Aplicación de la Integralidad de la Perspectiva de Género en la Norma

7.1. Introduction

In Chapter 5, a framework was developed for understanding the ways in which older adults engage in formal volunteering. In Chapter 6 we looked at what internal impulses push the three different categories of older volunteer to begin, resume or continue volunteering in older age. The previous two chapters, then, have explored two of the three sections of the diagram shown in Figure 7.1, as introduced in Chapter 5.

Figure 7.1 Factors influencing volunteering decisions

This chapter builds on this further by exploring how reasons for volunteering may come from factors external to the individual; they help pull individuals into engaging in volunteering. In doing so, it explores the third and final section of Figure 7.1, explaining the different factors which make up volunteering decisions across the lifecourse and into older age. It will look at how decisions to volunteer are motivated by what Lukka and Locke (2007) in their qualitative study of religious volunteering in England and Woolvin (2011) in his qualitative study of informal volunteering in Scotland, have conceptualised as external motivating factors. In doing so, it answers the third and final research question posed in the introduction to this thesis:

When older adults reflect on their volunteering, what external factors do they cite for participating, and how do these reflect their experiences across the lifecourse?

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External impulses are situational factors which provide the context in which decisions to volunteer are made. Decisions to engage, or not to engage, in formal volunteering may be influenced by external factors and events (Elder et al, 2003;

Bäckman and Nilsson, 2011). Decisions which individuals make, facilitated by free time and based on internal impulses, cannot be separated from the social context in which they occurred (Musson, 1998; Hardill et al, 2007), and this chapter explores these external impulses. As in the previous chapter, Figure 7.2 shows those impulses to volunteer from Helping Out (Low et al, 2007) which can be considered external in light of the definition proposed in Figure 3.5, and how relevant each are for individuals of all ages.

Reason for Volunteering Percentage of all Volunteers Connected to family/friends’ interests 29%

There was a need in the community 29%

Family/friends do it 21%

No one else to do it 13%

Figure 7.2 External reasons for volunteering (Low et al, 2007)

As with internal motivations, many external motivations remain broadly constant across the lifecourse, although some do change in importance as individuals age (data from Low et al, 2007). Volunteering in activities connected with the interests of family and/or friends understandably peaks in importance in middle age before declining in older age (Figure 7.3), responding to a need in the community increases gradually through middle and into older age (Figure 7.4), family and friends being involved remains relatively stable across the lifecourse (Figure 7.5) and there being no one else to fulfil the role increases in importance in late-middle age, before declining slightly post-65 (Figure 7.6). This section explores how the impulses raised as significant by the constant, serial and trigger volunteers who participated in this research reflected these reasons, and how these differed between the three categories of older volunteer.

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Figure 7.3 Connected with needs, interests of family or friends Figure 7.4 There was a need in the community

Figure 7.5 Family, friends did it Figure 7.6 No one else to do it 0

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By the conclusion of this chapter, and therefore of the three analysis sections, we will have seen how the circumstances – the TSOL – that paid work and domestic responsibilities provide facilitate volunteering, how an individual’s internal motivations push them to volunteer in certain ways at certain times, and how external impulses contribute to volunteering decisions across the lifecourse and into older age. In order to do so, this chapter first looks at how family – where relevant – impacts upon engagement in formal volunteering, particularly looking at how an individual’s child(ren) impact upon what volunteering they engage in. It next looks at how individuals come to be approached by their peers within communities of place and/or of interest, and how the nature of the approach and the response to it differs between constant, serial and trigger volunteers. It lastly looks at when individuals engage in a voluntary role because they feel, or are made to feel, that there is no one else to do it. Each chapter uses the same heuristic established in Chapter 5 and utilised throughout Chapter 6: constant, serial and trigger volunteers experience these external impulses in different ways, and this chapter explores these ways, building towards a picture of how external impulses impact upon the three categories of volunteer.

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7.2. Volunteering with and for Family Members 7.2.1. Introduction

Volunteering connected to the interests of an individual’s family or friends was the joint most commonly cited external impulse volunteer identified by Low et al (2007), with 29% of all volunteers citing it. As well as this, 21% of all volunteers reported engaging in volunteering because their family and friends were doing it (Low et al, 2007). This section looks at the ways in which the activities, needs and interests of family members influence how and why individuals volunteer across the lifecourse and into older age. In Chapter 5, household composition was explored as a significant factor in facilitating or constraining engagement in formal voluntary and community activities. Nearly all constant and serial volunteers engaged in volunteering to some extent while they had dependent children living at home, while the majority of trigger volunteers did not. In Section 2.4, in which the concept of the lifecourse was explored, it was observed that different elements of life needed to be understood together, and that transitions such as parenthood had significant impact on volunteering (Dykstra and van Wissen, 1999; Mayer, 2004;

Bailey, 2009). As such, this section looks not at how household composition affects an individual’s ability to engage (which Chapter 5 covered), but how the activities, needs and interests of family members influence how and why individuals engage.

It takes a similar format to that adopted in Chapter 6, looking in turn at how family and friends’ interests and hobbies impact upon how and why constant, serial and trigger volunteers’ engagement across the lifecourse and into older age.

Before beginning, it is necessary to state that not all individuals have a nuclear family or children, and for these the impact of family on volunteer decisions may be different or not so relevant; of the 26 older volunteers who participated in this study, 23 were parents and all bar one had been married at some stage in their lives.

7.2.2. Constant volunteers: children attend where parents volunteer As explored in Chapter 5, constant volunteers are those individuals who have given very long, often lifelong, service to a particular organisation or organisations.

Chapter 6 outlined how constant volunteers’ engagement in VCOs often begins at