Determinants of Volunteering Within a Social Housing Community
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RESEARCH PAPERS
Determinants of Volunteering Within a Social Housing Community Tim Walker1 • Tamaryn Menneer2 • Catherine Leyshon1 • Michael Leyshon1 Andrew James Williams2,3 • Markus Mueller4 • Tim Taylor2
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Accepted: 5 September 2020 Ó The Author(s) 2020
Abstract In general, research demonstrates that deprivation, education, health, and well-being are determinants of volunteering, and that volunteering can play an important role in building stronger communities and provides many benefits for individual health and well-being. This study concentrates on the effects of physical and mental health and well-being as predictors when the aspect of socioeconomic impact has been minimised. It utilises a unique data set from a UK Housing Association community with generally high levels of deprivation. Data were analysed using bivariate probit regression. In contrast to previous findings, physical health and mental health were not significantly related to volunteering. The key finding was that mental well-being was significantly related to informal volunteering. Keywords Volunteering Social housing Deprivation Physical health Mental well-being
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-020-00275-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. & Tim Walker [email protected] 1
Centre for Geography and Environmental Science, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, Penryn, UK
2
European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School, Truro Campus, Truro, UK
3
Population and Behavioural Science, School of Medicine, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
4
Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK
Introduction There is a substantial amount of policy interest in volunteering because of its positive relationship with health, well-being, and building stronger communities (Jenkinson et al. 2013). However, spatial patterns of volunteering are uneven and the benefits are not accrued equally across communities (Benenson and Stagg 2016; McCulloch et al. 2012). The literature suggests that individuals from disadvantaged groups and deprived areas are least likely to be volunteers and hence realise the positive impacts (Southby et al. 2019). Meanwhile, the role of Housing Associations (HAs) within the UK has expanded beyond the provision of affordable housing towards building social capital through community investment in often deprived areas (Billis 2010). Volunteering has become crucial in such community investment activities as a way to create community cohesion, reduce social isolation, and increase the wellbeing of tenants. The aim of this paper is to understand which factors are associated with volunteering behaviours amongst social housing tenants, thereby filling a lacuna in the literature. The objective is to use a unique data set in the UK to investigate a group of 330 people, all clients of a HA, in an area with relatively homogeneously high levels of depri
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