How does Helping Behavior Influence the Subjective Well-being of Undergraduate Students?

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Page: 914-918

Anwesha Mohanty (Department of Psychology, Nayagarh Prajamandal Mahila College, Nayagarh, Odisha, Affiliated to Rama Devi Women’s University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha)

Life satisfaction is the reflection of the subjective well-being that the individual feels towards life, filled with both positive and negative events. Countless aspects like interpersonal relationships, health, career, finances, and emotions and mood influence subjective well-being. Another factor widely recognized as a contributor to subjective well-being is prosocial behavior characterized by voluntary actions intended to benefit others. Engaging in prosocial behavior fosters positive relationships as well as social cohesion and contributes to individual well-being (Li et al., 2023). The National Service Scheme (NSS) is a program introduced at the college and university level by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to make students conscious of their surrounding people’s needs and issues and develop a problem-solving attitude. Whether this prosocial attitude of NSS volunteers leads to the enhancement of their subjective well-being compared to their non-NSS counterparts is the objective of this study. Undergraduate students were recruited for the study through a convenient sampling method with an equal number of boys and girls from each group (NSS & non-NSS). Prosocial Behavior for Adults and the BBC Well-being scale were used for collecting responses. The correlation method and t-test statistical methods were used to analyze the results. The findings show a significant relationship between prosocial behavior and subjective well-being, while insignificant in terms of gender.