Understanding individual characteristics of adolescents who volunteer

Volunteering has positive effects on adolescents' psychological and social development. However, few studies have marked a self-selection bias, suggesting that the significance of these positive consequences may decrease when volunteers' pre-participation characteristics are controlled for (e.g. Johnson, Beebe. Mortimer, & Snyder, 1998). The present short-term longitudinal study investigates the underlying dynamics of adolescents' volunteerism. First time volunteering adolescents are accessed at the time of their initial decision to volunteer on a social responsibility project and their self-perceptions (self-concept, self-esteem) and civic attitudes (social responsibility, community belonging) are compared to their peers' with similar backgrounds but did not volunteer to participate in the project. MANOVA results yielded that volunteers were more likely to be females, younger and scored higher on all measured individual characteristics compared to the non-volunteers. No significant effects of this participation were observed when pre-existing individual characteristics were controlled for. Findings are discussed in relation to developing appropriate recruitment strategies that would encourage more adolescents to be actively involved in social responsibility projects. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.