The relationship between volunteering and student wellbeing in higher education

Mbah, MF and Williams, GJ ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7689-1231, 2025. The relationship between volunteering and student wellbeing in higher education. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice. ISSN 1746-1979

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Abstract

It is well evidenced in the literature that the act of volunteering provides university students with the opportunity to improve their employability skills, enhance their CVs and contribute to the common good of a community. Many other merits of volunteering are available to students, the host organisation and the community. Despite these merits, it is not clear what relationship, if any, exists between students who volunteer and their wellbeing. Drawing on a mixed methods approach, including 316 students from a modern university in England, this research employed a three-dimensional conceptualisation of wellbeing that touches on subjective, material and relational elements to examine associations between volunteering and the wellbeing of students whilst at University. Findings demonstrate that prior volunteering can be a predictor of future volunteering, and the duration of volunteering was positively correlated with student perceptions that their wellbeing was improved through volunteering. This positive impact can be evident through an array of effects such as personal growth, acquisition of a sense of meaningfulness, connectedness, positivity, improved mental health and increased confidence. The outcomes of this study have implications for policy and practice, particularly when considering mechanisms universities are putting in place to support the wellbeing of students.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Education, Citizenship and Social Justice
Creators:	Mbah, M.F. and Williams, G.J.
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Date:	1 September 2025
ISSN:	1746-1979
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1177/17461979251356879 DOI 2494036 Other
Rights:	© The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Lficense (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jeremy Silvester
Date Added:	11 Sep 2025 12:58
Last Modified:	11 Sep 2025 13:01
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/54312

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