The effects of marriage on volunteering and mental health: moderated mediation analysis

Past research has claimed that more volunteering experience could reduce an individual’s risk of depression. However, this conclusion may be too simplistic. This study aims to explore the effect of marriage within the complex relationships among volunteering, depression, and subjective well-being, which is utilized as the mediator. The 1,934 participants were randomly recruited from Taiwan. All the participants were asked to complete Subjective Well-Being Scale and Taiwan Depression Scale. The findings indicate that subjective well-being is a bridging-factor between volunteering and depression; whereas the model produces varied results according to marital status. For ‘single’ and ‘married’ people, subject well-being is a mediator, while for ‘never married’ people, that is a suppressor in the relationship between volunteering and depression. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013