Art training and artistic efficacy as predictors of volunteerism in elders

Abstract

Facilitating elders’ volunteerism, which comprises motivation and practice to help people formally, is beneficial to the elders and their volunteering beneficiaries. According to social–cognitive theory, such facilitation supposedly benefits from art training to raise elders’ artistic efficacy. This study examines such a supposition with a two-wave panel survey of 118 elders in Hong Kong, China. Among them, forty-seven were art trainees in a senior centre and seventy-one were non-trainees. Results show that art training significantly contributed to Waves 1 and 2 artistic efficacy and volunteerism in the elder. Moreover, Wave 1 artistic efficacy significantly contributed to Wave 2 volunteerism. The results imply that art training aiming to raise artistic efficacy in a senior centre is valuable for facilitating elders’ volunteerism. Incorporating such training in social services is thus worthwhile.