Parental modeling of volunteering, adolescent religious attendance and adolescent volunteering

Abstract

The framework of Positive Youth Development (PYD) asserts that intergenerational relationships and social context play an important role when adolescents make decisions to volunteer. In order to examine the association of parent modeling and adolescent religious attendance with adolescent volunteering, this current study used a nationally representative sample (n=3,270) derived from data from the National Study on Youth and Religion (NSYR) at baseline and three years later. Six hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to examine the association of demographic variables, parent modeling, and adolescent religious attendance with adolescent formal and informal volunteering concurrently and three years later. Results support the PYD assumptions that social context and intergenerational relationships would influence adolescent volunteering. Parental modeling of volunteering had positive relationship with volunteering. Furthermore, adolescent religious attendance was positively related to adolescent volunteering. Setting this study apart from others in the field was the use of outcome measures reflecting two distinct types of adolescent volunteering: formal and informal volunteering. Ample support is given across predictors for distinguishing adolescent formal and informal volunteering.