The Obligation of Participation
Does Volunteering Positively Influence a Refugee’s Psychological Wellbeing?
Inan Eliza Schults
University of AmsterdamDate and Place: July 2018, Amsterdam Student number: 10187677
Program and track: Sociology; Migration and Ethnic Studies Supervisor: Agnieszka Kanas
Second reader: Thomas Leopold
Table of Contents
Abstract p. 3
1. Introduction p. 4
1.1. Refugees and Participation p. 4 1.2. Volunteerwork and Wellbeing p. 6
1.3. Volunteerwork p. 6
1.4. Psychological Wellbeing p. 7
2. Using Theory p. 8
2.1. Multiple Role Theories p. 8 2.2. Role Accumulation Theory p. 10 2.3. Social Integration and Intrinsic Motivation p. 12
2.4. Hypothesis p. 13 3. Research Design p. 14 3.1. Data collection p. 14 3.2. Sample p. 16 3.3. Independent Variable p. 18 3.4. Dependent Variable p. 18
3.5. Mediating and Moderating Variables p. 19
3.6. Additional Variables p. 20
4. Results p. 20
4.1. Main effects of Volunteerwork p. 20 4.2. Mediation Analyses Social Integration p. 21 4.3. Moderation Analyses Motivation p. 22
4.4. Explorative Analyses p. 25
5. Conclusion and Discussion p. 26
5.1. Conclusions and Alternative Explanations p. 26
5.2. Concluding Thoughts p. 29
Literature p. 30
Annex 1: Biographical Information Questionnaire p. 32 Annex 2: Self-Efficacy (GSES) Questionnaire p. 35
Annex 3: Stress (PSS) Questionnaire p. 36
Abstract
In this thesis the influence of performing volunteerwork on the psychological wellbeing of refugees was researched. Additionally, the possible mediating effect of social integration and moderating effect of intrinsic motivation on the relationship between volunteerwork and psychological wellbeing was investigated. Data was collected during training sessions of the foundation ‘Newbees’, commissioned by the municipality of Zaandam and specialized in matching refugees to volunteerwork (N = 26). Psychological wellbeing here was investigated using three different questionnaires, looking at self-efficacy (GSES), stress (PSS) and
neuroticism (SRQ). Results indicated that volunteerwork predicted a decrease in neuroticism and that this relationship was partially mediated by level of social integration. Neither significant effects of volunteerwork on self-efficacy or stress, nor a moderating influence of intrinsic motivation was found. Implications for further research and Dutch policy concerning obligatory participation for refugees are discussed.
Keywords: Volunteerwork, psychological wellbeing, refugees, self-efficacy, stress,
1. Introduction 1. 1. Refugees and Participation
Due to the increasing conflict in Syria and the ongoing violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Eritrea, the asylum influx in the Netherlands reached its’ all-time peak in 2015 with the coming of almost 59 thousand asylum seekers, breaking the record of 1994 in which more then 52 thousand people sought asylum in the Netherlands from the Yugoslavia crisis (Immigration- and Naturalization Service [IND], 2015). In the last two years these numbers have gradually declined, however still are considered quite high with an influx of more then 31 thousand asylum applications in 2017 (IND, 2017).
When a person seeks asylum in the Netherlands, his or her request is processed through the ‘Convention relating to the Status of Refugees’, a 1951 treaty from the United Nation on the basis of which an asylum seeker can acquire the status of refugee. The
Convention identifies a refugee as a person who has a 'well-founded fear' for persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a certain social group, and who is not protected in the country of origin (Central Bureau of Statistics [CBS], 2012). From the moment an asylum seeker acquires the status of refugee and is granted a residence permit in the Netherlands, a process of integration is initiated. This process entails learning the Dutch language, completing a civic integration test (which has to be passed within 3 years) and as of October 1st 2017 also partaking in a ‘Participation Statement trajectory’. This trajectory is offered by local municipality’s and involves getting acquainted with the so called Dutch core values of freedom, equality, solidarity and participation. It is completed by signing the ‘Participation Statement’, with which the refugee declares to have knowledge of the values and rules of Dutch society, that he/she respects these and actively wants to contribute to this society.
Aside from this individual responsibility to participate, local municipalities have been locally given the duty to actualize this participation among their citizens under the
‘Participation Law’, which came into effect in 2015. The aim of this law is to get as many people as possible, with or without working limitations, to participate on the Dutch labor market. After receiving their residence permit, refugees can apply for ‘bijstandsuitkering’, a social assistance benefit for residents in the Netherlands with low or little income. In
exchange, benefit recipients are required to actively look for employment or education, with the help and guidance of the municipality they live in. If recipients are not successful in finding a job or are not accepted to their field of education, municipalities are obliged on the
basis of the Participation law to demand a compensation for this social benefit, in the form of volunteerwork. In this way, the government wants social benefit recipients to keep carrying responsibility for and actively participate in Dutch society, as declared in their Participation Statement. In the case of refugees, the majority fails to instantly find paid employment or is not eligible for education and is fated to this latter compensation of volunteerwork. The Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics (2017) reports that after 18 months of receiving a residence permit, only 4% of refugees in the Netherlands has found a paid job.
Dutch municipalities seem to differ in opinion on the best way to approach the Participation law with regard to refugees. Where some commit their attention firstly to (language)education and secondly to the slow but sustainable outflow of refugees onto the labor market in the hope of acquiring them a qualitatively higher job, other municipalities carry out a more active approach by directly guiding refugees towards either paid- or voluntary work, even if the work is low-skilled. The municipality of Zaanstad adopts the latter approach and strives for instant integration of refugees through which they become a full part of society from the moment they arrive. They claim that through fast integration, we can make optimum use of a refugees’ potential so they can become a valuable part of the community, the term ‘we’ here referring to Dutch society (Uitvoeringsprogramma
Vluchtelingen, 2017). They argue that active participation not only contributes to an income but also to social network opportunities, personal development, a strong feeling of self-worth and an overall increase in psychological wellbeing (Uitvoeringsprogramma Vluchtelingen, 2017, p. 6). It is this last claim of the municipality of Zaanstad; an increase in psychological wellbeing through active participation in the form of volunteerwork, which will be the main focus of my thesis.
In acting on this active participation, municipalities collaborate with local foundations to help them guide refugees towards volunteerwork. In this thesis I will center my attention on such a foundation, namely the Dutch foundation ‘Newbees’ situated in the municipality of Zaanstad, at which refugees receiving a social assistance benefit but unable to find a job or suitable education, are guided towards and matched to volunteerwork. In collaboration with a researcher from the University of Utrecht, Newbees initiated an ‘impact measurement’, in which they map out the effects volunteerwork has on a refugee’s psychological wellbeing. As research assistant in this impact measurement I collected the data and used parts of it in this thesis.
