Development of an Instrument to Measure Volunteer's Motivation in Working with People with AIDS

Abstract

A scale, "Attitude Towards Volunteer Motivation," was developed to measure motivation of volunteers who work with people with AIDS (PWAs). Fifty five questions were initially determined to have content validity. They were then administered to a random sample of youth services volunteers (n = 150) and members of an AIDS volunteer organization (n = 247). Results of factor analysis produced five subscales. Reliability of the constructed scale was established. It was correlated with a theoretically related scale to establish construct validity. Results of this initial research are promising and suggest further testing of the instrument.

Volunteer Motivation, Satisfaction, and Management at an Elite Sporting Competition

“…Volunteers may be motivated by a variety of factors, both intrinsic and extrinsic (Duchesne, 1989;Cnaan & Goldberg-Glen, 1991 ;Perkinson, 1992;Parker, 1992;Schondel, Shields, & Orel, 1992). In a study of motivations for participating in a recreation-related voluntary zoological association, Caldwell and Andereck (1994) describe three categories of motivations or incentives for volunteering: purposive, solidary, and material.…”

“…Creating conditions conducive to satisfaction requires an understanding of the motivations, perceptions, and behavior of volunteers. This understanding has the potential to improve planning, management, and recruitment strategies for maintaining a strong volunteer base (Williams et al, 1995).Volunteers may be motivated by a variety of factors, both intrinsic and extrinsic (Duchesne, 1989;Cnaan & Goldberg-Glen, 1991 ;Perkinson, 1992; Parker, 1992;Schondel, Shields, & Orel, 1992). In a study of motivations for participating in a recreation-related voluntary zoological association, Caldwell and Andereck (1994) describe three categories of motivations or incentives for volunteering: purposive, solidary, and material.…”

Understanding and measuring AIDS-related stigma in health care settings: A developing country perspective

“…For example, of the six HIV-related instruments for the health care setting or health workers described in the van Brakel summary, only one had been developed in a developing country setting -Tanzania (Tanzania stigma-indicators field test group, 2005) 1 . A review of the five other published scales (Blumenfield et al, 1987;Dubbert, Kemppainen, & White-Taylor, 1994;Froman, Owen, & Daisy, 1992;Froman & Owen, 1997;Harrison, Fusilier, & Worley, 1994;Schondel, Shields, & Orel, 1992) reveals that the scales tend to focus on measuring (1) blaming attitudes toward people with HIV, such as that a person with HIV deserves to get the disease; (2) concerns related to casual contact, such as fears of touching people with HIV; and/or (3) general questions related to the provision of health care, such as whether the provider would be willing to offer equal quality of care to people with and without HIV.While each of these issues is important, the scales did not address a series of additional issues that may be particularly relevant in a health care setting with limited resources.The formative research (described below) highlights some of these issues.…”

In the Footsteps of Kurt Lewin: Practical Theorizing, Action Research, and the Psychology of Social Action

“…Thus, several people may all engage in the same form of volunteerism, say working side by side in a shelter for the homeless, but do so in the service of quite different motives, motives that can be identified and measured with inventories of volunteer motivations. In fact, inventories have been developed to assess motivations for volunteerism (e.g., Clary et al, 1998; Omoto & Snyder, 1995; Ouellette, Cassel, Maslanka, & Wong, 1995; Reeder, Davison, Gipson, & Hesson‐McInnis, 2001; Schondel, Shields, & Orel, 1992), and these inventories have revealed strong family resemblances in the motivations identified across distinct demographic groups of volunteers (e.g., Omoto & Crain, 1995; Reeder et al, 2001) who span a wide range of ages (e.g., Johnson, Beebe, Mortimer, & Snyder, 1998; Okun, Barr, & Herzog, 1998; Okun & Schultz, 2003; Omoto, Snyder, & Martino, 2000; Yates & Youniss, 1996), and who serve on behalf of a great variety of causes and concerns in many countries around the globe (for recent examples, see Chacon, Vecina, & Davila, 2007; Grube & Piliavin, 2000; Handy et al, 2000; Liu, Holosko, & Wing Lo, in press; Marta & Pozzi, 2008; Musick & Wilson, 2007; Penner, 2002, 2004; Wilson, 2000; Yates & Youniss, 1999).…”