The Importance of a Community for Teenagers

For parents, the teenage years can be rough.

Fortunately, you don’t have to do it alone. While it
may seem like it takes a village to raise a child,
many forget that it also takes a community to raise a
teenager. The importance of a community can be
paramount for a child, especially when they enter
their teenage years. While a community can be
based solely on your geographical location, it
doesn’t have to be. In fact, the word “community”
has two different definitions.
1.Community can be defined as “a group of
people living in the same place or having a
particular characteristic in common;”
2.“a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of
sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.”

While you can get involved in your community

through your neighbors, your kid’s school, your city,
or even within your state, you and your teen can also
find community in shared values. Your family may
find a strong sense of community at your church,
while playing on a sports team, or even through
online platforms.
In fact, many adolescents find a community of their
own with peers who share their interests (such as
video games, makeup, art, or other activities).
Overall, community is characterized by a group of
people that care about each other and feel that they
belong together. A group can help provide a sense
of belonging, mutual support, greater influence, and
exploration for young teens.
The Benefits of Community

Here are just a few of the many benefits of

establishing a sense of community for your teen:
Community Meets Social Needs
If you haven’t noticed already, your teenager’s
friends are some of the most important people in
their life. In fact, many teens prioritize friendships
over any other relationship. While this may be
frustrating at times, it is actually a completely normal
stage of healthy child development.
Your child is learning to differentiate from you, his
siblings, and family of origin, in order to develop his
or her own identity and sense of self. This does not
mean that they do not love you or appreciate you. As
parents, you have the opportunity to be the most
stable person in the life of your youth. This role is so
critical for your child’s emotional intelligence and
development.
On the other hand, a healthy community can help to
develop your child’s socialization skills. Hopefully,
the peers in your child’s community are encouraging
and create a positive impact. If not, it may be time to
make some changes.
Community Meets Practical Needs
In some cases, parents can even depend on their
teen’s social group and peers as well. Whether you
need a trusted parent to pick up your child from
soccer practice or give you an extra hand after
school, parent’s can also benefit from these
opportunities.
Community Meets Emotional Needs
It is critical that your teen learns transparency,
vulnerability, emotional maturity, trust, and emotional
regulation. As parents in a close community, we
have a responsibility to support each other, in good
times and in bad. As much as we need to be
available within our community for others, we also
need to have the courage to ask and reach out when
we’re the ones in need of support.
Overall, it’s important for children to see their
parents involved in a community. Your teenager can
learn this by watching you and then interacting
themselves when they’re old enough. Teenagers can
also learn a lot about compassion when they are a
part of a strong community.
Community Protects Against Selfishness
Many parents say that their kids seem to be selfish
or reserved as they enter adolescence. Fortunately,
being a part of a solid community serves as a
safeguard against this. Community opens our eyes
to the needs of other people around us. A
community can help bring your teen out this
behavior by giving them both the responsibility and
opportunity to look outward.
One way to provide your child with new opportunities
that can make a positive impact is to get them
involved in service work. Doing a community service
project together is always a great way to
demonstrate the importance of belonging. Research
has shown that involving teens in community service
benefits both themselves and those they serve. Two
aspects of the effectiveness of teen volunteers are
the overall development for the young person and
the support that he or she will find through further
involvement in the community.
Community Teaches Conflict Resolution
If you bring any group of people together, conflict is
inevitable. Fortunately, being immersed in a healthy
community can teach your teenager effective conflict
resolution and decision-making skills.
Community Provides the Opportunity to Forgive
Similarly, a support group gives your teenager the
chance to learn how to forgive. In order to maintain
healthy relationships with others, both parties must
be able to practice forgiveness. Learning how to
forgive, rebuild trust, and move forward is imperative
to becoming a well-rounded individual later on in life.
Community Challenges Us
Our social group tends to challenge us and can help
push our teens out of their comfort zones. A strong
community should challenge your kid to become a
better person. Whether they need a new outlook on
life, a new skill or hobby, or a support team to help
them through hard times, community can help.
Community Can Support You as a Parent
As parents, we often forget that we need support as
well. The parents of our child’s friends or other
adults in our community can help provide
encouragement, support, advice, and help. Often,
the people in our child’s community can help support
our parenting decisions as well.
Teens are more likely to take advice and correction
from an adult other than their parents. Help your
teenager find a positive adult mentor, or develop
relationships with other caring adults in their lives.
This can help bridge communication gaps and help
build your teenager’s life skills.
Community Shifts Our Perspective
On the other hand, being a part of a strong
community can help shift our perspective of our
teens or even our own parenting practices. Even as
adults, we should be constantly growing and
learning. For our teens, being apart of a community
can also help them shift their perspective as well.
Signs of a Healthy Community

