# Volunteering as an Avenue for Improving Views of Aging

> **NIH NIH F32** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $65,055

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Emerging evidence suggests that attitudes and beliefs can have a strong impact on individual health. Attitudes
about aging are particularly important in predicting late-life cognitive and physical health, and longevity.
Whereas negative views of aging are found to be detrimental to older adults’ health and well-being, positive
views of aging are protective for health as individuals become older. Although individuals’ attitudes and beliefs
about aging develop across the life span in the context of cultural age stereotypes, laboratory studies show
that older adults’ views of aging can be altered temporarily through stereotype priming in ways that have direct
impact on behavior and physiological processes. Research has yet to investigate whether there are lifestyle
strategies older individuals can use to improve their own attitudes about aging in the long-term. The goal of this
proposal is to investigate whether the act of contributing to the community through volunteerism can improve
older individuals’ views of aging, and ultimately, enhance their health. Aim 1 will examine whether volunteering
is associated with improvements in views of aging over time. Given evidence of increased prioritization of
socially and emotionally meaningful goals in later life, the social value and generative qualities of volunteerism
present a promising context in which older adults can feel valuable and important to their communities, and
potentially reduce negative age stereotypes depicting late-life social role loss. Thus, we predict that older adult
volunteers’ views of aging will improve relative to those of an age-matched non-volunteering comparison
group. Aim 2 will examine whether increases in positive views of aging enhance the health benefits of
volunteering. Growing evidence suggests that older adult volunteers are healthier than their non-volunteering
counterparts, and that volunteering may, in fact, improve cognitive and physical health over time. Given
longitudinal associations between positive views of aging and health, we predict that improved views of aging
will enhance the health benefits associated with volunteering over time. Understanding potential relationships
among volunteerism, attitudes about aging, and individual health can contribute to building a more positive
view of aging among both older people and society at large, and, ultimately, enhance the health of our aging
population.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9982155
- **Project number:** 5F32AG058373-03
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Hannah Lynne Giasson
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $65,055
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2021-08-15

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9982155

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9982155, Volunteering as an Avenue for Improving Views of Aging (5F32AG058373-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9982155. Licensed CC0.

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