The interplay of frequency of volunteering and prosocial motivation on purpose in life in emerging adults

One developmental task in emerging adulthood is finding meaning and purpose in life. Volunteering has been touted as one role that fosters purpose in life. We examined whether the association between frequency of volunteering and purpose in life varies with pleasure-based prosocial motivation and pressure-based prosocial motivation in a sample of 576 undergraduates, ages 18-22years old. In a regression analysis predicting purpose in life, the frequency of volunteering by pleasure-based prosocial motivation by pressure-based prosocial motivation interaction effect was significant (p=.042). Simple slopes analyses revealed that frequency of volunteering was not significantly (p=.478) related to purpose in life among college students who were low in both pleasure-based and pressure-based prosocial motivation. The findings of the present study highlight the importance of prosocial motivation for understanding whether emerging adults' purpose in life will be enhanced by volunteering.