While a strong, solid community can provide

tremendous benefits for you and your teenager, it is
important to acknowledge that not all communities
are created equal. It is important to ask these ten
questions in regards to any community that your
teenager becomes a part of:
1.Is it healthy?
2.Is this community helping (free of peer pressure)
my teenager or our family?
3.Is the community authentic and genuine?
4.Do the members support one another and hold
each other accountable?
5.Do they feel like they truly belong?
 6.Does this community have a level of diversity,
and is it inclusive to those who are not “like
them”?
7.Is this community outward-focused?
8.In general, do we share this community’s
values?
9.Does your teenager WANT to belong to this
community?
10. Do I or my teenager have the power to make
the community healthy or invoke positive
change?

If the answer is yes to most of these questions, your

teenager is most likely a part of a healthy community
that is meeting their needs. However, if you
answered no to one or more of these questions, it
may be time to reevaluate your teenager’s ties to the
community they have become a part of.
How to Help Your Teen Build Healthy Community
Ties

Whether your teenager is a part of an unhealthy

community or doesn’t have any community ties at
all, helping them develop quality relationships can be
tough. Here are a few things you can do to help your
teen:
Build Their Confidence
While they may not openly talk about it with you, the
teenage years can be the hardest. Your child is
dealing with hormones, changing peer groups, and
big life events, while sometimes struggling with low
self-esteem. Unfortunately, this can cause them to
isolate themselves and ignore the advice of their
adult peers or role models.
As the parent, it is your job to talk to your child and
try to make them feel as comfortable as possible.
Whether that be by praising them for good grades or
accomplishing something in school, find different
ways that will help to build their confidence. If you as
a parent can model this behavior yourself, your
teenager can learn by example.
If you think you can help your teenager improve in
any way, say something. As always, make sure it is
coming from a place of patience and kindness. The
more that you can empower your teen to develop
positive behavioral and life skills, the more confident
they will be when they are a part of a community on
their own.
Model Conflict Resolution
According to prominent therapy models and
practitioners, It is important to help your teen
understand that conflict is a natural part of
relationships. Even the best of friends are going to
have fights, but not every argument means the end
of a friendship or community. Help them work on
“fighting fair” and recognizing when to take a break
from an argument to cool off.
Particularly when it comes to social media, where
misunderstandings are common and conflict can
quickly get out of control, teach your teen the value
of saying, “I think we’re both really upset. Let’s talk
about this in person tomorrow.” The best way to do
this is to model healthy conflict resolution yourself.
Your teenager is watching how you handle conflict
with your spouse, partner, friends, coworkers, and
especially how you address areas of conflict
between you and your teen. When you show them
that conflict is a regular part of life, and not
something to fear or avoid, they will be more likely to
engage in community and remain bonded to them
even when faced with conflict.
Help Connect Them
Sometimes, your child needs guidance when making
positive relationships in their school or social group.
While this isn’t as simple as arranging playdates for
them in toddlerhood, you can still help them find a
community in their teenage years. Encouraging them
to get involved in a sport, hobby, after-school club, or
youth group can help tremendously when it’s time for
them to build a community with like-minded people.
Another way to do this is to engage in community
service as a family. When they serve others in their
community, they will feel more invested in the
group’s well-being and be more open to making
connections with others (especially if it is a group
service project).
Overall, helping your child build connections within a
supportive community has tremendous benefits. The
need for love and belonging are part of our basic
needs as human beings. Building a sense of
community provides support, guidance, and
beneficial life skills for both you and your teen.
For more helpful resources on how to get involved in
your community, contact our team at Children’s
Bureau today.

