Needs assessment on the well-being of university student volunteers: Towards a proposed online well-being program

• Main Author: Torres, Bon Homme Richard G.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2021
• Subjects: Well-being; College students—Health and hygiene; Volunteers—Health and hygiene; Needs assessment; Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/13279
• Institution: De La Salle University

Student volunteering promotes various personal and career related benefits among students but literature review shows limited research regarding the mental health and well-being aspects of the university student volunteers. The shift of the academic institutions to online learning due to the pandemic, has brought major changes and limitations of the volunteering opportunities for students. This needs assessment survey aimed to measure the student volunteers’ well-being using the PERMA model with its five components – Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationship, Meaning and Accomplishment. A total of 264 randomly selected student volunteers answered the PERMA Profiler online. Results reveal that the student volunteers have generally functional overall well-being and as well as across the five PERMA components of Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationship, Meaning and Accomplishment. Recommendations were provided for further research on student volunteer’s well-being across variables and comparison to non-volunteers. An online well-being intervention program was also recommended to continually support the well-being of student volunteers amidst the pandemic and online learning and volunteering set-up.