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The Longitudinal Reciprocal Relations between Volunteer Motivation, Role Identity, and Sustained Volunteering among College Students
Wei Quan, Qu Guoliang, Zhang Zhixin, Chen Xuhai, Luo Yangmei
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2026, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (3) : 692-702.
PDF(827 KB)
PDF(827 KB)
The Longitudinal Reciprocal Relations between Volunteer Motivation, Role Identity, and Sustained Volunteering among College Students
Volunteering is an important symbol of social progress and plays a significant role in building a community for social governance. However, China currently faces challenges of low participation continuity and high volunteer attrition. Exploring the dynamics and mechanisms underlying sustained volunteering behavior is crucial for addressing these issues. Existing studies predominantly examine the one-way influence of volunteer motivation and role identity on sustained volunteering behavior from a static perspective, with limited focus on the dynamic relationships between variables over time. This static interpretation may be disconnected from real-life situations and fail to fully reflect the continuous nature of volunteering as a result of both individual factors and time. In fact, volunteer motivation and role identity evolve and change throughout the volunteering process. This change represents the cognitive construction and reconstruction that volunteers experience as they engage in sustained behaviors. Failing to consider this dynamic process can result in an incomplete understanding of the formation and continuity mechanisms of volunteer behavior, thereby limiting the effectiveness of strategies aimed at improving volunteer retention rates.
To explore the dynamic relationship between volunteer motivation, role identity, and sustained volunteering behaviors, this study employed a three-wave longitudinal design. The study followed 442 college student volunteers (Mage = 19.27 years, SD = 1.67 years, female 86.65%) three times over a one-year period (T1: March 2023, T2: September 2023, T3: March 2024). Data were analyzed using SPSS 27.0 and Mplus 8.3, and a cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) was constructed to test a reciprocal circular model between the three variables, with gender and age as covariates. Volunteer motivation was assessed using the Volunteer Functions Inventory, and role identity was measured with the Volunteer Role Identity 5-Item Scale. Sustained volunteering was measured by averaging the standardized scores for time spent on volunteering, volunteering frequency, and volunteers' intention to continue volunteering. All measurements had good reliability and validity, and there was no severe common method bias, ensuring the robustness of the study findings. The main variables involved exhibited a certain degree of stability over time, meeting the conditions required for establishing a cross-lagged model.
The study found that: (1) A reciprocal relationship existed between volunteer motivation and role identity. Volunteer motivation at T1 and T2 positively predicted role identity at T2 and T3 (βT1=.13, p<.01; βT2=.11, p<.05), and role identity at T1 and T2 positively predicted volunteer motivation at T2 and T3 (βT1=.10, p<.05; βT2=.12, p<.05). (2) Role identity and sustained volunteering also demonstrated a reciprocal relationship. Role identity at T1 and T2 positively predicted sustained volunteering at T2 and T3 (βT1=.24, p<.001; βT2=.17, p<.01), and sustained volunteering at T1 and T2 positively predicted role identity at T2 and T3 (βT1=.16, p<.001; βT2=.11, p<.05). (3) There was no significant direct effect between volunteer motivation and sustained volunteering; rather, their reciprocal relationship was established through role identity. Specifically, the mediating effect of T2 role identity between T1 volunteer motivation and T3 sustained volunteering was significant (β=.02, p<.05, 95%CI=[.00,.04]); Similarly, the mediating effect of T2 role identity between T1 sustained volunteering and T3 volunteer motivation was also significant (β=.02, p<.05, 95%CI=[.00,.04]).
Drawing upon the Triadic Reciprocal Determinism, Functionalism, and Motivated Identity Construction Theory, this study employs the CLPM to investigate the longitudinal reciprocal relationships among volunteer motivation, role identity, and sustained volunteering. The findings demonstrate that stimulating and fulfilling volunteer motivation serves as a critical starting point for promoting sustained participation in volunteer activities. Furthermore, role identity emerges as a pivotal factor in both maintaining and enhancing volunteer motivation and behavior, while also functioning as the core mechanism facilitating individuals' transition from short-term engagement to long-term commitment. These insights carry significant implications for developing effective strategies to foster sustained volunteer engagement and improve volunteer management practices.