Role of Communities
Communities can contribute to making physical
activity an enjoyable and accessible option for
teenagers. Community members can work together
to help teens be more active by implementing some
of the suggestions listed below.

Strategies for Communities

1. Improving Access to Places and Programs To
Be Physically Active

- Implement 'Complete Streets' policies

(Complete Streets is a transportation policy that
makes streets safe, convenient and comfortable for
users of all ages and abilities)

- Identify safe routes for walking and cycling

- Build new places for physical activity or turn an

abandoned or vacant parking lot into a park,
multipurpose court, or playground
 - Provide access to school gymnasiums,
recreation fields, and playgrounds when school is
not in session

2. Conduct Community-Wide Campaigns

- Promote physical activity messages to teens

and their families through television, radio,
newspapers, movie theaters and billboards. Local
media could feature stories about young people who
have made physical activity a priority
 - Include physical activity messages with
activities that would engage teenagers, such as
health fairs and walking/running events (eg.
walk-a-thons)

3. Work with Schools to Increase Teenage

Physical Activity

- Colleges, universities, hospitals, health

departments, businesses and community groups can
work with schools to support physical activity
programs. Such support can include donating
equipment or money or encouraging staff to
volunteer time to lead physical activity programs
outside of school hours
 - Support 'Safe Routes to School' programs by
finding and promoting safe ways to walk and bike to
school

- Encourage community organisations to offer

after-school physical activity programs for teenagers
in school halls/gymnasiums, playing fields, and
playgrounds

4. Partner with other Community Groups

 - Encourage local media to tell stories about
teens participating in physical activity

- Organise a bike rodeo to promote safe cycling

practices for adolescents

- Partner with local organisations to host special

physical activity events, such as fun runs or field
days

- Share resources such as athletic fields,

playgrounds and fitness facilities with other
community members
 - Seek funding from local businesses, community
groups and health organisations for physical activity
and teenage sporting programs

5. Make Changes that Make it Easier to be

Physically Active

- Provide funding to build and link footpaths,

pedestrian crossings and bicycle lanes

- Put in curb cuts so that bikes, strollers and

wheelchairs can easily cross streets
 - Install traffic signals to slow down cars and
improve safety

- Provide funding for and promote the use of

walking trails or paths in local neighbourhood parks

One way to help teens learn responsibility is by

having the expectation that they contribute to family
decisions and responsibilities. Parents can ask their
advice on decisions ranging from what to have for
dinner to ideas for caring for an elderly relative.
Giving teens a voice and influence in major
decisions gives them firsthand practice with the
difficult and demanding thinking processes that often
accompany freedom.

Boys and girls alike need to prepare meals, do

laundry, change tires and fulfill countless other
responsibilities integral to family life and adulthood.
These responsibilities teach teens to take care of
themselves, and they give teens practice as
contributing members with responsibilities to a
group.

Teens should be encouraged to take responsibility in

school, community, and religious groups. Teens
need to learn that their decisions and actions affect
others. Such experiences can teach empathy,
caring, sympathy, playfulness, leadership, respect
for others, good communication and numerous other
attributes of responsible citizenship.
Developing responsibility can be shown on three
different levels: personal, interpersonal and social.

Teens demonstrate personal responsibility by:

● Caring for their possessions.

● Getting their homework done.
● Meeting deadlines.

Interpersonal responsibility of teens may be shown

by:

● Tutoring a child.
● Helping at home.
● Keeping promises.
● Contributing to group projects.

Social responsibility in teens may be demonstrated

by:
 ● Helping the less fortunate.
● Giving to charities.
● Caring for public property.
● Working for social justice.

Developing responsibility takes time and practice.

