Want to improve your kid’s health and wellness? Have them volunteer

From the pandemic to social media to school pressures, there are plenty of reasons for children’s and teens’ health and wellness to suffer. To improve their offspring’s outlook, parents might want to involve them in volunteering, research shows.

“Volunteer service is any action that contributes directly or indirectly to the welfare of others,” Psychology Today wrote, “and its ethos is a connection with and responsibility to something beyond oneself.”

Although small studies have found kids who volunteer have reduced risk of cardiovascular problems and are more engaged in school, there had previously been no large-scale research on the subject.

Last year, however, a study published in Jama Network Open asked parents of 22,126 children, ages 6-11, and 29,769 adolescents, ages 12-17, about their kids’ volunteer activity.

The parents reported whether their child or teen “participated in any form of volunteer service at school, in the community, or church/synagogue/mosque.” The survey also asked parents to rate their kids’ health and wellness in five areas: (1) excellent and/or very good health, (2) flourishing, (3) anxiety, (4) depression, and (5) behavioral problems.

From the parents’ responses, volunteering was associated with:

• Higher odds of excellent/very good health in both children and adolescents
• Higher odds of flourishing in both age groups
• Lower odds of behavioral problems in both groups
• Lower odds of anxiety in adolescents; no association for children
• No association between volunteering and depression for either group