1. 2. Volunteerwork and Wellbeing
An extensive amount of research has been conducted on the positive effects of volunteerwork on psychological wellbeing both in elderly populations (Greenfield & Marks, 2004) and in young-adults and middle aged (Binder & Freytag, 2013; Borgonovi, 2008), showing volunteers having higher scores on psychological wellbeing than non-volunteers and reporting lower scores on stress, depression and anxiety scales. One often-heard critique on these articles is the lack of longitudinal data, consequently resulting in an inability to draw causal conclusions. It is plausible that doing volunteerwork makes people happier and less stressed and anxious, however the results can also indicate that people who are inherently happier and less stressed or anxious are more likely to perform volunteerwork. To be able to draw causal references, longitudinal data containing several different times of measurement are required. This form of longitudinal research in the area of volunteerwork and consequent psychological wellbeing has been conducted a few times (Lum & Lightfoot, 2005; Piliavin & Siegl, 2007), showing the same positive effects as the ones mentioned above, thus concluding that doing volunteerwork indeed has a positive effect on psychological wellbeing over time. One important limitation of these longitudinal studies however, is its sole focus on elderly populations, failing to show if these longitudinal effects of volunteerwork also hold in different age groups. Furthermore, the vast majority of any research on the beneficial effects of volunteerwork (longitudinal or not) is focused on Western populations, ignoring the possibilities of cultural difference. Moreover, literature on refugees doing volunteerwork is even less available, if not non existent. I argue that if the Dutch government, in this case Zaanstad specifically, obliges refugees to actively participate by performing volunteerwork and claims that this is psychologically beneficial, scientific literature should be available to support this claim. Therefore, my main research question is as followed: Does performing volunteerwork have a positive influence on a refugee’s psychological wellbeing?
1. 3. Volunteerwork
One important clarification to make here, is what exactly can be considered ‘volunteerwork’. This designation is not clearly made by the municipality of Zaanstad, however inferring from their many reports on active participation and my own experience in working in the field, I would argue that they consider volunteerwork as non-salaried work in which some form of personal growth is accomplished and the gap between the refugee and the Dutch labor market is reduced. The fact that this volunteerwork is obligatory for refugees in order to compensate for their social assistance benefit, however, makes the term
‘voluntary’ quite contradictory. It would seem that the term ‘voluntary’ here does not necessarily refer to a non-obligatory nature of the work or voluntary choice, but to the fact that no remuneration is received for it. This broad usage of the word volunteerwork closely resembles the ideas of Cnaan and Handy (1996) in their work on the many different
definitions of the term ‘volunteering’ in which they state that “the term volunteer is used too broadly in denoting non-salaried service” (Cnaan & Handy, 1996, p. 364). In light of the research of my thesis, I believe the distinction here between obligated volunteerwork and voluntary volunteerwork work is very important, given that all previous research on the positive psychological effects of volunteerwork is focused on voluntary volunteerwork. Whether or not these beneficial effects hold true when in fact the volunteerwork is not voluntarily initiated, like in the case of refugees in Zaanstad, needs to be researched. If not the case, one could argue that this ‘fast integration’ is not so much beneficial for refugees, as it is to the municipality of Zaanstad itself, in the form of lower social support costs. In that case, we should wonder if not a slower integration approach like allocated in other
municipalities would be more appropriate, in which refugees are given the time to digest their lived trauma’s and the opportunity to develop better (language) skills, giving them a chance to prepare for a more high-skilled paid job.
1. 4. Psychological Wellbeing
Another concept that has to be defined is psychological wellbeing. Psychological wellbeing is a very subjective term and hard to capture in one definition, regularly being used in many different ways. Most simply it could be described as all mental features that
contribute to both subjective feelings of wellbeing as well as proper psychological
functioning. Based on the elaborate experience with refugees of the head researcher of the impact measurement and known previous research on the wellbeing of refugees, in this research project we used three different features of psychological wellbeing to paint a broad and divers picture of the concept, namely self-efficacy, neuroticism and stress. Firstly, we used the concept of self efficacy defined by Bandura as “judgments of how well one can execute courses of action required to deal with prospective situations” (1982, p. 122). When experiencing high levels of self-efficacy, people feel certain about their own abilities to produce and control events and capable of performing any given task in life. Raising self-efficacy is an often used method in the empowerment of refugees, in which the trust in one’s own ability to deal with continuing and forthcoming stressor is restored. As Sulaiman-Hill and Thomson describe in their research among Afghan and Kurdish refugees promoting
self-efficacy is a sustainable way to reduce psychopathology and increase rehabilitation factors among displaced populations (2013). A concept that elaborates on this concept of self-efficacy is self perceived stress, the second concept we used to depict psychological wellbeing. Whereas self-efficacy is the degree to which one is confident that he/she can handle a certain stressful situation, self perceived stress is the degree to which a situation is actually perceived as being stressful. Considering the possibly many stressful situations a refugee has had to endure, self perceived stress is a very important part of psychological wellbeing, creating both physical as psychological impairment and increasing negative sentiment. Thirdly, we used the concept of neuroticism to screen for psychiatric disturbance by focusing on physical neurotic symptoms. In this way we not only included mental expressions of psychological wellbeing, but also the physical utterance that can indicate deviation in psychological functioning. By using these three different expression forms of psychological wellbeing I believe we created a very diverse image, looking both at negative as well as positive indicators of psychological wellbeing.
2. Using Theory 2. 1. Multiple Role Theories
When discussing the topic of volunteerwork and its’ beneficial effects on psychological wellbeing, a great deal of literature addresses this phenomenon from the perspective of Multiple Role Theories. These type of theories approach volunteerwork as a specific social role, defined as: “a pattern of expectations which apply to a particular social position and which normally persist independently of the personalities occupying the position” (Sieber, 1974, p. 569). Early work on multiple roles adopts a scarcity
argumentation, claiming that the ability for a person to adopt different social roles in life is scarce and because of this scarcity, role strain takes place when too many different social roles are performed (Goode, 1960). From this perspective the more social roles adopted, the more role strain will occur, leading to a negative impact on the persons’ psychological wellbeing. This scarcity argumentation was quickly overthrown by the so called Role
Accumulation Theory developed by Sieber (1974), stating that ‘scarcity’ theorists had taken a
pessimistic standpoint in overestimating the strains that arise in adopting multiple social roles and that the accumulation of benefits far surpass and compensate for any strains brought about by performing multiple social roles. It is this Role Accumulation Theory that I argue can best be applied to illustrate the positive effect of volunteering on refugees’ psychological wellbeing. Arguing from Sieber’s standpoint of role accumulation, I believe especially the
population of refugees could benefit from this, due to their loss of social roles when fleeing from their country of origin. When arriving in the Netherlands many of these refugees have no family, friends, or work-related networks here, leaving them with very few social roles to benefit from. For this reason, I believe that adding the social role of volunteer worker could benefit them greatly.
