Resilience in volunteers through COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 has changed the world on an unprecedented scale. While many societies have already established a “new normal”, this study aims to investigate the “bouncing back” from the effects of the pandemic, as well as the individual resilience in volunteers in the Singapore context. As volunteers, similar to those in the helping profession, are also vulnerable to burnout and compassion fatigue (Stamm, 2010), it is important to find out how to best support them throughout crisis. The relationship with other factors such as mindful self-care (Cook-Cottone, 2015) and volunteer motivations (Clary et al. 1998) were also investigated. A quantitative study with five measures was administered to 68 participants digitally. The relationship between all the variables was investigated, and while there exists some deviation from the literature, possibly due to cultural differences, results indicated that motivations, self-care, and emotional resilience are positively associated with post-traumatic growth. It is recommended that future research be conducted with a longitudinal mixed-methods design and that the integration of upskilling and bonding activities into existing volunteer management practices to allow for better engagement and retention of volunteers.