volunteer motivation / role identity / sustained volunteering / cross-lagged panel model
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We propose a model of volunteering and test its validity across four cultural groups. We hypothesize that individuals’ explicit prosocial motivation relates positively to sustained volunteering, which is conceptualized as a latent factor comprising activity as a volunteer, service length, service frequency, and hours of volunteering. Moreover, we introduced implicit prosocial motivation and hypothesized that the relationship between explicit prosocial motivation and sustained volunteering would be amplified by implicit prosocial motivation. Data were collected from samples in China, Germany, Turkey, and the United States. Results confirmed our expectation that, across cultures, sustained volunteering was associated with explicit prosocial motivation and that the relationship between explicit prosocial motivation and sustained volunteering was strongest when implicit prosocial motivation was also high. By including implicit prosocial motivation, our study offers a novel approach to identifying sustained volunteer involvement, which can be of particular relevance for recruitment activities of voluntary organizations across various cultural contexts.
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In this article, the motives for voluntary work and work values in higher education contexts are examined in a cross-border region in Central Eastern Europe. Our goal is to find out what kind of relationship exists between different types of volunteering and work values among young people. In the theoretical section, we deal with the definition of volunteering in the education system, the types of and motives for students’ volunteering, and finally, the relationship between the work values and voluntary work of students. In the empirical section, we created cluster groups based on students’ motives for volunteering, and we examined differences among countries. Then we revealed the factor structure of the work values of students and analyzed the relationship between cluster groups and factors with variance analysis. Five cluster groups were identified: “careerists with postmodern features,” “unmotivated,” “highly motivated,” “volunteers in an anti-volunteering climate,” and a “helping new type volunteers” group. There were only slight differences among countries, as most respondents are characterized by mixed motivations. An interesting result is that the most frequent group is “the volunteers in an anti-volunteering climate” in all the countries examined, especially in Ukraine, so the culture of volunteering is not popular enough in this region of Central Eastern Europe. Regarding the relationship between work values and volunteering, we have found that these two fields (work values and volunteering) are closely related.
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The objective of this research study was to conduct a systematic review of the research on volunteers using Clary et al.’s VFI (1998). A total of 48 research studies including 67 independent samples met eligibility criteria. The total sample of the studies analyzed ranged from 20375 to 21988 participants, depending on the motivation analyzed. The results show that the Values factor obtained the highest mean score, both overall and in each type of volunteering, whereas the lowest scores were for the Career and Enhancement factors. Studies conducted with samples with a mean age under 40 years obtain higher scores on Career and Understanding scales when compared to studies in older samples. The group of studies with less than 50% women yield higher mean scores on the Social scale than studies with more than 50% women in the sample. All the scales show reliability coefficients between.78 and.84. Only eight of the articles provide data on the reliability of the scale with a mean value of.90. Of the 26 studies that performed factor analysis, 18 confirmed the original structure of six factors.
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The main objective of this paper was to describe the latest results of a longitudinal study carried out by our research team with a sample of social work volunteers, whose one-year follow-up has just been completed, allowing us to draw up what we have called the “Three-stage model\n of volunteers' duration”. Use of this model overcomes some of the apparent contradictions between the different models of volunteerism. For example, for the Functional Model, motivations, and more specifically their satisfaction, would be the best predictors of service duration,\n however, for the Role Identity Model, what best predicts service duration would be role identity. We assume that in the initial phase of volunteerism, motivations and their satisfaction are more closely related to service duration than role identity. Nevertheless, to predict longer duration\n of service and greater involvement, the fundamental variable is organizational commitment. Finally, the Role Identity Model is that which best explains sustained volunteerism. Instruments used included the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979) reduced\n and adapted by Dávila & Chacón, and The Role Identity Scale (Grube & Pilavin, 2000, adapted by Dávila & Chacón, 2004).
