style, internal attributions for prosocial
behavior, and positive responses to
prosocial behavior will facilitate the dev of
prosocial norms in children.

41. • Studies have shown that adolescents exhibit
much more prosocial acts towards “in-
group” members than “out-group” members,
despite levels of trust for the in-group
members (Cadenhead & Richman, 1996).
• Adolescents with higher social anxiety and
jealousy in peer relationships tend to exhibit
more prosocial acts, so that they can be
accepted more easily by peer groups (Culotta
& Goldstein, 2008).

42. • Studies around the world consistently show that girls
have higher prosocial orientation and more prosocial
behaviors than boys throughout adolescence (1995,
1996).
• Women are more engaged in acts of caring and support,
while men are more engaged in collective-oriented,
strength-intensive, and “heroic” actions (Eagly, 2009).
• Prosocial orientation is highly valued in traditional
Chinese philosophy. The practice of ren (be kind to
others) and seeking social harmony are Confucian
codes. Maxims such as Tui ji ren (putting yourself into
others’ position), or jiang xin bi ji (compare people’s
hearts with your own), are highly valued prosocial norms.

43. • State of the World's Volunteerism
Report 2011 - UN Volunteers.pdf

44. •PBS Guide to Family
Volunteering 2002.pdf

45. Local Volunteer Organizations
http://www.volunteerinfo.org/category/east-bay
http://www.redcross.org/ca/san-francisco/volunteer/youth-volunteer-services
http://www.volunteereastbay.org/volunteers-opportunities/student-volunteering/
http://www.handsonbayarea.org/For_Volunteers
http://www.dosomething.org/
http://thevolunteercenter.net/?Volunteer
http://www.volunteermatch.org/
http://www.pointsoflight.org/
http://www.oaklandzoo.org/Teen_Assistants.php

46. National Programs
www.nationalservice.gov
- US National Service Corporation offering Americorp, Senior Corp, and
FEMA
www.allforgood.org
- The community service search engine offers a mobile app to link
volunteers to local nonprofits and grassroots organizations.
www.servenet.org
- Dedicated to promoting service among children and teens, the site grants
$1 million each year to youth-led projects.
www.volunteermatch.org
- More than 93,000 nonprofits recruit millions of volunteers though this outfit
www.catchafire.org
- Matches professionals’ skills with what volunteer organizations need most.

47. 1. Can reduce depression
2. Can raise self-esteem
3. Can reduce anger
4. Can improve your physical health
5. Can feel a sense of connection
6. Can feel like you make a difference
7. Can help someone
8. Can help your community
9. Can learn new skills
10.Can make new friends