Although Sieber argues that multiple role performance can have positive effects for the individual, he does not specify if there is a difference between different social roles in the level of influence. To be able to have a convincing argument about the positive effects of volunteerwork specifically, the distinction between volunteerwork and other forms of social activity or hobbies has to be made. Thoits (2003) adds a valuable argument to this field of theory, stating that social roles which are voluntary in nature such as friendships may have more positive effects for the individual than social roles that are more mandatory in nature, such as the role of a parent. This argument is based on the idea that voluntary roles carry a more intrinsic motivation than obligatory roles, and that intrinsic motivation is an important trait for the positive influence to occur. This theoretical addition is quite important if we consider the obligatory nature of the volunteerwork of refugees in Zaanstad. Based on the ideas of Thoits I would expect that the intrinsic motivation to perform the volunteerwork of refugees has an important moderating effect on the positive outcome on their psychological wellbeing. The fact that the volunteerwork is obligatory off course does not necessarily mean that refugees are not motivated to do so. The advantages of being active, practicing the language or meeting people could easily make them intrinsically motivated to perform the work.
Piliavin and Siegl (2015) nuance the distinction of voluntary and non-voluntary social roles that Thoits makes by arguing that social relationships like friendships are not by
definition voluntary in nature (for instance when feeling obligated to drive your best friend to the doctor or help her move), hence they only consider formal voluntary work as a
nonobligatory social role. They argue that a valuable field of knowledge to build on this distinction between voluntary and non-voluntary roles and the different effects they have on the individual, are the concepts of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being as described by Ryan and Deci (2001). In their work, Ryan and Deci state that the hedonic idea of wellbeing focuses on happiness, “in terms of pleasure attainment and pain avoidance” (Ryan & Deci, 2001, p. 141) and the eudaimonic idea of wellbeing focuses on “meaning and self-realization and defines well-being in terms of the degree to which a person is fully functioning” (Ryan & Deci, 2001, p. 141). They argue that when performing a social role that is mostly
self-oriented, like performing a hobby or meeting up with a friend for pleasure, the individual experiences a form of hedonic wellbeing. When performing a social role in which one is still intrinsically motivated yet more oriented towards the other person, like doing volunteerwork, one experiences a form of eudaimonic wellbeing. It is this eudaimonic wellbeing, which Piliavin and Siegl argue plays an important role in increasing psychological wellbeing while performing volunteerwork, as compared to non-formal voluntary work.
To explain the benefits of multiple social roles and specifically volunteerwork further, I will elaborate on the Role Accumulation Theory and illustrate why I believe it is applicable to this particular situation.
2. 2. Role Accumulation Theory
In theorizing his Role Accumulation Theory, Sieber (1974) distinguishes between four different positive outcomes of role accumulation that compensate for role strain, namely: role privilege, status security, status enhancement, and personality enrichment. I will further explain each of these outcomes and their applicability to my research.
Role privilege. The first positive outcome he mentions is role privilege, defined as
certain liberties or rights that ‘come with’ the role. Sieber argues that because they are independent of role performance, role privileges easily outweigh the cost of simply occupying the role. He illustrates this with the example of a citizen and the rights
accompanying this role, like the right of free speech or the right to public goods. Only being a citizen allows you these rights, your performance here plays no role. Applying this to my research, I would argue that being a volunteer gives refugees the right to work, a right to be treated as a worker, and a right to be seen as someone who contributes to this society, something that for many refugees is very hard to achieve. I argue that this right to add value to society can have a very positive effect on refugees’ psychological wellbeing.
Status security. The second positive outcome argued by Sieber is the effect of status
security through buffer roles. Multiple roles in different social contexts provide the person with buffer roles to fall back on when experiencing failure in one of the social arenas, thus creating status security. For example, when failing to meet your work demands, your role as a wife may provide you with a buffer to be able to cope with this failure, like in the form of moral support given by your spouse. In this way your overall status is secured by falling back on an alternative role in which your status is still intact. Family here is considered a primary
relationship, which naturally functions as a primary buffer under conditions of failure. Less often appreciated as buffers are secondary relationships, however, they too can serve as a safety net when experiencing failure. Sieber (1974) gives here the example of the person who loses him/herself in the life of partying, when experiencing family problems. He argues that in general, maintaining these different roles is relatively low in costs (in terms of role strain) in comparison to the gains they may provide as buffers and hence, status security. In the case of refugees, I believe that this status security through buffer roles can be a very important way in which volunteerwork has a positive influence on their wellbeing. As mentioned before, when arriving in the Netherlands most refugees have very little social roles to fulfill and hence have very few buffer roles to secure their own feeling of status with. When ‘failing’ in the social arena of being a Dutch citizen, for example when experiencing problems with finding a job, it is arguably much harder for them to deal with this without having their friends, family or colleagues present to fall back on. Adding just one role of volunteer worker could in this case be such a big difference for them to be able to cope with failure and have people around them to fall back on and in this way secure their feeling of status and positively influence their psychological wellbeing.
Status enhancement. Thirdly, Sieber talks about resources for status enhancement
compensating for role strain. Here, he is referring to the “non-institutionalized by-products of social relationship” (Sieber, 1974, p. 574). These outcomes may not be part of the role
descriptions, however they are perceived as customary by-products. This could be, for example, an expansion of your social network that may enhance career prospects, but also free use of the company car. Although these by-products may increase when role
performance is better they are not limited to that account, only being in this specific social role is enough. An important feature of these resources is the possibility of using them in other roles. For example, the sheer status gained by obtaining a management role at work might increase the odds of marrying someone of a higher class and vice versa. Coming back to my research, I believe that the most important resource in volunteerwork for status enhancement for refugees is the expansion of their social networks (both formal and informal). By getting to know more people, both formally and informally, and building up social relationships, their chances of finding a paid job will increase. I believe this possible prospect on a paid job, and the sheer status enhancement of becoming a ‘volunteerworker’ in stead of a person sitting at home, will have a positive influence on a refugees’ psychological wellbeing.
