Channeling Youth toward Volunteerism: A Model of Enduring and Mediating Influences

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Moral Development

Abstract

As an extracurricular activity, adolescent volunteerism supports both instrumental and sociomoral goals (Hart & Sulik, 2014). Adolescents and youth gain practical, career-related skills and endorsements from institutions for college and job applications as well as develop an inclusive world view, empathic concern for others, moral identity, and a sense of commitment to the betterment of society (Mastuba, Myrzyn, & Hart, 2014). To date, scholars’ approaches to uncovering the mechanisms that lead youth to volunteer service have included a focus on the role of socio-structural factors (income and educational attainment), relationships with parents, personal attributes, and experiences to predict volunteerism in the present and future. Pancer and Pratt (1999) proposed that these factors have roles that both initiate into and maintain youth’s commitment to community service Hart et al. (2006) organized these factors into a model in which enduring influences (relatively stable characteristics of individuals’ personality and social context) and mediating influences (qualities or experiences unique to individuals) promote and sustain adolescent community service. In the present study, we utilized Mastuba et al.’s framework to guide our model. As enduring influences, we examined parent income and educational attainment, parental warmth, and parents’ volunteer activity (current frequency and years of activity). As mediating influences, we assessed adolescents’ participation in student activities and perceptions of past positive experiences. In sum, we expected that the enduring influences would predict mediating influences, which in turn, would predict adolescents’ current frequency and future willingness to volunteer.
Method
The sample was comprised of 307 dyads comprised of late-adolescents (MAge = 18.57, SD = .87, 80.1% female) and their most involved parent (MAge = 49.58, SD = 6.12; 88.6% mothers). Participants completed a battery of questionnaires online (Qualtrics) as part of a larger study. For the present investigation, adolescents reported on their parents’ income, educational attainment, warmth, student organization participation, experiences with volunteering, frequency of current volunteering, and willingness to volunteer in the future.
Results and Discussion
Bivariate analyses are presented in Table 1. In brief, adolescents’ frequency of volunteering and willingness to volunteer in the future was generally positively related to the enduring and mediating variables -- most of which were positively intercorrelated. Figure 2 presents the hypothesized model. Fit indices were acceptable thereby supporting our proposed model. Our model implies that socio-structural factors may be the first step in a process that channels youth toward community service. Findings showed that socio-structural qualities (parent income and educational attainment) were foundational for reports of greater parental warmth and greater parent volunteer activity, each of which provide emotional support for and modeling of volunteering. The emotional connection and observation of parents’ commitment to service may provide the confidence and impetus for joining in organizations that create opportunities for volunteering and recognizing the positive experiences ascribed to past and current volunteer experiences. With the opportunity available, parental modeling, and previous positive experiences with volunteering, youth are active community servants who see themselves as continuing their commitment in the future.

Authors

• Mary B Eberly Lewis, Oakland University
  Presenting Author

• Meredith A McGinley, University of Wisconsin - Parkside
  Non-Presenting Author

• Justin Jeramiah Slater, Oakland University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Wendy M Rote, University of South Florida
  Non-Presenting Author