Giving for life
by Galen Buckwalter | October 16th, 2007Whether or not you recall it as being from the New Testament (Acts 20:35), most everyone has heard the maxim that it is better to give than to receive. A new study by Stephanie Brown (University of Michigan) suggests that, at least when it comes to social support, giving is in fact better than receiving. Particularly if living a long life is a goal you have.
These researchers evaluated retrospective data collected from 423 older married couples. Each husband was at least 65 when the study began in 1987 while the wives tended to be slightly younger. Over the course of 5 years, 134 individuals died. Regardless of gender, those who reported initially that they provided practical assistance (errands, housework, childcare) to people other than their spouse and those who gave regular emotional support to their spouses had significantly higher survival rates than those who did not provide such consistent social support. In marked contrast, those who received consistent social support showed similar death rates as those who were the recipient of little or no such support.
The statistical difference was maintained after controlling for individual differences in age, exercise, physical health, satisfaction with health, cigarette and alcohol use, mental health, and income. The findings were also independent of any personality measures. also held after controlling for differences in extroversion, agreeableness, feeling vulnerable to stress, and other personality measures.
Could it be that the most physically healthy people most often provide social support and they are the same one’s who live longer? Possibly. The researchers did a good job with statistical controls but a true longitudinal study is needed to be definitive.
But with an intervention such as giving, is there really any harm in trying it out? If it does work you will be ahead of the game if it is eventually proven to be a factor in longevity. And even if the recipient may not get the same advantage, my bet is they won’t complain. If they do, you may want to let them know how bad that is for their health.
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October 17th, 2007 at 12:13 am
I like the way you ended; it was a fun way to bring your point back home.
And who would have thought that giving is actually more benefitial than recieving. But my simple ways of attempting to see why, is actually very simple and maybe too simple. Yet, I think that a person who gives will learn to be efficient in maintaining their own needs, so there is that extra time available and needed to build up someone else who is lacking.
Now, it may be too simple to say a person who gives is more efficient than the one recieving. Yet they do have something about them….don’t they? Were they just born to be able to reach out and support a breaking heart? Are they just so intelligent, that they can side step hurt and seem to never fall down in emotional dispare?
Now, I think we need to remember that no one….NO ONE is able to live life without scarring and scrapes and broken bones. So side stepping hurt and breaking hearts is not really what they accomplished. I think they are able to recuperate enough to function….just to function. And then they strive for more as they learn from the hurt and anguish of others.
Yet, they don’t learn about anothers anguish or hurt by providing experimental road blocks and taking notes after setting a stage full of messes. NO…..they learn by being with the hurt and the broken and those that are in anguish. So their learning ground of understanding “I’ve got it easier then him” or learning ground of “wow, look how this was able to pull her out of a broken heart”……all that learning came while doing what is needed most for a broken heart……giving love.
Love heals them and love also teaches at the same time.
Isn’t love great???
October 17th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Dellma,
Thanks for all of your insightful comments.
I think a factor (emotion?) that seems to be present in all of the studies of positive health effects from what psychologists term “prosocial behaviors” is gratitude. There seems to be inherently positive about the simple act of of being thankful. How that gets translated into better health is one of those questions that may earn the person who answers it a trip to Stockholm.
Love is grand indeed!