Parent-Teacher Association, Soup Kitchen, Church, or the Local Civic Club? Life Stage Indicators of Volunteer Domain.
Gaps in existing literature hinder our knowledge of how life stage-related identities (e.g., worker, parent, student, etc.) influence individuals' decisions about whether and how to get involved in community service. Interventions to increase volunteerism throughout the life course require a more nuanced understanding of this relationship. We use multinomial logistic models to analyze how life phase factors relate to involvement in different types of voluntary organizations across the adult life course in the Chicago Community Adult Health Study. Half of the adults did not volunteer. Those who did volunteer were categorized as charitable, youth-oriented, religious, civic, or multidomain volunteers. Age, employment, family structure, demographics, and self-rated health differentially predicted volunteering in specific domains. Findings from this study suggest that recruitment and retention efforts employed by different nonprofit organizations may be more effective if they take into consideration the life phase factors that enhance or detract from likelihood of engagement.
Stanford Center on Longevity, Stanford University, CA, USA carrdc@stanford.edu.
Dawn C
DC
Carr
Duke University, NC, USA.
Katherine
K
King
Boston College, MA, USA.
Christina
C
Matz-Costa
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D002641:Chicago; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012179:Retirement; D012919:Social Behavior; D012941:Social Responsibility; D014838:Volunteers / Q000523:psychology*
Chicago Community Adult Health Study (CCAHS); life stage; volunteering domain