Using the caregiver system model to explain the resilience-related benefits older adults derive from volunteering

Resilience can be conceptualized in several different ways. One view of resilience is that it represents the capacity, in the face of stressful and traumatic circumstances, (a) to bounce back and (b) to sustain oneself. In the present chapter, we focus on stress regulation and risk of mortality as markers of the bounce-back and sustainability components of resilience, respectively. Our central thesis is that providing support to another person (helping behavior), whatever its effect on the recipient, can promote the resilience-related resources of the helper (S. Brown & Brown, 2006).