One of the ways for the elderly people to live their extended retirement life happily may be social volunteer services. With such a basic conception in mind, this study was aimed at analyzing the existing data available for elderlies' fruitful retirem...
One of the ways for the elderly people to live their extended retirement life happily may be social volunteer services. With such a basic conception in mind, this study was aimed at analyzing the existing data available for elderlies' fruitful retirement life engaged in social volunteer services, and thereupon, providing for some useful data for their active volunteer services.
For this purpose, those elderlies using Songpa-gu Elderly Welfare House were sampled; it was believed that the elderlies living in Songpa-gu or the district for middle-class people in Seoul could afford to enjoy their retirement life. Thus, 130 elderlies were divided into those engaged in volunteer work (test group) and those not (control group).
As a result of analyzing the relation between elderlies' volunteer service and their satisfaction with retirement life, it was found that those elderlies engaged in volunteer services were more satisfied with their retirement life. It was also found that family members of those volunteer group supported their elderly members' social volunteer services.
It was found through this study that our elderlies felt their retirement life energized through volunteer services, while using their experiences and knowledge.
As a consequence of correlating the motives of social volunteer services with satisfaction with retirement life, it was found that most elderlies were participating in volunteer services for new experiences or out of a sense of social responsibility, and that the more they were engaged in volunteer services, they were more satisfied with their retirement life.
On the other hand, as a result of surveying control group's satisfaction with their retirement life, it was found that they were less satisfied with their retirement life than the test group. Such a finding suggests that elderlies' social volunteer services need to be more activated. Based on such findings, this study suggested the ways to activate elderlies' social volunteer services in terms of training for volunteer services, development of social volunteer service programs, and systematic support of elderlies' volunteer services.