Social Skill Abilities and Demographic Correlates of Older Volunteers

• Published in: Journal of applied gerontology Vol. 43; no. 10; pp. 1419 - 1427
• Main Authors: Chen, Szu-Yu, Chen, Kuei-Min, Chang, Chiang-Ching, Lai, Ching-Yi, Belcastro, Frank, Kuo, Chuan-Feng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.10.2024; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Education; Loneliness; Older people; Social networks; Social skills; Socioeconomic factors; Suburban areas; Volunteers; latent class analysis; socioeconomic status; older volunteering; social skills
• ISSN: 0733-4648; 1552-4523; 1552-4523
• DOI: 10.1177/07334648241245487

Older age is associated with reduced social networks while social skill abilities are important assets for older people to cope with these situations. To better understand older people’s social skill ability and important demographic correlates, the present cross-sectional survey research interviewed 1000 Taiwanese older volunteers from 73 community care centers. Findings of a mixed model indicated that education and serving area outweighed other demographic factors significantly correlated with older volunteers’ social skill ability. Latent class analyses further identified different latent ability groups for different education (high vs. low) or serving-area (urban vs. suburban) older volunteers. Specifically, low-education or suburban volunteers were correlated with disadvantageous social skill profiles. Notably, the suburban eclectic ability group exhibited a skill pattern signifying the risk of loneliness. Overall, the findings called for further investigation into the relationship between older people’s socioeconomic factors (e.g., education and serving area) and their social skill ability.