Research shows humanitarian volunteering increases mental wellbeing
Research conducted by Philip M Baker (Msc Student) at the Institute For Risk And Disaster Reduction at UCL, supported by Patty Kostkova (University of UCL - Supervisor) and Stephen Walker (EBW Global - Ext Supervisor) studied the effect of altruism on wellbeing.
It was found that wellbeing was improved by a short-term humanitarian volunteering experience of up to 6 weeks. The emotional behaviours of motivation, adaptability and decisiveness were associated with positive or negative wellbeing changes.
Research Background
Previous mental health research on humanitarianism has generally focused on disaster survivors [1] and the wellbeing of aid workers is poorly understood [2].
Altruistic behaviours are associated with better mental wellbeing [3], but working in these settings can increase the risk of mental illness [2].
Research Purpose
This research aimed to answer the following questions:
How does short-term humanitarian volunteering affect a volunteer’s wellbeing?
Do behavioural Emotional Intelligence characteristics influence the wellbeing changes of humanitarian volunteers?
The main hypothesis for the research was that, in general, short-term humanitarian volunteering will elicit a positive wellbeing change for participants regardless of gender, age, their humanitarian organisation or the duration of their volunteering.
Research Methodology
Matched quantitative surveys were used to analyse mental wellbeing changes in participants before volunteering, and 6 weeks after starting volunteering, using two well-validated psychometric assessments:
Mental Health Index (MHI) – 38
EBW Business EQ Assessment
Relationships were then analysed between mental wellbeing outcomes and:
The Emotional Intelligence (EI) Clusters measured by the EBW Business EQ Assessment.
Project variances.
Gender and age differences.
The EI Clusters measured by the Business EQ Assessment are as follows:
Decisiveness
Motivation
Self-awareness
Influence
Adaptability
Empathy
Conscientiousness
Stress Resilience
Research is ongoing, but a preliminary sample of volunteers was collected from 18 different NGOs for the MSc thesis.
Field Recommendations
Maximise volunteer experiences and reduce negative effects by encouraging motivated, decisive and flexibly-minded volunteers.
Use Emotional Intelligence training to improve behavioural aspects and encourage positive wellbeing during humanitarian projects.
Support volunteers with mental health networks to encourage psychological resilience.
Impact on Wellbeing Results
The study shows that short-term humanitarian volunteering improves psychological wellbeing significantly. These results were found regardless of gender, age or organisational differences.
Overall, 66.67% of participants had wellbeing improvements.
People’s mental wellbeing improved by +8.3% on average over the 6 week period.
Emotional Intelligence Results
The motivation and adaptability behavioural Emotional Intelligence clusters were correlated with greater wellbeing improvements.
Poor decisiveness was correlated with negative wellbeing changes.
Adaptability, Empathy and Resilience were also correlated with better and worse wellbeing but more data is required to confirm this.
The EBW Business EQ assessment can be used with great success for measuring Business Emotional Intelligence for academic and research purposes.
Inspired to use Business EQ in your research project? Find out more about the Business EQ Assessment or Team Assessment or send us a research enquiry.
References:
[1] - Brooks, S., Rubin, G. and Greenberg, N., 2018. Traumatic stress within disaster-exposed occupations: overview of the literature and suggestions for the management of traumatic stress in the workplace. British Medical Bulletin, pp. 1-10
[2] - Thormar, S.B., Gersons, B.P.R., Juen, B., Marschang, A., Djakababa, M.N. and Olff, M., 2010. The mental health impact of volunteering in a disaster setting: a review. The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 198(8), pp. 529-538
[3] - Post, S.G., (2005). Altruism, happiness, and health: It’s good to be good. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine,12(2), 66–77
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