Changes in the Determinants of Volunteering: Participation and Time Investment Between 1975 and 2005 in the Netherlands

Abstract

Researchers have examined whether societal developments such as educational expansion, secularization, and changes on the job market affect levels of volunteering. We extend this research by studying the distribution of volunteering or possible changes in the way volunteering is determined. We found that volunteering has become more common among the economically inactive (pensioners and homemakers) at the expense of the employed. Furthermore, the relationship between church attendance and volunteering has become stronger; although volunteering has gone down in general, churchgoers increase their volunteering for religious organizations on average. The role of education has also changed: the differences between the lower and higher educated in their participation in volunteer work have virtually disappeared. The determinants of the time invested in volunteering have changed less and turn out to be entirely different from the determinants of participation. Explanations for these changes as well as their implications for research are discussed.

Churches: Lasting Sources of Civic Engagement? Effects of Secularization and Educational Expansion on Non-religious Volunteering in the Netherlands, 1988 and 2006

“…For instance, Van Ingen and Dekker (2011) found that only 28 % of the Dutch population is involved in volunteering in 2005, while our data show that more than 38 % of the Dutch are involved in volunteering for non-religious organizations in 2006. However, Van Ingen and Dekker use a sample drawn from the Dutch population of 12 years and older, while our data are gathered among people of 16 years and older.…”

“…In this way, our focus on volunteering for non-religious organizations has actually yielded somewhat different results than the earlier study by Van Ingen and Dekker (2011). They also studied the balancing effects of declining church attendance and educational expansion without, however, making a clear distinction between volunteering for secular and religious organizations or performing a counterfactual analysis.…”

“…But highly educated individuals are also more likely to interact with other highly educated individuals and to be part of social networks of like-minded individuals. Thus, since civic engagement is an important social norm among the highly educated, highly educated individuals are part of social networks that stimulate and reinforce their civic engagement (Gesthuizen et al 2008;Van Ingen and Dekker 2011). So, if the proportion of highly educated increases, social networks of like-minded, highly educated individuals will become more dense, which in turn increases the odds that highly educated individuals will get requests and feel peer pressure to actually become more involved in voluntary organizations.…”

“…This is for instance the case in the US (Jackson et al 1995;Putnam 2000;Putnam and Campbell 2010), in Canada (Berger 2006;Perks and Haan 2011) as well as in various European countries (Reitsma 2007;Ruiter and De Graaf 2006;Savelkoul et al 2011). In the Netherlands, the association between religious involvement and volunteering is also found (De Hart 1999), and according to Van Ingen and Dekker (2011), it has even become stronger between 1975 and 2005. However, in the Netherlands, there is something odd to this relationship between religious involvement and volunteering. For several decades now, Dutch society has witnessed a massive and ongoing process of secularization (Becker and De Hart 2006); a process that especially began to accelerate in the early seventies of the last century.…”

“…Previously, Van Ingen and Dekker (2011) also studied the possible counterbalancing effects of declining church attendance and educational expansion on volunteering in the Netherlands and found an increasing effect of church attendance, but a decreasing effect of education. However, in their study they did not clearly distinguish between volunteering for religious and nonreligious organizations, which may have affected their results.…”