Teens should be required to show responsibility
before earning new or expanded freedoms. Parents
can reward consistent responsible behavior with
more freedom. Look for signs of responsibility in
your teen on three all three levels, personal,
interpersonal and social.

As teenagers, we often are not taken seriously by

authority. We are held hostage by the assumption we
are troublemakers and can do no good.
That is quite a stereotype because teenagers are the
next generation. They will be controlling and
running the world someday. It might not be in the
exact mindset they have right now, but the ideas are
all coming from an identical area and viewpoint.

We are experiencing things in our world right now

and the exposure to the media and large political
leaps where we live are important for us to be aware
of, especially for our future. The groundwork for our
future is right now.

Teenagers have an important role in society. What

we do, what we accomplish, what we are exposed to
has every effect on, not only our personal future, but
the future of society as a whole. Every generation
grows up in a completely distinct world. Depending
on when you grew up, there are varied aspects of life
that could have had an influence on the development
of your future society. When people refer to
teenagers with a negative connotation it doesn’t
make sense because that person was once a teenager,
so they are contradicting themselves.

10 Rights and Responsibilities for Parents of Teens

When it comes to discipline, parenting experts

focus on the things that change for parents
when their child begins adolescence. This is
because teens start to form their identities and
need more independence. Therefore, a parent's
job changes from being the person in charge all
of the time to being more of a monitor and
advisor.

As you notice your parenting job changing, it

may seem like your rights and responsibilities
as a parent also change. It's true, some rights
and responsibilities do shift over to your teen.
This gives them more freedom to make their
own decisions and be more independent.
However, there are some that will remain
consistent throughout your child's
adolescence.

Parental Rights and Responsibilities

Let's review ten of the most important rights

and responsibilities for parents of teenagers.

To Be Treated With Respect

Parents, along with everyone else in the family,

have the right to be treated with respect. This
includes not only parents and teens, but also
siblings and extended family members who
may be living in the home.

To Set Rules and Limit Privileges

Parents have the right to set rules and limit

privileges when rules are not followed. This
includes house and family rules that are
followed out of respect for everyone who lives
in the home. Some examples are rules about
chores, guests, curfews, and illegal substances
or activities within the home.

Parents can say "no" even when they just think

something is wrong.

Trust is a big issue between parents and teens.

While teens are allowed to make
mistakes—and parents should give their teens
the ability to earn back their trust—that does
not take away the responsibility of a parent to
keep their minor child from hurting
themselves by setting rules and saying 'no'
when needed.

To Know the Truth

​Parents have the right to ask questions and

expect that they will be answered truthfully.
Parents should be aware of a teenager's
growing need for privacy when invoking this
right. Also, remember to ask questions when
emotions are not running high to avoid
arguing with an angry teen. That will only add
to the problem instead of solving it.

To Ask About the Who, What, and Where

Parents have the right to know where their

teenagers are, who they are with and generally
what they are doing. While teens do not have to
go into detail about private matters, like their
thoughts about the person they are dating, for
instance, they do have to let parents know
things like the location of the party they will be
attending and who is chaperoning the party.

To Discuss Your Teen With Others

Parents have the right to talk with anyone who

is involved in their teen's life. This includes,
but is not limited to teachers, doctors, coaches,
mentors, friends and the parents of friends.
Parents should also expect that they will get
truthful answers to their questions when
talking to these people.

It can be hard to deal with parents of your

teen's friends who have a habit of lying for
their own teenager. What is to keep them from
lying to you about your teen if they feel it will
help you teen "stay out of trouble?" Nothing.
Knowing how that makes other parents feel is
the reason to always honest when the parents
of your teen's friends ask questions.

To Maintain Family Unity

Parents have the right to encourage family

unity. They can expect all members of the
family to take part in family traditions, family
vacations, family meetings, and other activities
that build strong family bonds.

To Monitor Communication
Parents have the right to monitor their
children's access to the outside world. This is
true whether that access comes from physically
going somewhere or it is through the
technology of a cell phone or the internet.

