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Development of a scale assessing retired older adults’ attitudes to volunteering
Author(s) -
Dana Liyuwork Mitiku,
Jongenelis Michelle I.,
Jackson Ben,
Newton Robert U.,
Pettigrew Simone
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
australasian journal on ageing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1741-6612
pISSN - 1440-6381
DOI - 10.1111/ajag.12907
Subject(s) - cronbach's alpha , scale (ratio) , confirmatory factor analysis , psychology , sample (material) , test (biology) , variance (accounting) , intervention (counseling) , gerontology , clinical psychology , social psychology , psychometrics , structural equation modeling , medicine , psychiatry , paleontology , statistics , chemistry , mathematics , accounting , chromatography , business , biology , physics , quantum mechanics
Objective Given positive attitudes to volunteering are likely to be associated with support for volunteering and individual participation, this study aimed to develop and test a 10‐item ‘attitudes to formal volunteering’ scale for retired older adults that could be used to inform intervention efforts. Method A sample of 801 Australian retirees (62% female; mean age: 71.9 years) completed a survey that included the attitude scale, demographic items and questions assessing engagement in volunteering. Results A principal component analysis identified two factors (general attitude to volunteering and attitude to participating in volunteering) that together accounted for 64% of the variance in attitude scores. A confirmatory factor analysis indicated the two‐factor model was an excellent fit to the data. Cronbach's alphas for both factors were >0.80, and both were positively associated with volunteering engagement. Conclusion The proposed scale is a potentially useful instrument for measuring attitudes to volunteering among retired older adults.