Who Will Volunteer? Religiosity, Everyday Racism, and Social Participation Among African American Men

Abstract

This study explores the relative importance of everyday racism, empathic concern, communalism, and religiosity as predictors of pro-social involvement (i.e., volunteerism and membership in political/social justice organizations) among a sample of African American men (N = 151). Church involvement emerged as a positive predictor of the likelihood that these men were involved in volunteer work as well as the number of hours that men dedicated to volunteer work. Communalism positively predicted the amount of time (in hours per year) that men were involved in volunteer work. Subjective religiosity and the stress of everyday racism were associated with a greater likelihood of being a member of a political-social justice organization. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Thriving Among African‐American Adolescents: Religiosity, Religious Support, and Communalism

“…Communalism is a traditional, core value within African-American communities (Mattis et al, 2004;Woods & Jagers, 2003). Communalism is defined as a belief in the interdependence of people and placing a value on social relationships (Boykin, Jagers, Ellison & Albury, 1997).…”

The Meanings and Manifestations of Religion and Spirituality among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Adults

“…However, the importance of religion in American life is also evident in the ways in which Americans incorporate religious and spiritual beliefs into everyday life. Religion and spirituality inform the content of Americans' political beliefs and their patterns of political participation (Calhoun-Brown 1996;Greenberg 2000;Harris 1994; Reese and Brown 1995;Wood 1999), and their level of engagement in pro-social activities (Hodgkinson, Weitzman, and The Gallup Organization 1996;Loveland et al 2005;Mattis et al 2004a;Wuthnow 1991). Religion and spirituality also guide the ways that people operate in the private spheres of life.…”

The Social Cost of Atheism: How Perceived Religiosity Influences Moral Appraisal

“…A fascinating set of experiments reveal a complex set of positive correlations between prosociality, better anger management, empatby, and willingness to belp witb measures of religiosity (Saroglou et al, 2005). Cburcb involvement by African American men is positively correlated witb likelibood of volunteering and also witb bours volunteered (Mattis et al, 2004). Religious participation or religious priming bas been sbown to facilitate pro-social bebavior in donations to cbarity (Picbon et al, 2007), cooperation in economic games (Sbariff and Norenzayan, 2007), and bonesty (Randolpb-Seng and Nielsen, 2007), eacb of wbicb can be regarded as morally virtuous bebavior.…”