To Encourage Future Options

Parents have the right to encourage and

monitor a teen's view of their future. While
teens are given the ultimate choice of what
they want to do with their future lives, parents
can influence it by using encouraging methods,
but not through discipline. For example,
encourage your teen to like science by sending
them to space camp, but don't take away
privileges because they didn't read the book on
the solar system that you gave them.

To Make Mistakes

Parents have the right to make mistakes and

change their minds. Mistakes happen, learning
to fix a mistake and apologizing is important.
No one is perfect and the decision you made
may not be the best when you look back on it. It
may be time to fall back and regroup. While
your teen may not appreciate your reversal
right away, your willingness to apologize and
correct a mistake is a good to model for them.

To Show You Care

Parents have the right to let their teen know

they love and care about them. While giving
your teen a huge hug in front of their friends
when you drop them off may not be the time,
letting your teen know daily you care is
important enough to mention, text, email, etc.
A simple message works best, being careful not
to embarrass them around their peers.

Community service is exactly what it sounds like: services that you do to

benefit your community. If that sounds a little broad, it’s because it is --
community service can take a lot of different forms since there’s SO much you
can do to help folks out in your area.
But that might leave you wondering where to start. (Spoiler alert: this is where
you start!) We’ve put together a list of community service project ideas,
organized by what you’ll be doing. Whether that’s collecting, teaching,
volunteering, or something else, you should be able to find something to
inspire you to get out there and do.
Collect Things for Your Community:
If you look around your community, you’ll probably find at least a few places
that accept donations -- like food pantries, family shelters, and schools, just to
name a few. Here’s a super comprehensive guide on running your own
donation drive, and here are some places that accept donations.
1. Collect school supplies.
2. Collect backpacks.
3. Collect grocery coupons for local food pantries to help them with costs.
4. Collect non-perishable food items.
5. Collect unused makeup to donate to domestic violence shelters.
6. Collect Halloween candy to send to deployed military service members
who can’t be home to celebrate.
7. Collect hygiene products.
8. Collect gently-used jeans for teenagers in homeless shelters.
9. Collect stuffed animals.
10. Collect SAT books and donate them to a library.
Do Things for Your Community:
Some of these take a few minutes, and others a bit longer, but they all help
out in some way. Especially try pitching in to do tasks for neighbors who can’t
do them themselves, like folks who are ill, elderly, or busy with work or
childcare.
11.Walk kids home from school.
12. Rake leaves for an elderly neighbor.
13. Mow your neighbor’s lawn.
14. Offer dog-walking services.
15. If you know another language, be a translator at parent-teacher
conferences.
16. Babysit during PTA meetings.
17. Foster a shelter animal.
18. Take and donate photos during community events.
19. Donate blood (if you’re at least 17, or 16 with parental consent).
 20. Contact your reps about local issues.
Teach Things to Your Community:
We’ve all got things that we’re good at, so why not share those skills with
others? If teaching feels a little intimidating at first, try using these tips for
teaching anything to anyone.
21. Help kids with their homework.
22. Teach underclassmen safe social media practices.
23. Give free music lessons.
24. Coach a youth sports team.
25. Educate beachgoers about sustainability.
26. Teach adults in your life internet skills.
27. Give a seminar on driving safety.
28. Teach CPR (after getting certified).
29. Help English language learners practice with conversation.
30. Teach people how to register to vote.
Fix Things in Your Community:
If you see a problem in your community, consider doing something about it!
Sometimes the best service we can do the places we love is to take care of
them.
31. Start a little, free library.
32. Place campfire safety plaques near campsites.
33. Clean up your local park.
34. Beautify your area with seed bombs.
35. Help a neighbor or community org paint fence or building.
36. Spruce up a run-down playground.
37. Help your neighbors with repairs.
38. Offer to patch up clothes and stuffed toys.
39. Organize books at the library.
40. Give IT help to local adults.
Host Things in Your Community:
Here’s your chance to flex your event-planning muscles and put on something
that will bring folks together. After all, the only thing better than community
service is doing it with friends.
41. Host a bake sale.
42. Host a clothing swap.
43. Host a holiday meal.
44. Host a competitive book drive.
45. Host activities for kids in hospitals.
46. Host a dog wash.
47. Host an immunization clinic.
48. Host a river clean-up.
49. Host a gardening party.
50. Host a study group.
Make Things For Your Community:
There’s something special about receiving a handmade gift, and we’re sure
there are plenty of people and places that would really appreciate it. Make and
send items to folks at elderly care facilities, family shelters, or hospitals to
make their days a little brighter.
51. Knit scarves or hats for families in shelters.
52. Bake cookies and snacks for food pantries.
53. Write letters to seniors in care facilities.
54. Make quilts or blankets for kids in hospitals.
55. Build birdhouses for your neighbors.
56. Make Ramadan or Eid cards for your local mosque.
57. Design a community mural.
58. Put together first aid kits for local shelters.
59. Make birthday cards for kids in homeless shelters.
60. Produce a community newsletter.
Volunteer For Things in Your Community:
The cool thing about volunteering is that you can do it just about anywhere
(even online!), so hopefully this gets you thinking. For more inspiration, we’ve
got a few other places you can volunteer and a bunch of volunteer
opportunities with DoSomething.org.
 61. Volunteer at your local library.
62. Volunteer to chaperone a field trip.
63. Volunteer with a local nonprofit.
64. Volunteer at an animal shelter.
65. Volunteer at a community center.
66. Volunteer as a lifeguard.
67. Volunteer to be a crossing guard.
68. Volunteer to do social media for a local org.
69. Volunteer to help set up a community event.
70. Volunteer at a food pantry.
Community service is one of the best ways to help benefit the public or give back to your
community. It does not only have positive effects on society, but it will bring benefits to your
life and personal development. Why is community service important? If you have ever
asked yourself this question, let’s consider some of the possible reasons.

