A Study Of Elderly People’s Willingness To Participate In Voluntary Service From The Perspective Of Social Capital

At present,our country has entered the moderate aging stage,the ratio of the family and the society is increasing gradually,the social burden is increasing,and the social vitality is attenuating greatly.In the traditional pension concept of our country,the elderly are regarded as passive recipients of service,ignoring the group of the elderly have rich knowledge and rich life experience,which hinders the play of their subjective initiative.In 2002,the World Health Organization put forward the concept of "active aging",which regards the elderly as human resources that can be tapped and encourages them to actively participate in society,join the volunteer service team and give full play to their own advantages.This not only enrich their lives,but also makes contributions to others,society and the country.Voluntary service can reasonably develop the human resources of the elderly,become a new way for the elderly to reintegrate into society after retirement,and also a new way to practice the concept of active aging.However,as a new kind of elderly society participation activities,the development history of the elderly volunteer service activities is short in our country,domestic research results on the elderly volunteer service is less,lack of practice in communities about the elderly volunteer service,public cognition of the elderly volunteer service is limited,the elderly volunteer service development in our country still needs further research and discussion.Based on Putnam’s theory of social capital and supplemented by the theory of social support,this paper conducts a questionnaire survey and interview among rural and urban middle-aged and elderly people in J and Y cities of Shandong Province to understand the current situation of elderly people’s willingness to participate in voluntary services.First,on the basis of using SPSS statistical software to verify the reliability and validity of the questionnaire,descriptive statistical analysis was conducted on the questionnaire results to understand the current situation of the elderly’s willingness to volunteer and activities.Secondly,the difference analysis was used to test the gender,age,education level,political status,living style,health status,residence and other factors of the elderly.Finally,the binary Logistic regression model was used to further analyze the influence of three dimensions of social capital theory: social trust,reciprocity norm,social network and other factors on the elderly’s willingness to participate in voluntary service.Through the interview method to understand the constraints existing in the elderly willingness to participate in voluntary service,and put forward countermeasures and suggestions to improve the elderly willingness to participate in voluntary service.It is found that social trust,reciprocity norm and social network all have significant influence on elderly people’s willingness to participate in voluntary services.High level of social trust can improve the cohesion among the elderly groups and positive expectations of the system,which is conducive to meet individual needs and improve community services.Reciprocity norm is a contract built around the policy and system.A high degree of reciprocity norm is beneficial to standardize the routine operation of voluntary service of the aged group.The social network is mainly centered on the elderly service community,and mainly deals with the relationship among elderly volunteers,the community and society.The closer the social network is,the resource supply inside and outside the community will be enriched,and the internal and external participation channels will be smooth.Through their original social identity,the elderly may be supported by social resources in the process of volunteer service,which plays a positive role in enhancing the elderly’s sense of pride and belonging in service.According to the questionnaire and interview data,it is concluded that the limiting factors of the development of volunteer services for the elderly mainly include low trust level,weak reciprocity norms and constraints,and weak network linkage.Finally,according to the results of the empirical study,the paper provides policy suggestions on improving the willingness of the elderly to participate in volunteer service from the three aspects of trust,norms and relationship.First,in terms of social trust,it should enhance the trust of the elderly’s interpersonal skills in volunteer service.Improve the community voluntary service system trust system.Second,in the reciprocity norm: improve the guidance and supervision of laws and regulations;Strengthen the cultivation of morality and public spirit.Third,in the aspect of social network: build external social organization interaction platform;We will dredge internal channels for participation in voluntary services.