Personality enrichment. Lastly is the positive outcome of personality enrichment,
including “tolerance of discrepant viewpoints, exposure to many sources of information, flexibility in adjusting to the demands of diverse role-partners and reduction of boredom” (Sieber, 1974, p. 576), resulting in an increase in psychological wellbeing. In the case of refugees at work, this could be interpreted as for example familiarizing with Dutch people and their cultural habits and values through doing volunteerwork, and in this way enriching their personality with sometimes very deviant attitudes and perspectives than their own. Also reduction of boredom could likely be important, in terms of being something else than ‘a refugee’ for a change, and doing something else than staying at home all day. Diverse role fulfillment here can also be taken a step further than personality enrichment, creating ego gratification in a sense that the person in question feels capable, appreciated, or even needed by the different role partners which can induce an increasing feeling of pride and worth. This also could be very well applied to refugees, in a sense that through volunteerwork they will be able to make themselves feel useful, appreciated and even needed by their colleagues.
I argue that it is through these four positive outcomes that refugees’ psychological wellbeing will increase when doing volunteerwork.
2. 3. Social Integration and Intrinsic Motivation.
Aside from researching if volunteerwork actually has a positive influence on a refugees psychological wellbeing and taking the above elaborated on theory as a given
explanation, I will try to partly test these arguments made by Sieber (1974) by looking further into the mediating effects of status security and status enhancement. I argue that both these outcomes are based on a form of social integration, by expanding social ties and networks and will therefore combine them as a mediating factor of social integration.
My choice to not also test the constructs of role privilege and personality enrichment is twofold. Firstly, I believe both constructs are very difficult to specifically measure and capture, for their implicit nature (measuring feelings of ‘rights’ and ‘growth’ of personality). Secondly, in the case of personality enrichment I believe this construct strongly overlaps with psychological wellbeing, making it not a mediating factor but actually part of the dependent variable of psychological wellbeing, a variable that I will already measure.
Another focus I will add to my research is that on intrinsic motivation. As described above, this is based on the ideas of Thoits (2003) who states that voluntary social roles have more positive effects for the individual than social roles that are more mandatory. This argument is based on the idea that voluntary roles carry a more intrinsic motivation than
obligatory roles, and that intrinsic motivation is a crucial trait, for the positive influence to occur. In my case of refugees being obligated to do volunteerwork in Zaanstad, it would be plausible to assume that not every refugee will associate the volunteerwork as being
voluntary or feel intrinsically motivated to perform it. In this light I argue that intrinsic
motivation will have a moderating effect on the positive influence of volunteerwork, meaning that refugees who are more intrinsically motivated will experience a stronger positive
influence of volunteerwork on their psychological wellbeing compared to refugees who are less motivated.
2. 4. Hypotheses
Based on the variety of theory I have elaborated on, I arrived at the following hypotheses for my research project:
Hypothesis 1: Volunteering will have a positive influence on refugees’ feelings of
self-efficacy. Refugees will experience higher feelings of self-efficacy after starting volunteering.
Hypothesis 2: Volunteering will have a negative influence on refugees’ self-reported stress.
Refugees will experience lower levels of stress after starting volunteering.
Hypothesis 3: Volunteering will have a negative influence on refugees’ neuroticism.
Refugees will experience lower levels of neuroticism after starting volunteering.
Hypothesis 4: The relationships between volunteering and self-efficacy will be mediated by
level of social integration.
Hypothesis 5: The relationships between volunteering and stress will be mediated by
level of social integration.
Hypothesis 6: The relationships between volunteering and neuroticism will be mediated by
level of social integration.
Hypothesis 7: The relationships between volunteering and self-efficacy will be moderated by
level of intrinsic motivation.
Hypothesis 8: The relationships between volunteering and stress will be moderated by
level of intrinsic motivation.
Hypothesis 9: The relationships between volunteering and neuroticism will be moderated by
Mediating Variable
Dependent Variables
Independent Variable
Moderating Variable
Figure 1. Schematic representation of research hypotheses.
3. Research Design 3. 1. Data Collection
As described above, my thesis research was part of a bigger research project initiated by Newbees, to investigate the impact of volunteerwork on a refugees psychological
wellbeing. In this way, Newbees wants to analyze if their work – matching refugees to volunteerwork – really helps the refugees and adds value to their lives, in stead of only obeying to the demands of the municipality of Zaanstad. The entire impact measurement of Newbees will be done over a period of twelve months in which every month one day of measurement will take place. In my research I only used the data collected at the first three days of measurement, on March 12, April 16 and May 14, 2018.
At Newbees, every refugee follows a traineeship of two months in which three training sessions take place: at the beginning, after one month and after two months. Each month, a new group of 15 participants starts. In these training sessions together with a trainer, refugees are encouraged to think about their dreams and ambitions, talk about the problems they encounter being in an unfamiliar country and together try to think of a way to overcome
Volunteer
work
Self-Efficacy
Stress
Neuroticism
Social
Integration
Motivation
these. Also, they are made familiar with the concept of volunteerwork and together with the group and the trainer try to figure out in what way and why this could help them or be
beneficial in their lives. After the first training session, each refugee is matched to a volunteer job, which can range from working in a kitchen, being a guide to elderly people or children, helping a startup with building their website, or any other kind of volunteerwork. For the following two months the refugee works at this volunteer job, until the third and last training session. If the two-months traineeship is successfully completed, the refugees will acquire a certificate demonstrating their achieved goals. Thereafter, an evaluation interview will take place together with the refugee and the matcher of Newbees to determine whether or not the refugee wants to continue the volunteerwork or can be considered as ready for a paid job, at which point the municipality of Zaanstad will initiate a job-searching process.
To investigate the influence of volunteerwork on the psychological wellbeing of refugees, we adopted a quantitative approach by which data was collected through
conducting surveys at different moments in time. The survey consisted of two components. Firstly, a Biographical Information questionnaire was included, in which questions about the participants’ personal and professional background, social networks, daily stressors, and expectations and evaluations of the Newbees traineeship were asked. In this way I was able to control for several background variables in my analyses. The second part of the survey was concerned with the psychological wellbeing of the participants, broken down into three different questionnaires investigating self-efficacy, stress and neuroticism, which I will elaborate on when discussing my dependent variable.