1. Community Service Helps Connect to the

Community
Giving back and assisting others is the basis of community service or volunteering. Thus, it
teaches us how significant it is to help the ones in need, the ones who are less fortunate
than us. The importance of community service lies in the fact that it connects us to the
community by improving it, and making it a better place for all of us to live in.

2. It Benefits Your Career Prospects

When you are thinking of changing or advancing your career, community service helps you
gain experience and skills required for the professional turn you are considering taking. One
of the community service benefits is that it provides you with the chance to improve skills
important for a workplace, such as communication and organizational skills, teamwork,
planning, problem-solving and task management. Furthermore, people could first merely try
out an attractive career through volunteering before leaping to a long-term commitment.

3. Community Service Raises Social Awareness

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Here’s Why Community Service Is Important –

Top 5 Benefits

Community service is one of the best ways to help

benefit the public or give back to your community. It
does not only have positive effects on society, but it
will bring benefits to your life and personal
development. Why is community service important?
If you have ever asked yourself this question, let’s
consider some of the possible reasons.

1. Community Service Helps Connect to the

Community
Giving back and assisting others is the basis of
community service or volunteering. Thus, it teaches
us how significant it is to help the ones in need, the
ones who are less fortunate than us. The importance
of community service lies in the fact that it connects
us to the community by improving it, and making it a
better place for all of us to live in.

2. It Benefits Your Career Prospects

When you are thinking of changing or advancing
your career, community service helps you gain
experience and skills required for the professional
turn you are considering taking. One of the
community service benefits is that it provides you
with the chance to improve skills important for a
workplace, such as communication and
organizational skills, teamwork, planning,
problem-solving and task management.
Furthermore, people could first merely try out an
attractive career through volunteering before leaping
to a long-term commitment.

3. Community Service Raises Social Awareness

How does volunteering benefit the community?

Volunteering or community service provides you with
a perfect opportunity to become closer to the
community you live in. Community service broadens
your horizons by helping you understand the needs
of the society and the population you are trying to
help through the project you are volunteering on.
Reading or hearing about issues is not quite the
same as getting personally involved. It brings you
closer to families and individuals in need, gives you
firsthand experience and understanding of the
conditions they are in.

