Meaning in motion: How eudaimonic well‐being mediates between volunteering and physical activity

Abstract

As Europe faces the dual challenge of population ageing and rising healthcare expenditures, identifying low‐cost strategies to promote physical well‐being is critical. This study investigates whether eudaimonic well‐being mediates the relationship between volunteering and regular physical activity among older adults. Using cross‐national data from Wave 6 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, we estimate a mediation model combining the Baron and Kenny approach with parametric mediation decomposition and bootstrap replications. Volunteering is associated with roughly 9% higher odds of engaging in regular physical activity and a 0.18 standard deviation increase in eudaimonic well‐being. Mediation analysis indicates that, while modest, there is an indirect psychological pathway and that the direct behavioural effect predominates. A battery of selection‐on‐observables robustness checks, including propensity score matching, inverse probability weighting, doubly robust estimators and entropy balancing, confirms that this association is not driven by observable differences between volunteers and non‐volunteers. These findings suggest that structured volunteering can serve as a cost‐effective, non‐pharmaceutical lever for preventive health, enhancing social cohesion while supporting psychological flourishing. Incorporating volunteering opportunities into public health strategies could foster healthier lifestyles, slow functional decline and contribute to the sustainability of European healthcare systems.