As mentioned above, participants of the Newbees traineeship attended three training sessions, one before volunteering, one after 1 month of volunteering and one after 2 months of volunteering. At both the first and the second training session (so before and during volunteering) each participant took our survey. In this way, I was able to collect data from two participant groups at two moments in time, divided over three days of measurement. By using surveys, standardized data could be retrieved, allowing for easy comparison of the data obtained in the different moments in time. Using real-time survey collection, instead of existing databases was adopted for two reasons. Firstly, ready existent databases assessing volunteering of refugees in the Netherlands was scarce if not non-existent. Secondly, even if this data would have been available, these forms of research are often cross sectional, making it difficult to make any causal conclusions. By collecting psychological wellbeing data before and during the volunteering, I simulated a more experimental setting, giving me the
opportunity to draw more causal inferences. Also, it provided me with more up-to-date data on the subject, as compared to using datasets retrieved somewhere over the last twenty years.
3. 2. Sample
Due to my secondary role in this project I did not have an influence on the sample used. The eventual group that participated in this research was dependent on which refugees were referred to Newbees by the municipality of Zaanstad to be matched to volunteerwork. Moreover, the sample was influenced by whether or not a refugee responded to the invitation to participate in the traineeship and whether or not the refugee actually showed up. Although the volunteerwork is officially obligatory it is not always strictly enforced by the case
managers of the municipality, making it possible for a refugee to sometimes just not respond or show up. A consequence could be that the refugee is withheld from social assistance, but although this punishment is often used as threat, it is rarely executed. Eventually all the refugees are matched to volunteerwork, but resistance and eluding behavior sometimes results in a delay. In this way the obligatory nature of the volunteerwork did control for the effect as describes by Thoits and Hewitt (2001), suggesting that people with higher
psychological wellbeing are more inclined to seek volunteerwork.
Although my collaboration with Newbees allowed me easy access to my sample of study, it also complicated obtaining a large sample size. In theory, the Newbees traineeships starts once every month consisting of 15 refugees per group, taking into account the necessity of two moments of measurement, this would have resulted in my sample size of 30
participants, of which all refugees started a volunteer job after the first training session. Although we anticipated on many participants canceling at the last minute or not showing up by inviting more people then the capacity of 15, the percentage of no-shows in Group 1 was still quite high. Resulting in a sample size of 10 participants (in stead of 15) who could be measured at their first training, of which 7 were successfully matched and completed the second measurement at their second training. Group 2 had a much higher attendance, resulting in a sample size of 23 participants at their first training, of which 21 were
successfully matched and completed the second measurement at their second training. In the end, the biggest problem appeared to be matching all these 33 participants to volunteerwork after their first training session. When matching a participant to volunteerwork a considerable amount of custom work is necessary to ensure a good fit, in terms of fulfilling personal interests, time format when combining it with language courses, possibility of personal growth and of course also approval of the employer. Due to these requirements and despite of
the hard work of the matchers at Newbees, not all participants were matched to
volunteerwork directly after the first training session, resulting in a sample of 28 participants which could be measured before and during performing volunteerwork. The number of participants that were present at the three trainings and which measurement they completed is depicted below in Table 1.
Note: M = measurement completed
Of these 28 participants who were matched and who completed the two measurements, two were excluded because they were not able to adequately fill in the surveys, due to language deficiencies. The sample eventually amounted to a total of 26 participants (50% woman, M age = 32.0 years, SD = 11.18, range = 19 - 57 years). Participants were predominantly Syrian (92,3%) and had been in the Netherland for an average of 29 months (SD = 11.55, range = 8 - 52 months).
The reason not to include a control group is twofold. Firstly, the research was initiated directly from practice, meaning that the intervention tested was not developed for this
research but is an existing traineeship. In this way the research was not an experimental set up, making it impossible to change anything about the construct. Moreover, the fact that the volunteerwork is obligatory and commissioned by the local governments makes it impossible to assign a certain group of refugees to not take part in any traineeship or volunteerwork. Secondly, even if it were possible to use a control group, in my opinion this would be unethical, by not helping a certain group of refugees to valuable volunteerwork, social contacts, job opportunities and so on.
Table 1.
Number of Participants Present at the Trainings and Completed Measurements
Group 1 Group 2 Training M 1 M 2 M 1 M 2 1. 10 - - - 2. - 7 23 - 3. - - - 21 Total 7 21
3. 3. Independent Variable
All 26 participants were assigned to volunteerwork after the first training of the traineeship and continued doing this work for the subsequent month. Some important requirements taken into account by Newbees while assigning the refugees to volunteerwork were: working in a team, working with Dutch-speaking co-workers and working in a field related to the refugees’ interests. In this way it was made sure that refugees would have a valuable experience while doing the volunteerwork.
3. 4. Dependent Variable
As previously elaborated on, psychological wellbeing was operationalized using three different constructs, each shining light on a different part of psychological wellbeing,
namely: self-efficacy, stress and neuroticism. To measure these constructs, three
questionnaires were used, namely: The General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20). All three questionnaires were selected using the following criteria: practicable for the population of refugees, often used in comparable international research, elaborately validated, available in different languages and receptive to small changes in values (making sure that every small difference in psychological wellbeing will be visible in the data). Below I will further explain the application and interpretation of these questionnaires.
GSES. Self-efficacy is defined as judgments of how well one can execute courses of
action required to deal with prospective situations (Bandura, 1982). The GSE assesses self-efficacy, and is correlated to emotion, optimism and work satisfaction (Schwarzer &
Jerusalem, 1995). It consists of 10 items asking the participants to what extend they perceive these statements to be true in their own life. Statements like for example: ‘I can always manage to solve difficult problems if I try hard enough’. The participants can answer on a 4-point scale, the total score ranging between 10 and 40, with a higher score indicating higher levels of self-efficacy (α = .82).
PSS. The PSS used is the PSS 4-item, a shortened version of the original 10-item
survey, however still proven a very reliable and validated measurement. The PSS is
“designed to measure the degree to which situations in one’s life are appraised as stressful” (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983, p. 385), asking the participants to indicate how
often they felt or thought a certain way in the last month on a 5-point scale. For example, asking about controlling important things in one’s life, or being confident to handle personal problems. The total score ranges between 0 and 16, with a higher score indicating higher levels of stress (α = .76).