4. Community Service Establishes Contacts and

Friendships
The easiest way to make friends is through activities
you perform together. Not only would you be helping
the ones in need, but you would also be able to meet
some other volunteers. This benefit of community
service is especially important if you are new in an
area. After all, is there a better way to meet your
neighbors and show them how eager you are to
improve your community? In addition, you could
invite your existing friends to do community service
with you and through it, further strengthen your
relationship and have fun at the same time.
5. Community Service Helps Improve Your Skills
Introverts sometimes have problems meeting people
and making friends. Volunteering might help shy and
quiet individuals with this issue as it offers lots of
opportunities to meet and work with various people.
Thus, it is a valuable experience for improving and
practicing how to socialize in diverse surroundings.
On the other hand, students are advised to do
community service in order to get work-related
knowledge and skills. At the same time, it increases
their chances of getting a job since their community
involvement creates good references for potential
employers.
If you are looking for a possibility to help out the
ones in need by improving your community,
acquiring new knowledge and skills at the same
time, consider performing community work. There
are various volunteer opportunities to choose from
depending on your time and preferences. From
office work and answering emails and phone calls,
through helping out in a store and thus raising funds,
to building safe homes for whole families – let’s help
our community be a better and safer place for all of
us.

What Is Community Service?

Community service is work done by a person or

group of people that benefits others. It is often
done near the area where you live, so your own
community reaps the benefits of your work. You do
not get paid to perform community service,
though sometimes food and small gifts, like a t-shirt,
are given to volunteers.

Community service can help any group of people

in need: children, senior citizens, people with
disabilities, English language learners, and more. It
can also help animals, such as those at a shelter,
and it can be used to improve places, such as a
local park, historic building, or scenic area as well.
Community service is often organized through a
local group, such as a place of worship, school, or
non-profit organization. You can also start your own
community service projects.

Some students are required to complete community

service as part of a class requirement in order to
graduate high school or become a member of
certain organizations, such as the National Honor
Society. Adults can also participate in community
service as a way to help others or if they are ordered
to do so by a judge.

What Are Examples of Community Service?

There are hundreds of ways to participate in

community service, depending on your skills and
interests. Some common community service
examples include:

Working with schoolchildren: Tutoring children

after school, collecting school supplies to donate,
planting a school garden.
Working with senior citizens: Visiting residents of
a retirement center, delivering meals to senior
citizens, driving them to appointments.

Improving the environment: Holding a recycling

contest, planting trees, creating a new trail at a
nature center.

Helping low-income people: Passing out food at a

soup kitchen, collecting used clothes to be donated,
making first aid kits for homeless shelters.

What Are the Benefits of Community Service?

There are many benefits of participating in

community service, and some of the most important
ones are listed below.

Have the opportunity to help others: This is often

the most important benefit of community service.
Participating in it gives you the opportunity to know
that you are improving someone's life and making
your community better, and you get to see the direct
impact of your work.

Gain hands-on experience: You can learn a lot of

skills while performing community service such as
construction, painting, customer service, and
medical skills. You can also include your community
service work on your resume.

Learn about different careers: Sometimes you can

focus your community service in a field you may
want to work in down the road. Some examples of
this include volunteering at an animal shelter if you
are thinking about becoming a veterinarian, working
at a hospital if you want to be a doctor, or
volunteering in a museum if you like history. The
experience gained from community service can help
you get an internship or job in the future, and it also
gives you the opportunity to see how much you
would really enjoy a particular career.
Personal growth: Doing community service has
personal benefits as well. It often makes participants
more organized, responsible, and compassionate,
which are all good qualities to have, as well as
qualities that both colleges and employers like to see
in applicants.

Gain new friends: A final benefit is that you can

meet a lot of great people while doing community
service. Community service is often done in groups,
so it’s easy to make friends with the people you are
working with. You may also become friends with the
people you are helping, especially if you volunteer at
the same place regularly.