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The authors applied functionalist theory to the question of the motivations underlying volunteerism, hypothesized 6 functions potentially served by volunteerism, and designed an instrument to assess these functions (Volunteer Functions Inventory; VFI). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on diverse samples yielded factor solutions consistent with functionalist theorizing; each VFI motivation, loaded on a single factor, possessed substantial internal consistency and temporal stability and correlated only modestly with other VFI motivations (Studies 1, 2, and 3). Evidence for predictive validity is provided by a laboratory study in which VFI motivations predicted the persuasive appeal of messages better when message and motivation were matched than mismatched (Study 4), and by field studies in which the extent to which volunteers' experiences matched their motivations predicted satisfaction (Study 5) and future intentions (Study 6). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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In this article, we are concerned with the recruitment potential of one-off episodic events for attracting and retaining volunteers. Our specific focus is on the neglected pool of non-returning volunteers. These are one-off event participants who are unwilling to volunteer again in future. Many studies generally document an overwhelming willingness of people to repeat volunteering after participating in a one-off event, either due to reasons of social desirability or because they had a good volunteering experience. The positive participant reaction at most one-off events leads to the assumption that such events are useful arenas in which to generate a pool of potential repeat volunteers. Yet, scant attention is given to those people at the events who have no inclination for further volunteering. This article addresses that gap. It is part of a special issue on episodic volunteering from an international perspective and uses data from nineteen countries across the world. Our statistical analyses, which compares returning and non-returning volunteers, finds that on average, 7.42% of episodic event participants do not want to volunteer again in future. The results reveal that younger, less educated, novices who participate on their own are more likely to report unwillingness to repeat volunteering. Non-repeat volunteers unexpectedly had higher levels of altruistic motivation, and as expected, a less satisfactory one-off volunteer experience. The article concludes with implications and recommendations for organizers of events employing episodic volunteers.
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It is often taken for granted that social cohesion and volunteering are inextricably related. Previous research suggests both that social cohesion creates a conducive environment for volunteering to emerge and that volunteering itself facilitates feelings of social cohesion. Despite this, much of the existing evidence on this relationship is limited to cross-sectional research that precludes any assessment of potential causality. In this paper we present a secondary analysis of two large scale and longitudinal social surveys in the UK: the Understanding Society Household Longitudinal Study and the Beyond Us and Them project. Using data from these surveys we estimate a cross-lagged longitudinal model to assess the causal relationships between social cohesion and volunteering over time. Across both data sources, involving different time intervals, we find significant cross-lagged bi-directional relationships between social cohesion and volunteering. These findings provide much needed empirical support for the proposition that social cohesion and volunteering are causally related over periods of both months and years. Implications for theory and policy are discussed.
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Constructs from the functional analysis and role identity models of volunteerism were combined in a study of activity and tenure among hospice volunteers. The influence of prosocial personality tendencies on sustained volunteer activity was also examined. The findings were most supportive\n of a role identity model of sustained volunteerism. Identity and perceived expectations emerged as the strongest predictors of both time spent volunteering and length of service. Initial motives for volunteering showed a weaker than expected relationship with volunteerism. Motives were, however,\n correlated with role identity and perceived expectations in an interpretable and theoretically coherent manner. The results provided preliminary support for a conceptual framework that integrates the functional and identity approaches to understanding long-term volunteers.
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143 AmeriCorps volunteers (30 men; 113 women) and 127 college student volunteers (43 men; 84 women) completed the Volunteer Functions Inventory to assess whether monetary compensation was associated with choice to volunteer to provide educational services, e.g., tutoring, mentoring. Based on Snyder's 1993 theory of functionalism, motives of paid (AmeriCorps participants) and nonpaid (college students) volunteers were expected to differ. It was also predicted that the motives of female and male volunteers would differ. Multivariate analysis of variance confirmed these assumptions. In general, paid male participants reported perceiving numerous benefits associated with volunteering and reported stronger beliefs about such benefits. Female participants reported motives for volunteering, in contrast, which were not linked with monetary compensation. The women reported recognizing the benefits of volunteering and engaging in this activity for egoistic reasons. Their reported motives had little relation to compensation.
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The creation of bay areas is one way to develop economies and culture based on natural characteristics and regional connections; successful examples include the San Francisco, New York and Tokyo Bay Areas. In 2019, China established the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA). As a result of historical and geographical factors, the GBA is uniquely characterised by being subject to ‘one country, two systems’, ‘three customs territories’, and ‘three legal systems’. This study offered ample empirical evidence based on qualitative methods referring to in-depth interviews with academics and managers as well as publicly available policies and literature in the GBA. A thematic analysis was used to explore the context and characteristics of developing higher education (HE) in the GBA. The study emphasised that developing GBA’s HE improved its partnerships from co-operation to strategic co-ordination to resource sharing. This research contributes to HE and its governance in the GBA, a topic on which there is limited information in the extant international research literature. It is also useful to policymakers and scholars as it provides potential strategies and insights regarding the development of regional higher education.