SRQ-20. The SRQ-20 was developed by the World Health Organization “as an
instrument designed to screen for psychiatric disturbance, especially in developing countries” (Beusenberg & Orley, 1994, p. 1). The questionnaire consists of 20 items relating to neurotic symptoms, asking the participant to indicate if a given pain or problem has bothered them in the last month, the answer possibilities being either ‘1’ (this has bothered me in the last month), or ‘0’ (this has not bothered me in the last month). Questions like for example: ‘Do you often have headaches?’, or: ‘Do your hands shake?’. The total score can range from 0 to 20, a score of 0 indicating a low level of psychiatric disturbance, and a score of 20 indicating a high level of psychiatric disturbance (α = .81).
3. 5. Mediating and Moderating Variable
To assess the mediating effect of social integration I looked at a combination of four items from the Biographical Information questionnaire, namely items 10, 11, 12 and 13 from the Personal Information section, asking: ‘How many times in the last three months have you had a friendly meet-up with a Dutch native/ fellow newcomer (not work related)’, and: ‘How many times in the last
three months have you had work-related contact with a Dutch native/ fellow newcomer’. The participants could answer these questions using a 3-point scale translated into: ‘less than 10 times’, ’10 – 20 times’, more than 20 times, with total scores ranging from 4 to 12 points, a higher score indicating a higher level of social integration (α = .73). I argue that both an increase in contact with fellow refugees and Dutch natives expands social capital and thus social integration. By comparing different levels of social integration I will draw conclusions on the mediating influence of social integration on the effect of
volunteering on psychological wellbeing of refugees.
I will address intrinsic motivation by looking at item 1 from the Expectations section of the Biographical Information survey, asking: ‘How motivated are you to start this
Newbees traineeship’, with five answer options ranging from ‘not motivated at all’ to ‘highly motivated, scores ranging from 0 to 4. By comparing different scores on this item I will look
at the possible moderating influence of intrinsic motivation on the effect of volunteering on psychological wellbeing of refugees.
3. 6. Additional Variables
In order to make interpretation and comparison more easily possible, control variable age, measured on a continuous basis, was divided into three categories. The cut-off scores were determined based on similar previous research of Petry (2002), namely: young adults (18 - 35 years), middle-aged adults (36 - 55 years), and older adults (above 55 years).
4. Results 4. 1. Main Effects of Volunteerwork
Paired-samples t-tests were used to determine whether there were statistically significant mean changes between self-efficacy, stress and neuroticism scores after
participants started performing volunteerwork compared to before starting volunteerwork. No outliers were detected in the data, as assessed by inspection of three boxplots for values greater than 1.5 box-lengths from the edge of the box. Descriptive statistics and t-test results are depicted in Table 2.
Table 2.
Descriptive Statistics and t-test Results for Self-Efficacy, Stress and Neuroticism (N = 26)
Before Volunteering
During
Volunteering 95% CI for Mean Difference
Outcome M SD M SD t df
Self-Efficacy 27.42 3.77 28.08 4.22 -.52, 1.82 1.15 25
Stress 11.08 3.08 10.46 2.63 -2.06, .83 -.87 25
Neuroticism 9.12 3.30 6.35 2.83 -4.08, -1.46 -4.36* 25
Note: M = mean, SD = standard deviation.
* p < .05
Self-Efficacy. The assumption of normality was not violated, as assessed by
Shapiro-Wilk's test (p = .339). Participants scored higher on self-efficacy after starting volunteerwork (M = 28.08, SD = 4.223) as opposed to before doing volunteerwork (M = 27.96, SD = 4.133),
however, this mean increase of .12, 95% [CI -1.074, 1.304] was not significant, t(25) = .200, p = .843. These results did not change after controlling for gender and age group. Hypothesis 1 was not supported.
Stress. The assumption of normality was not violated, as assessed by Shapiro-Wilk's
test (p = .518). Participants scored lower on stress after starting volunteerwork (M = 10.46, SD = 2.626) as opposed to before doing volunteerwork (M = 11.08, SD = 3.084), however, this mean decrease of .62, 95% [CI 2.065, 0.835] was not significant, t(25) = -.874, p = .390. These results did not change after controlling for gender and age group. Hypothesis 2 was not supported.
Neuroticism. The assumption of normality was not violated, as assessed by
Shapiro-Wilk's test (p = .326). Participants scored lower on neurotic symptoms after starting volunteerwork (M = 6.27, SD = 2.631) as opposed to before doing volunteerwork (M = 9.54, SD = 3.252), a statistically significant mean decrease of -3.27, 95% [CI -4.809, -1.730],
t(25) = -4.374, p < .05. These results did not change after controlling for gender. After
controlling for age-group, however, the statistically significant mean decrease disappeared in the age-groups middle-aged adults and older adults and was only upheld in the young adults age-group with a decrease of -2.30, 95% [CI -3.842, -.758], t(19) = -3.122, p < .01.
suggesting that only young adults would benefit from volunteerwork in terms of neuroticism.
4. 2. Mediation Analyses Social Integration
Because both Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 2 were not supported, indicating no significant effect of volunteerwork on neither self-efficacy nor stress, the possibility of social integration as a mediating factor, which can only occur if a significant effect between
outcome and predicting variable is apparent, was eliminated. Hypothesis 4 and 5 were not supported.
Neuroticism. Based on the literature of Cole and Maxwell (2003) on testing
mediation with more than one time of measurement, the bootstrapping approach of Preacher and Hayes (2004) was used to test the expected mediation of social integration on the effect of volunteerwork on neuroticism, which has been shown especially effective with rather small sample sizes. For this, the four assumptions of Baron and Kenny (1986) for mediation were tested. The results of the mediation regression analyses are depicted in Table 3.
Table 3.
Mediation Effect of Social Integration on the Relationship between Volunteerwork and Neuroticism (N = 26)
Regression paths B se t p
Mediation a path (Volunteerwork on Social Integration) .32 .12 2.74 < .05 Mediation b path (Social Integration on Neuroticism) -.53 .26 -2.04 .053 Total effect, c path (Volunteerwork on Neuroticism; No mediator) -.62 .16 -3.94 < .001 Direct effect, c’ path (Volunteerwork on Neuroticism; including
Social Integration as mediator)
-.45 .17 -2.66 < .05
Indirect effect bootstrapped (c – c’) with bootstrapped 95% CI -.17 [-.57, -.02]
Note. B = unstandardized coefficient; CI = confidence interval.
