Purpose: This study examined the impact of community service on latent deprivation and mental health of long-term unemployed receiving social assistance by using a two-wave quasi-experimental design with an untreated control group. According to the latent deprivation model, we hypothesized that unpaid participation in community service for the period of three months would alleviate the participants’ experience of latent deprivation and improve their mental health. Method: A total of 209 participants (105 in intervention and 104 in the control group; M_age = 44.7, SD = 10.47, 58.9% males) completed pretest and posttest measures. Results: Multivariate analysis of variance, followed by the analysis of variances and post-hoc group comparisons, revealed significant effects of the intervention on several dimensions of perceived latent deprivation, but not on the mental health of social assistance recipients. Conclusion: Community service might mitigate the lack of latent benefits of work associated with unemployment by enhancing time structure, regular social contacts, status, and collective purpose.

目的：本研究采用两波准实验设计和未经治疗的对照组，研究社区服务对接受社会援助的长期失业者的潜在剥夺和心理健康的影响。根据潜在剥夺模型，我们假设在三个月内无偿参与社区服务会减轻参与者的潜在剥夺经历并改善他们的心理健康。方法：共有 209 名参与者（干预组 105 人，对照组 104 人；M_年龄 = 44.7，SD  = 10.47，58.9% 男性）完成了前测和后测测量。结果：多变量方差分析，然后是方差分析和事后组比较，揭示了干预对感知潜在剥夺的几个维度的显着影响，但对社会援助接受者的心理健康没有影响。结论：社区服务可以通过加强时间结构、定期的社会联系、地位和集体目的来减轻与失业相关的工作潜在福利的缺乏。