What predicts Australian university students' intentions to volunteer their time for community service?

Abstract

University students represent one target population with great potential to serve as volunteers. The primary focus on describing the characteristics of students who choose to volunteer, however, has resulted in limited understanding of the psychosocial factors impacting on students' decisions to volunteer. To bridge this gap, we used an extension of a well-known theoretical framework, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), to predict students' intentions to volunteer for community service. Using content and thematic analysis, we explored also students' motivations and constraints for volunteering. Students (N = 235; M age = 22.09 years) selfreported their attitude, normative influences, control perceptions, moral obligation, past behaviour, demographic characteristics, and intentions for volunteering via questionnaire. Regression analyses showed that the extended TPB explained 67% of the variance in students' volunteering intentions. In qualitative analyses, themes primarily represented the factors contributing to low efficacy for volunteering (e.g., time constraints). Control perceptions and perceived moral obligations related to volunteering represent important future targets to encourage student volunteering for organisations providing critical services for those most in need.

Episodic Volunteering and Retention

“…At the individual level, volunteer's psychological processes (e.g., decision making) and behaviors are considered. Antecedent variables at this level include motives (Omoto & Snyder, 1995;Penner & Finkelstein, 1998), other's expectations or social norm for volunteering (Finkelstein, Penner, & Brannick, 2005;Hyde & Knowles, 2013), and connection to or concern about the community (Omoto & Snyder, 2002). Experience variables incorporate satisfaction with volunteering (Omoto & Snyder, 1995;Penner & Finkelstein, 1998) and commitment to the organization volunteered for (Penner, 2002), and consequences variables include volunteer retention (Snyder & Omoto, 2008).…”

Why mentor? A validation study of the volunteer functions inventory for use in youth mentoring

“…Other results presented here suggest that the traditional six‐factor VFI structure proposed by Clary et al (1998) and adopted by many others does not best describe the functional motivations of youth mentors. Findings may also raise questions about the applicability or the use of the VFI, as currently scaled, among the emerging adult volunteers more generally, as also noted by previous research (e.g., Francis, 2011; Hyde & Knowles, 2013). Still, some caution should be exercised in generalizing findings presented here to the broader mentoring population, given that the demographic composition of mentors in this study was predominately White, female, college students.…”

“…Related to this, respondents also distinctly recognized the reasonable or low time commitment (which is 1–2 hr a week) associated with the BBBS mentoring model. Given other research findings (e.g., Hyde & Knowles, 2013), this motivation may not be unique to mentors but may instead reflect the priorities within a high proportion of college student volunteers. Finally, in line with Francis (2011) findings that some young adults perceive volunteerism as “the normal thing to do,” 7.8% of respondents ( n = 37) seem to be motivated by a deeper sense of self‐concept in which volunteerism and/or giving back is a fundamental part of their identity.…”

“…For example, studies have applied the VFI to volunteerism in youth sports (Kim, Zhang, & Connaughton, 2010) and environmental conservation (Wright, Underhill, Keene, & Knight, 2015). Others have validated the instrument for use among particular demographic groups, including American (Francis, 2011), Chinese (Wu, Lo, & Liu, 2009), and Australian university students (Hyde & Knowles, 2013), as well as for older adults (Okun & Schultz, 2003; Okun, Barr, & Herzog, 1998) and retirees (Brayley et al, 2014). Similar to Clary et al (1998) other validation researchers have found issues with individual items and the overall factor structure of the VFI.…”

“…Notably, they highlight “community concern”—desire to demonstrate one's interest in and commitment to one's community—as an important volunteer motivation. Other work with university students indicates that researchers should also consider capturing motivations related to time constraints, control perceptions, and perceived moral obligations (Hyde & Knowles, 2013). Finally, Allison, Okun, and Dutridge (2002) have identified enjoyment, religiosity, and team building as additional motivations among volunteers for the Make A Difference community service program.…”