A regression analyses showed that doing volunteerwork had a significant negative influence on neurotic symptoms without social integration as mediator, B = -.62, p < .001, and that volunteerwork had a significant positive influence on social integration, B = .32, p < .05. In addition, regression analyses showed a marginal significant negative effect of social integration on neuroticism, B = 0.52, p = .053. When controlling for social integration in the effect of volunteerwork on neuroticism, the effect remained, however did decrease in
strength, B = -.45, p < .05, indicating a possible partial mediating effect of social integration. The bootstrapped confidence interval substantiated this idea, indicating a significant indirect effect of social integration on the effect of volunteerwork on neuroticism [CI -.57, -.02], based on the rule of thumb that if the bootstrapped confidence interval of the indirect effect does not include zero, then criteria for mediation have been met (Preacher & Hayes, 2004). Controlling for neither gender nor age had any effect on these results. Hypothesis 6 was partially supported.
4. 3. Moderation Analyses Intrinsic Motivation
Similar to the mediation analyses, the bootstrapping approach of Preacher and Hayes (2004) was used to test the expected moderation effect of intrinsic motivation on the effect of volunteerwork on self-efficacy, stress and neuroticism, depicted in Table 4. Again,
controlling for gender or age did not have any significant influence on the results. For further investigation, the conditional effects of volunteerwork on self-efficacy, stress and
Table 4.
Moderation Effects of Motivation on the Relationship between Volunteerwork and Self-Efficacy, Stress and Neuroticism (N = 26)
Variables B se t p
Motivation on Self-efficacy .22 .54 .41 .69 Volunteerwork on Self-efficacy .16 .16 .97 .34 Motivation * Volunteerwork on Self-efficacy .02 .14 .18 .85
Motivation on Stress -.48 .32 -1.50 .15
Volunteerwork on Stress -.37 .43 -1.39 .21 Motivation * Volunteerwork on Stress -.03 .11 -.25 .80 Motivation on Neuroticism -.63 .39 -1.61 .12 Volunteerwork on Neuroticism -.54 .26 -2.10 < .05 Motivation * Volunteerwork on Neuroticism .01 .20 .06 .95
Note. B = unstandardized coefficient; se = standard error
Self-Efficacy. A regression analysis showed that neither intrinsic motivation (B = .22,
p = .69) nor volunteerwork (B = .16, p = .34) had a significant effect on self-efficacy. The
regression analysis also showed that the interaction between motivation and volunteerwork on self-efficacy was not significant, indicating that intrinsic motivation did not have a moderating influence on the relationship between volunteerwork and self-efficacy (Preacher & Hayes, 2004) When looking at the simple slopes for volunteerwork predicting self-efficacy at different levels of motivation (conditional effects), no significant result was found.
Hypothesis 7 was not supported.
Stress. A regression analyses showed no significant effect of intrinsic motivation (B =
-.48, p = .15) or volunteerwork (B = -.37, p = .21) on stress. In addition, the interaction effect between intrinsic motivation and volunteerwork on stress was also not significant (B = -.03, p = .80), showing no moderating effect of intrinsic motivation on the relationship between volunteerwork and stress. Simple slopes did not indicate any significant difference in effect between low, average and high levels of motivation. Hypothesis 8 was not supported.
Neuroticism. Results indicated that volunteerwork was a significant negative
predictor of neuroticism, B = -.54, p < .05. Neither motivation nor the interaction between motivation and volunteerwork showed a significant effect on neuroticism, eliminating the
possibility of a moderating effect of intrinsic motivation. Hypothesis 9 was not supported. However, when looking at the simple slopes for volunteerwork predicting neuroticism at different levels of motivation, results showed that an average level of motivation and a high level of motivation did have a significant moderating influence on the negative effect of volunteerwork on neuroticism, indicating that if all participants would score average or high on motivation, they would experience a stronger negative effect of volunteerwork on neurotic symptoms than if all participants would score low on motivation. These simple slope results are depicted in Figure 2.
Table 5.
Conditional Effects of Volunteerwork on Self-Efficacy, Stress and Neuroticism, at low, average and high Levels of Motivation.
Variables Motivation B se t p Self-Efficacy low .12 .25 .48 .63 average .16 .16 .97 .34 high .19 .25 .76 .45 Stress low -.08 .23 -.31 .41 average -.10 .19 -.49 .24 high -.17 .26 -.69 .11 Neuroticism low -.56 .50 -1.11 .28 average -.59 .26 -2.10 < .05 high -.65 .21 -2.49 < .05
Note. B = unstandardized coefficient; se = standard error
Note. Low motivation = one standard deviation below mean, average
motivation = mean motivation, high motivation = one standard deviation above mean.
Figure 2. Simple slopes of the moderating effect of low, average and high levels of
motivation on the relationship between volunteerwork and neuroticism.
4. 4. Additional Analyses
Correlations. Because Hypothesis 1 and 2 were not supported, indicating no
significant effect of volunteerwork on self-efficacy and stress, several additional analyses were done to gain further insights in the data.
Self-efficacy. A Pearson's correlation was run to assess the relationship between social
integration change and the change in self-efficacy between measurement one and two. Preliminary analyses showed the relationship to be linear with both variables normally distributed, as assessed by Shapiro-Wilk's test (p > .05), and there were no outliers. No significant correlation was found. The same correlation test was run using not the social integration change between measurement one and two, but the social integration score at measurement one. Here, a moderate negative correlation was found between social
integration score at measurement 1 and change in self efficacy, r(25) = -.392, p < .05, with social integration score explaining 15% of the variation in change in self-efficacy. Indicating
that a lower score on social integration at measurement one was moderately correlated with an increase in self-efficacy.
Stress. To assess the relationship between social integration change and the change in
stress between measurement one and two and the relationship between social integration score at measurement 1 and the change in stress, the same two Pearson correlation analyses as with self-efficacy were executed concerning stress, however, both tests showed no significant relation between social integration and stress.
5. Conclusion and Discussion 5.1. Conclusions and Alternative Explanations
Based on these findings my conclusions are as followed. Results partly support the previous findings of the positive influence of volunteerwork on psychological wellbeing (Greenfield & Marks, 2004; Binder & Freytag, 2013; Borgonovi, 2008), showing in line with expectations that neuroticism in refugees significantly decreased after they started performing volunteerwork. This positive influence of volunteerwork was also found in measures of self-efficacy and stress. Self-self-efficacy increased in refugees after starting volunteerwork as compared to before starting volunteerwork, likewise, stress decreased in refugees after starting volunteerwork, however, both these effects were not found to be significant. Several explanations can be given for this.
