Volunteer work among early adolescents has been largely neglected as a research topic. This study examines the influence parents have on their children's volunteer activities when they are between 10 and 15, with a special focus on the difference made by parental styles. Data are drawn from a subsample of respondents in the U.K. Household Longitudinal Study. Controlling for parent's volunteering, social class, and religiosity, sons are encouraged to volunteer by authoritative fathers and discouraged from volunteering by authoritarian fathers. Mothers' parenting styles have no influence on their children's volunteering, and permissive parenting by either parent has no influence on volunteering of either boys or girls.

The Economics of Religion, pp. 187-244 (2023) No AccessChapter 8: Religion and VolunteeringJohn WilsonJohn WilsonDuke University, Durham, NC, USAhttps://doi.org/10.1142/9789811273148_0008Cited by:0 PreviousNext AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsRecommend to Library ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Abstract: Volunteering is a form of prosocial behavior that involves a freely chosen decision to commit a sustained amount of time and effort to helping another person, group or cause, typically through an organization. Religion is a powerful and consistent predictor of volunteer activities in many countries however it is measured (e.g., church attendance) and whether or not the volunteer work is narrowly religious or broadly secular. Religion also helps explain variations in volunteering by country, race or ethnicity, gender and age. Recent research has uncovered reasons for the positive effect of religion, most prominently the role of social networks. Keywords: VolunteerChurch AttendanceAffiliationCongregationsSalienceNetworks FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails The Economics of ReligionMetrics History KeywordsVolunteerChurch AttendanceAffiliationCongregationsSalienceNetworksPDF download

Recent trends in the labor market see increasing numbers of workers having to deal with "schedule precarity" including volatile hours, rotating shift work, unpredictable work hours and lack of choice on the part of the employee. These trends are of concern to those interested in fostering levels of civic engagement because they potentially limit volunteering. This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) containing information on work schedules in 2011 and 2013 among employees to determine the effect of changes in work schedules on becoming a volunteer using transition regressions. We investigate interactions between work schedule measures and pay structure because workers paid by the hour have lower volunteer rates than salaried workers. The study finds that, while three of the schedule dimensions are unrelated to volunteering, transitioning towards more schedule control has a positive effect on volunteering. However, interaction analysis shows this positive effect is confined to salaried workers whereas for hourly paid workers the effect is negative. The results support the idea that having more freedom to set one's work schedule reduces work-life conflict but suggest that this positive effect is limited to those who can take advantage of it.

First published in 1962, Public Schools and Private Practice discusses various facets of public schools in Britain from a factual point of view. John Wilson brings crucial themes like public appearance and private life; the public-school community; discipline, religion, and morality; domestic conditions and financing of public schools; political status of public schooling; educational assessment; and future of public schools, to understand questions like what is it like to be a boy or a master at public schools? Do public schools develop a boy’s character more successfully than other schools? Or should the public schools be thrown more widely open to the public? This book is an interesting historical document for scholars and researchers of British education and education in general.

This chapter examines the relation between formal and informal volunteering and two types of trust, generalized and institutional. The analysis, based on Italian survey data, is conducted at the level of the individual clustered within households with ancillary analysis examining inter-regional differences in the relation between volunteering and trust. Controlling for church attendance, volunteering for religious organizations, and institutional trust are associated, while generalized trust is related to both religious and civic volunteering; controlling for education or volunteering for religious or civic organizations is positively associated with both generalized and institutional trust. The association between trust and volunteering seems to be stronger in the northern regions of Italy.

The chapter illustrates the traditional varieties and recent transformations of volunteering in five different cultural areas of the world (Anglo-Saxon, European, Latin American, East Asian, sub-Saharan African) and connects the peculiarities of domestic voluntary action to the different cultural and socioeconomic local patterns. It identifies in the intricate heterogeneity of local manifestations of volunteering one of the problematic challenges for the global research and policy-making agenda on the topic. Problematic aspects and cultural specificities with regard to the core elements of the common definition of volunteering – free will, unpaid, general interest – are put in focus. Opportunities and challenges of the future work with the ILO Manual are assessed.

Most studies of the effect of religiosity on volunteering overlook or fail to deal adequately with the possibility that there is reverse causal relation, from volunteering to religiosity, which should be taken into account. Using four waves of the Americans' Changing Lives study, we estimate a reciprocal relationship between church attendance and religious and secular volunteering, using dynamic panel models with fixed effects using structural equation modeling and measuring both lagged and proximate effects. Religious service attendance increases future religious volunteering via its proximate effect on religious volunteering while religious volunteering has cross-lagged and proximate effects on both religious service attendance and secular volunteering. On the other hand, there are neither cross-lagged nor proximate effects between church going and secular volunteering. Religious and secular types of volunteering are reciprocally related, suggesting religious people are drawn into secular work not only directly, but also via their volunteer work for religious organizations.

A theory that the economic benefits of volunteering are contingent on social class (as defined by similarities in labour market situation) is tested using seven waves of longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Study gathered between 1996 and 2008 and fixed-effects models. Volunteering has a positive effect on earnings, but it is confined to people in professional and managerial occupations. Employees in white and blue collar jobs do not benefit. The study suggests that inconsistent results from previous studies might be due to failure to consider occupational heterogeneity among volunteers.