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Volunteerism is an important asset for the society, but also for the beneficiaries and the volunteers themselves. Researchers have tried to understand the main characteristics of volunteerism itself, but also of the volunteer and the organizations that work with volunteers. So far, there are models that describe some defining characteristics of volunteerism or of the volunteer. Other models aim to explain why volunteers continue their service or not, and also to show the public perception of volunteerism in some particular contexts. However, none of the existent models outlines the personal development of volunteers. In this paper, we aim to offer an integrated perspective on volunteerism, which focuses on the individual changes that take place while one volunteers. This alternative perspective will guide research into understanding what changes volunteers go through. These changes are a personal benefit for the volunteer, but also a gain for the society in which they volunteer.
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Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a widespread and commonly used approach to test substantive hypotheses in the social and behavioral sciences. When performing hypothesis tests, it is vital to rely on a sufficiently large sample size to achieve an adequate degree of statistical power to detect the hypothesized effect. However, applications of SEM rarely consider statistical power in informing sample size considerations or determine the statistical power for the focal hypothesis tests performed. One reason is the difficulty in translating substantive hypotheses into specific effect size values required to perform power analyses, as well as the lack of user-friendly software to automate this process. The present paper presents the second version of the R package semPower which includes comprehensive functionality for various types of power analyses in SEM. Specifically, semPower 2 allows one to perform both analytical and simulated a priori, post hoc, and compromise power analysis for structural equation models with or without latent variables, and also supports multigroup settings and provides user-friendly convenience functions for many common model types (e.g., standard confirmatory factor analysis [CFA] models, regression models, autoregressive moving average [ARMA] models, cross-lagged panel models) to simplify power analyses when a model-based definition of the effect in terms of model parameters is desired.
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A conceptual framework that identifies psychological and behavioral features associated with antecedents, experiences, and consequences of volunteerism is presented, and an inventory that measures 5 specific motivations for AIDS volunteerism is developed and cross-validated. Then a field study of 116 AIDS volunteers is presented in which a helping disposition, volunteer motivations, and social support (as antecedents), and personal satisfaction and organizational integration (as experiences) are used to predict duration of service over 2 1/2 years. Structural equation analyses indicate that dispositional helping influences satisfaction and integration but not duration of service, whereas greater motivation and less social support predict longer active volunteer service. The model is generalized to the prediction of perceived attitude change. Implications for conceptualizations of motivation, theoretical issues in helping, and practical concerns of volunteer organizations are discussed.
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Interest in the problem of method biases has a long history in the behavioral sciences. Despite this, a comprehensive summary of the potential sources of method biases and how to control for them does not exist. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which method biases influence behavioral research results, identify potential sources of method biases, discuss the cognitive processes through which method biases influence responses to measures, evaluate the many different procedural and statistical techniques that can be used to control method biases, and provide recommendations for how to select appropriate procedural and statistical remedies for different types of research settings.
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This study aimed to examine factors associated with volunteer role identity in mentors of school-based mentoring programmes.
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Measurement invariance assesses the psychometric equivalence of a construct across groups or across time. Measurement noninvariance suggests that a construct has a different structure or meaning to different groups or on different measurement occasions in the same group, and so the construct cannot be meaningfully tested or construed across groups or across time. Hence, prior to testing mean differences across groups or measurement occasions (e.g., boys and girls, pretest and posttest), or differential relations of the construct across groups, it is essential to assess the invariance of the construct. Conventions and reporting on measurement invariance are still in flux, and researchers are often left with limited understanding and inconsistent advice. Measurement invariance is tested and established in different steps. This report surveys the state of measurement invariance testing and reporting, and details the results of a literature review of studies that tested invariance. Most tests of measurement invariance include configural, metric, and scalar steps; a residual invariance step is reported for fewer tests. Alternative fit indices (AFIs) are reported as model fit criteria for the vast majority of tests; χ is reported as the single index in a minority of invariance tests. Reporting AFIs is associated with higher levels of achieved invariance. Partial invariance is reported for about one-third of tests. In general, sample size, number of groups compared, and model size are unrelated to the level of invariance achieved. Implications for the future of measurement invariance testing, reporting, and best practices are discussed.
