They are Doing Well, but is it by Doing Good? Pathways from Nonpolitical and Political Volunteering to Subjective Well-Being in Age Comparison

Abstract We investigated whether higher internal control beliefs (perceived control, political efficacy) and improved social relationships (lower loneliness, support availability) mediated the associations between nonpolitical volunteering subjective well-being (SWB; life satisfaction, emotional well-being). Moreover, we examined these effects differed across age groups. conducted longitudinal multilevel regression analyses of data from German Socio-Economic Panel (1985–2016) in younger (14–29, n = 7,547), middle-aged (40–50, 6,437), older (65–75, 3,736) adults (see preregistration at https://osf.io/qk6mu ). Significant on SWB emerged mainly who reported satisfaction occasions with more frequent than usual but lower volunteering. The negative effect was by loneliness. In adults, mixed mediating variables no significant emerged. discuss methodological, contextual, life-stage explanations our findings.