With Grief and Growth: Examining Volunteer Motivations and Their Relationships to Grief Intensity and Posttraumatic Growth

Engaging in volunteer work could be associated with posttraumatic growth (PTG). Investigating the associations among motivations to volunteer, PTG, and grief can help us understand how people cope with death. Volunteer functions theory posits six functions of volunteer motivations: protective, values, career, social, understanding, and enhancement. We studied the associations that each function has with grief intensity, PTG, and current volunteer status. Participants ( N = 187) with volunteer experience who experienced death completed an online study. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that grief intensity was associated with the protective function. PTG was associated with values and enhancement functions. Current volunteer status was associated with the career function. The findings suggest that grief intensity and PTG are related to some but not all motivations to volunteer, highlighting how the psychological experience of bereavement relates to motivations to engage in prosocial behavior.