Giving Back and Staying Put: Volunteering as a Stabilizing Force in Relocation.

Relocation in older adulthood has been shown to have health-related and environmental triggering factors. This study explores the relationship between volunteering in a community and relocation. Using data from 2008 and 2010 Health and Retirement Study, which included 9,220 community-dwelling older individuals who were 65 years and older, our findings show that volunteering significantly reduces the likelihood of relocating out of the area, and such relationship is partially mediated by having friends nearby. This study is innovative because it identifies a stabilizing mechanism important for understanding "protective" factors, such as volunteering, as a way communities can retain older adults.