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The sociology of education has much to gain from an organizational perspective on learning processes. This is especially true for ‘informal learning’ – that is, learning beyond traditional educational settings such as schools and universities. The present article addresses this gap by providing a theoretical and empirical account of the informality of learning situations in formal organizations. Following the insights of the ‘situated learning’ literature and interaction-based analysis, the article investigates the role and place of informal learners in formal organizations by analysing the learning experience of volunteers who have chosen to take part in the German national voluntary service. The author grasps the complexity of their learning experience over time by using a mixed methods design that combines ethnographic protocols with a series of narrative interviews with German voluntary service participants in hospitals. Since the volunteers observed in the hospital context were constrained to routine tasks that do not require medical skills, their scope of learning new things is indeed limited. Learning thus comes with the necessity of challenging the boundaries of their volunteer role, which in turn requires the cooperation of the regular staff. The article reveals the social mechanisms underlying the individual learning experience of hospital volunteers. It does so by focusing on their boundary work and by identifying the limits of their participation in the communities of practice that they are ‘trying to help’.
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Volunteerism is a key form of community involvement that can provide both physical and mental health benefits for volunteers as well as positive outcomes for the community. However, volunteers become involved for different reasons and recent studies suggest that other-oriented volunteers may accrue greater health benefits than self-oriented volunteers. To investigate this possibility, we surveyed 4,085 Australian volunteers about their motivations using the Volunteer Functions Inventory, together with their well-being using measures of self-esteem, well-being, self-efficacy, social connectedness, and social trust. As predicted, these individual differences in well-being proved to be differentially associated with other-oriented and self-oriented motivations. Furthermore, other-oriented motives were positively correlated, and self-oriented motives were negatively correlated, with satisfaction and intentions to continue. We discuss implications of these patterns for organizations that work with volunteers.
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Motivations for volunteering described by functional theory are loosely related to the types and duration of these activities. The motivating effects of individuals’ social- and role-based identities may need inclusion. Identity theories suggest that entering a specific service activity depends on whether the service benefits a social group with which a person identifies, while persisting in the work depends on rewards and legitimation gained from the role-identity of “volunteer.” Former cardiac patients’ motivations for engaging in peer-support volunteering were explored ( n = 84). Respondents’ primary motive for starting this work was to reduce current patients’ anxieties, suggesting identification with cardiac patients in general. Respondents viewed their “volunteer” role-identity as deeply rewarding, promoting long-term involvement. Identification with the sponsoring organization (Mended Hearts) supplied additional benefits, supporting continued involvement. Social- and role-identities help to explain the start and persistence of this type of volunteer work and likely influence other volunteer activities.
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This study tested an expanded TBP model, which included personal norms and self-identity as cognitive variables, in a sample of current young volunteers of a general charity in the UK. Actual volunteering was measured via continued observation throughout the duration of the projects. An integrative model of sustained volunteering was proposed because some relationships did not follow the hypothesized paths. Subjective norm emerged as the exclusive determinant of sustained volunteering and also as the potential mediator of the effects of other variables over future volunteering behavior. Two focus groups with volunteers and 28 personal interviews with the coordinators of the volunteering projects were conducted to triangulate the research findings and reveal the main causes for drop-outs and non-attendance.
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In 2017, about 30% of all U.S. adults volunteered for a total of 6.9 billion hours. This raises the question, why do so many people volunteer? Extant research has produced highly variable estimates of the effect sizes of various motivating factors, and there has been little to no research on potential moderators (i.e., study-level covariates that might strengthen or weaken the main effect of volunteer motives). We meta-analyzed 61 studies ( N = 38,327) to estimate the effect sizes of six volunteer motivators (Volunteer Functions Inventory [VFI]; Clary et al., 1998) in predicting outcomes (satisfaction, commitment, intention to continue, and frequency). Results demonstrate that all six motivators significantly predicted the three outcome variables ([Formula: see text] ranging from.12 to.44). Values was the strongest predictor by far, based on the largest effect size and a post hoc relative importance analysis. Moderator analyses indicated some differences in effect sizes across gender and student status; there were few differences across geographic location, race-ethnicity, college degree attainment, and employment status. Implications for volunteer managers and organizations on how to best work with volunteers are described.
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