TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigating Similarities and Differences Between Volunteer Behaviors
T2 - Development of a Volunteer Interest Typology
AU - Maki, Alexander
AU - Snyder, Mark
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, © The Author(s) 2015.
PY - 2017/2/1
Y1 - 2017/2/1
N2 - Given that volunteers perform a diverse range of behaviors aimed at helping distinct causes, a more nuanced understanding of how types of volunteer behaviors are similar and different would enrich both basic and applied perspectives on volunteerism. We created and validated an inventory of individuals’ interests in eight different types of volunteering: administrative volunteering, helping animals, interpersonal helping (autonomy or dependency), donating, physical volunteering (built or natural environments), and political volunteering. Grouping these eight types of positions into two general categories (interpersonal and skills-based volunteer positions), we also examined convergent and discriminant validity, linking interest in these positions to constructs from the volunteerism literature (i.e., prosocial personality, volunteer motivations, and volunteer satisfaction). This research demonstrates that volunteer behaviors can be classified into types, certain individuals are interested in different types of volunteer behaviors, and volunteers engaged in behaviors that match their interests express greater volunteer satisfaction.
AB - Given that volunteers perform a diverse range of behaviors aimed at helping distinct causes, a more nuanced understanding of how types of volunteer behaviors are similar and different would enrich both basic and applied perspectives on volunteerism. We created and validated an inventory of individuals’ interests in eight different types of volunteering: administrative volunteering, helping animals, interpersonal helping (autonomy or dependency), donating, physical volunteering (built or natural environments), and political volunteering. Grouping these eight types of positions into two general categories (interpersonal and skills-based volunteer positions), we also examined convergent and discriminant validity, linking interest in these positions to constructs from the volunteerism literature (i.e., prosocial personality, volunteer motivations, and volunteer satisfaction). This research demonstrates that volunteer behaviors can be classified into types, certain individuals are interested in different types of volunteer behaviors, and volunteers engaged in behaviors that match their interests express greater volunteer satisfaction.
KW - behavior classification
KW - prosocial behavior
KW - satisfaction
KW - scale construction
KW - volunteerism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85008875267&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85008875267&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0899764015619703
DO - 10.1177/0899764015619703
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85008875267
SN - 0899-7640
VL - 46
SP - 5
EP - 28
JO - Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly
JF - Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly
IS - 1
ER -