Locus of Control and Volunteering Among Older Individuals in Europe

Purpose: This article examines the empirical link between locus of control and volunteering for older adults.

Design/methodology/approach: We use cross-country panel data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), covering the period from 2010 to 2022 for people aged 50 and over.

Findings: We find a positive and significant relationship between internal locus of control and both volunteering participation and frequency. While there is a slight gender difference in the results for volunteering participation, internal locus of control is more strongly related to volunteering frequency of women than to that of men. Our heterogeneity results show that in all European regions (North, Central and South), the association between internal control and volunteering participation is positive and statistically significant. By contrast, the correlation with volunteering frequency is statistically significant only in southern Europe.

Originality/value: This article contributes to the literature in several ways. First, it introduces two distinct volunteering measures, participation and frequency, to separately capture the decision to volunteer and the intensity of involvement. Second, it provides the first comparative analysis of how locus of control influences volunteering across Northern, Central and Southern Europe, accounting for regional, cultural and organisational differences.