Sociological theory predicts that volunteers are likely to be more socially integrated into their communities than nonvolunteers. In this study, we test this theory by examining three dimensions of relations to neighbors—contact, social engagement, and the perception that neighbors trust each other. We hypothesize reciprocal relations between volunteering and these three measures. Using cross–lagged structural equation models applied to two waves of data from the National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS), we find that frequency of contact with neighbors is positively related to volunteering, but there is no reciprocal effect. Frequency of social engagement does not predict future volunteering but volunteers tend to become more socially engaged with their neighbors. Perceptions of neighbors as trusting are unrelated to volunteering.

The consistent effect of education on volunteering has been explained in a number of ways. In this study we test the hypothesis that perceived control beliefs are partly responsible. Using two waves of panel data from National Survey of Midlife in the United States we estimated cross-lagged structural equationmodels in which education is positioned as the exogenous variable and perceived control and volunteering are allowed to be reciprocally related across the two waves. We find that perceived control predicts volunteering, but there is no reciprocal effect: volunteering has no effect on sense of control. One reason, therefore, that educated people are more likely to volunteer is that they have stronger control beliefs. The findings enrich the theory of volunteering by introducing the idea of agency, showing one way in which resources influence the decision to volunteer.

Volunteer role identity has long been of interest to social scientists seeking to understand volunteer commitment and the psychological consequences of volunteering. The study reported here tests the theory that predicts that people identify more strongly with the volunteer role as compensation for the absence of other productive roles. Using a sample (n = 572) of Dutch volunteers over the age of 50, we find a strong association between age and volunteer role identity. For older volunteers, the volunteer role is a more important part of who they are. We find that retirement plays an important role in this. The retirement effect, in turn, is accounted for by the extra time retirees invest in the role, signaling a compensation strategy. We find a similar substitution effect for the unemployed/disabled, but not for widowhood. The study makes a contribution by situating the explanation of volunteer role identity within a life-course framework.

The positive effect of income on volunteering found in many studies is conventionally explained in utilitarian terms: volunteer work is "costly" or demands "resources." This explanation overlooks important sociopsychological processes. By situating the income-volunteering relationship within the stress process framework, we develop a theory that traces the influence of income on chronic financial strain which in turn affects subjective well-being, which functions as a psychological resource for volunteers. Data taken from two waves of the National Survey of Midlife in the United States confirm this theory: household income has no direct effect on volunteering once chronic financial strain and two measures of subjective well-being-social and eudaimonic-are taken into account.

In this research we explore the relationship between social heterogeneity and volunteering across U.S. metropolitan areas testing a theory that race heterogeneity, racial segregation, and income inequality are negatively associated with the rate of volunteering. Theorizing that social heterogeneity will have different effects for religious and secular volunteering rates, we analyze them separately. We use nonlinear multilevel models to analyze nearly 200,000 individuals across 248 cities, controlling for nonprofits per capita, religious congregations per capita, proportion of the population with college degrees, and the family poverty rate. While much of the intercity variation in volunteering is due to the composition of the population living in each city, we find general support for the predicted negative effect of social heterogeneity on volunteering. However, the effects vary by volunteering type. Race heterogeneity is negatively related only to secular volunteering, racial segregation is negatively related to both general volunteering and secular volunteering, and income inequality is negatively related to all types of volunteering.

When crises hit communities, some expect a withdrawal from community involvement while others predict the disaster will inspire more volunteers to help. Case studies and anecdotal reports in the media suggest that the pro-social response predominates, but this has not been demonstrated scientifically. We analyze data from 120 U.S. metropolitan areas (2007-2009) to assess the association between the recent housing crisis on volunteering. Although foreclosures increased in most areas, the crisis hit some cities harder than others. Using fixed-effects models, we find that cities experiencing increases in foreclosures exhibited increases in volunteering rates. Furthermore, we observe that volunteering among homeowners increased in response to the foreclosures, but the rate for renters was unaffected. We conclude that residents of communities afflicted by the economic crisis respond in a pro-social manner, but this response tends to occur among residents of communities most affected by the crisis or most likely to identify with its victims.

A third of strokes and Transient Ischemic Attacks (TIA) are cryptogenic requiring additional investigation. Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation (PAF) has been suggested as a potential cause of these strokes. Detecting the cause is key. It prompts the initiation of antithrombotic therapy, which will

Using two waves of panel data from the National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS), we examine the relationship between volunteer work and three dimensions of well-being: hedonic (e.g., positive mood), eudemonic (e.g., purpose in life), and social (e.g., feeling of belonging to the community). We test for the effects of volunteering measured as a binary and a continuous variable. Results show that volunteering enhances eudemonic and social well-being (but not hedonic well-being) although the number of hours contributed makes no difference. Conversely, people who have greater hedonic, eudemonic, and social well-being are more likely to volunteer and, in the case of hedonic and eudemonic well-being, volunteer more hours.

I use a volunteer process model to organize a review of recent research on volunteerism, focusing mainly on journal articles reporting survey research results. Scholars from several different disciplines and countries have contributed to a body of work that is becoming more theoretically sophisticated and methodologically rigorous. The first stage of the process model-antecedents of volunteering-continues to attract the most attention but more and more scholars are paying attention to the third stage, the consequences of volunteering, particularly with respect to health benefits. The middle stage-the experience of volunteering-remains somewhat neglected, particularly the influence of the social context of volunteer work on the volunteer's satisfaction and commitment.