Firstly, the size of the sample used may play a very important part here. Because of time limits and the intensive individual attention needed in the matching process, it was not possible to measure more than 26 refugees both before volunteering and during volunteering in the timespan of three months. Previous studies showing significant positive effects of volunteerwork on psychological wellbeing were able to use much larger sample sizes. It is plausible that the positive effects of volunteerwork on self-efficacy and stress that were found in this study did not show to be significant because the sample used was too small. The Newbees impact measurement, which this research was part of, will continue on for at least a year, with an anticipated sample size of at least 150 refugees, it will be interesting to see if the main effects of volunteerwork on self-efficacy and stress will be found to be significant when a much larger sample size is used.
Another explanation for the absence of a significant positive influence of
volunteerwork on self-efficacy and stress could be that the time-period of two months in which the research was conducted was too short for any significant change to occur. Previous research on the positive outcomes of volunteerwork in which participants are measured at several moments in time used measurement points much further apart, measuring sometimes even spread over several years (Lum & Lightfoot, 2005; Piliavin & Siegl, 2007). The time period of one month of volunteering, on which this research is based, could be concluded to be too short to induce significant psychological benefit. Linking back to the Role
Accumulation Theory, it is plausible that in a month time refugees did experience an expansion of their social roles by performing volunteerwork, but that the positive outcomes accompanying this expansion take longer to develop. For instance, when looking at the positive outcome of role privilege and personality enrichment a refugee might not have done that much work yet to actually feel that they have contributed to society, or experience ego-gratification from achieving something, because they have only just started doing the work. Moreover, when looking at the positive outcomes of status security and status enhancement, creating both informal and formal networks that can serve as buffer roles or as step up to a paid job takes time in which social relationships and trust have to be build. A month may very well be to short a period to develop such bonds, especially concerning refugees, for whom this process might even take longer due to cultural and language barriers.
The obligatory nature of the volunteerwork could also play an important role in the absence of significant effects of volunteerwork on self-efficacy and stress. In all previous studies discussed self-selected samples were used, in which only participants who personally wanted and were motivated to perform volunteerwork were included, biasing positive
findings. The current research was performed in the unique situation in which volunteerwork was obligatory, including also refugees who were not personally motivated, creating a much more divers sample. Although this sampling controlled for selection bias, in this way it also negatively influenced the measured effects of volunteerwork on psychological wellbeing, reducing the volunteerwork to involuntary non-salaried work, as described by Cnaan and Handy (1996). Although role accumulation might occur, the positive outcomes
accompanying this role of volunteerworker might not, due to feelings that a refugee is not doing this work to benefit themselves, but only to stay out of trouble and not lose their social benefit. This is greatly concurrent to the ideas of Thoits (2003), who states that social roles which are mandatory in nature carry much less positive effects for the individual than social roles which are voluntary in nature. Although the obligatory nature could be a problem, this
does not explain why then psychological wellbeing in the form of neuroticism did improve after starting volunteerwork. Research comparing voluntary volunteerwork and obligated volunteerwork and their effects on psychological wellbeing would be necessary to further investigate this distinction and the different effects they could have.
The fact that neuroticism did decrease could indicate that these forms of symptoms are more easily prone to change than symptoms of stress or feelings of self-efficacy, possibly because the researched neurotic symptoms were much more physically based (questions about headaches, shaking hands, appetite), as compared to the researched stress symptoms and self-efficacy indications, which were much more mentally based (questions about choices and state of mind). Arguably physical outings of psychological wellbeing are more easily changeable than mental ones. In addition, considering the positive outcomes of role accumulation, it could be possible that only the first senses of being able to go to work the first time (role privilege), meeting new people (status enhancement and security) and having a complete new experience (personality enrichment) have a positive influence on any
physical complaints, but only the more developed phases of adding value (role privilege), developing buffer roles and status (status security and enhancement) and developing new knowledge (personality enrichment) can have an influence on the more deep-rooted mental outings of stress and feelings of self-efficacy. In future research it would be interesting to investigate if different forms of psychological well-being undergo different levels of influence from volunteerwork and what mechanisms may play a part in this.
One note to be made here is that the decrease in neuroticism was only detected in the young-adult group and not in the middle-age or old-age group, which would indicate that this effect would only hold up in young-adults. I argue, however, that these results should be taken with great care due to the very small sample sizes in the groups middle-aged adults (N = 4) and older adults (N = 2) and for this reason I will withhold from making any conclusions based on these results.
Concurring with the research of Piliavin and Siegl (2007) results showed a partial mediating effect of social integration on the relationship between volunteering and psychological wellbeing, in this case neuroticism, indicating that refugees experience an increase in psychological wellbeing after starting volunteerwork partly because their level of social integration increases. This is greatly in line with the ideas of status security and status
enhancement as elaborated on in the Role Accumulation Theory, which describe the
development of informal and formal networks as one the ways in which adding an extra social role can be beneficial for an individual.
In contrast to the ideas of Thoits (2003), who states that stronger feelings of intrinsic motivation elicit more positive effects of volunteerwork on the individual, no moderating effect of intrinsic motivation was found on the relationship between volunteerwork and the three concepts of psychological wellbeing, indicating that the level of motivation did not have an effect on how strong the influence of volunteerwork on neuroticism was. Results, however, did show that if the entire sample would have scored high on motivation, the effect of volunteerwork on neuroticism would have increased, which could indicate that motivation does have a moderating effect, but that the sample size used was too small to detect this.
Finally, a general limitation that should be identified is the fact that the findings are based on a sample that was very homogeneous in descent, in which 24 of the 26 participants originated from Syria. For this reason, the research results are only generalizable to the specific population of Syrian refugees. Although at the moment the biggest population of refugees in the Netherlands is indeed Syrian, making these results still very useful for this particular research, the results should be interpreted with care when applying it to other refugee population groups. For future research it would be advised to use a sample that is more divers in terms of origin, to make generalization to the entire population of refugees possible.
5. 3. Concluding Thoughts
All taken together, the current research suggests that volunteerwork has a positive influence on the psychological wellbeing of refugees, at least in the form of a decrease in neurotic symptoms. The fact that this result was found concerning obligatory volunteerwork, as well as in the population of refugees, offers a valuable addition to the existing field of research. The reinforcing effect of social integration on this relationship offers an interesting validation of the applicability of the Role Accumulation Theory of Sieber (1974) to this field of study, showing the importance of social networks in the lives of refugees. However, further research is crucial to be able to conclude if other components of psychological wellbeing in refugees indeed do not significantly change after performing this kind of
volunteerwork, or if these results are due to the limitations of the current research. Only then, I believe, will it be possible to provide a substantiated advice towards local municipalities in the Netherlands concerning the possible added value of active participation in the form of obligated volunteerwork on the psychological wellbeing of refugees.
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