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Volunteering Among Older People in Korea

¹ Center on Aging, National Opinion Research Center, Chicago, Illinois.
² Department of Sociology, Cornell University, New York.
³ Department of Sociology, Purdue University, Indiana.
⁴ Department of Public Administration, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea.

Address correspondence to Jibum Kim, Center on Aging, National Opinion Research Center, 1155 East 60th Street,. Chicago, IL 60637. E-mail: kim-jibum{at}norc.org

Objectives. Faced with aging societies, there is an immense need to better understand the nature of volunteering outside advanced Western industrial countries. As a case of a rapidly aging society, we identify robust factors associated with elderly volunteering in Korea in terms of a resource framework.

Methods. Data were derived from the Social Statistics Survey conducted by the Korea National Statistical Office in 1999 (N = 7,135) and 2003 (N = 8,371). We first determined overall and age-related volunteer rates for Korea compared to the United States. Using logistic regression, we then examined the effects of human, cultural, and social capital variables on volunteering.

Results. Approximately 6% of Koreans aged 65 years and older participate in volunteer programs. All human capital variables are positively related with volunteering. For cultural capital, those who identify their religion as Buddhism or Catholicism are more likely to volunteer than those who have no religion. But surprisingly, Protestantism does not consistently promote volunteering across both years. For social capital, older adults who live alone or with a spouse are more likely to volunteer than those living with both a spouse and children.

Discussion. In contrast to human capital, cultural and social capital on elderly volunteering appears to be contoured by social contexts.