Abstract
Aim : Taking into account the increasing number of people who carry out voluntary activities, it becomes relevant to understand who these people are and what motivates them. Therefore, the present study aims at: (1) characterizing a sample of hospital volunteers within an oncologic context regarding socio-demographic variables, specific variables of a hospital volunteer and motivations for volunteering; and (2) analyzing the relation between motivations for volunteering, and indicators of psychological well-being and quality of life. Method : The sample is composed by 53 hospital volunteers, from Liga Portuguesa Contra o Cancro – Nucleo Regional do Centro, who work at the Instituto Portugues de Oncologia Francisco Gentil de Coimbra. The assessment tools included a socio-demographic and volunteering characterization questionnaire, the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI; Portuguese version: Goncalves, Monteiro, & Pereira, 2011), the Psychological Well-Being Manifestation Measure Scale (PWBMMS; Portuguese version: Monteiro, Tavares, & Pereira, 2006), and the WHO Quality of Life-Bref (WHOQOF-BREF; Portuguese version: Vaz Serra et al., 2006). Results : From the results obtained, we highlight that the most valued motivational functions are “values”, “experience”, and “enhancement”. Additionally, there was a positive association between the “values”, “experience”, “enhancement” functions, and the psychological well-being subscales and global well-being; and a negative association between the “protective” function and psychological and environment domains of quality of life. Conclusion : Interpretations of the results as well as their implications are discussed in the light of relevant literature.
Highlights
De qualquer forma, será interessante olhar para esta questão de uma outra perspetiva: indivíduos com pontuações elevadas nos domínios psicológico e ambiente da qualidade de vida terão menos probabilidade de se envolver no trabalho voluntário com a motivação de proteção
Com vista à retenção dos mesmos voluntários, garantindo a sua permanência nos serviços, serão igualmente estas motivações que devem ser preenchidas, para que se elevem os níveis de bem-estar psicológico e de qualidade de vida destas pessoas
Summary
No que concerne à caraterização da amostra relativamente às motivações para o voluntariado, os resultados indicam que a função valores é a mais valorizada pelos voluntários, seguindo-se a função experiência e a função crescimento/autoestima. Estes dados estão genericamente de acordo com os dados obtidos por estudos anteriores (Clary et al, 1998; Omoto & Snyder 1995; Sales, 2008), chamando a atenção para o facto de serem motivações como o altruísmo e a possibilidade de viver novas experiências as que mais se encontram subjacentes ao trabalho voluntário.
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