Community Service: Top 10 Reasons to

Volunteer

#10: It’s good for you.

Volunteering provides physical and mental
rewards. It:

● Reduces stress: Experts report that when

you focus on someone other than yourself,
it interrupts usual tension-producing
patterns.
● Makes you healthier: Moods and
emotions, like optimism, joy, and control
over one’s fate, strengthen the immune
system.

#9: It saves resources.

Volunteering provides valuable community
services so more money can be spent on local
improvements.

● The estimated value of a volunteer’s time is

$15.39 per hour.
#8: Volunteers gain professional experience.

#7: It brings people together.

As a volunteer you assist in:

● Uniting people from diverse backgrounds

to work toward a common goal
● Building camaraderie and teamwork

#6: It promotes personal growth and

self-esteem.
Understanding community needs helps foster
empathy and self-efficacy.

#5: Volunteering strengthens your community.

As a volunteer you help:

● Support families (daycare and eldercare)

● Improve schools (tutoring, literacy)
 ● Support youth (mentoring and
after-school programs)
● Beautify the community (beach and park
cleanups)

#4: You learn a lot.

Volunteers learn things like these:

● Self: Volunteers discover hidden talents

that may change your view on your self
worth.
● Government: Through working with local
non-profit agencies, volunteers learn about
the functions and operation of our
government.
● Community: Volunteers gain knowledge
of local resources available to solve
community needs.

#3: You get a chance to give back.

People like to support community resources
that they use themselves or that benefit
people they care about.

#2: Volunteering encourages civic

responsibility.
Community service and volunteerism are an
investment in our community and the people
who live in it.

#1: You make a difference.

Every person counts! (Center for Student
Involvement, UC San Diego)

Tips for Getting Started Volunteering

First, ask yourself if there is something specific
you want to do.
For example, do I want…

…to make it better around where I live

…to meet people who are different from me

…to try something new

…to do something with my spare time

…to see a different way of life and new places

…to have a go at the type of work I might want

to do as a full-time job

…to do more with my interests and hobbies

…to do something I’m good at

The best way to volunteer is to match your

personality and interests. Having answers to
these questions will help you narrow down
your search.
Benefits of Community Service

Benefits of volunteering #1: Volunteering

connects you to others
One of the better-known benefits of
volunteering is the impact on the community.
Unpaid volunteers are often the glue that
holds a community together. Volunteering
allows you to connect to your community and
make it a better place. Even helping out with
the smallest tasks can make a real difference
to the lives of people, animals, and
organizations in need. And volunteering is a
two-way street: It can benefit you and your
family as much as the cause you choose to
help. Dedicating your time as a volunteer
helps you make new friends, expand your
network, and boost your social skills.

Volunteering helps you make new friends and

contacts
One of the best ways to make new friends and
strengthen existing relationships is to commit
to a shared activity together. Volunteering is a
great way to meet new people, especially if
you are new to an area. Volunteering also
strengthens your ties to the community and
broadens your support network, exposing you
to people with common interests,
neighborhood resources, and fun and fulfilling
activities.

Volunteering increases your social and

relationship skills
While some people are naturally outgoing,
others are shy and have a hard time meeting
new people. Volunteering gives you the
opportunity to practice and develop your
social skills, since you are meeting regularly
with a group of people with common
interests. Once you have momentum, it’s
easier to branch out and make more friends
and contacts.

Volunteering as a family
While it might be a challenge to coordinate
everyone’s schedules, volunteering as a family
has many worthwhile benefits. Children watch
everything you do. By giving back to the
community, you show them firsthand how
volunteering makes a difference and how
good it feels to help other people and animals
and enact change. It’s also a valuable way for
you to get to know organizations in the
community and find resources and activities
for your children and family.

Benefits of volunteering #2: Volunteering is

good for your mind and body
Volunteering provides many benefits to both
mental and physical health.

● Volunteering increases self-confidence.

Volunteering can provide a healthy boost
to your self-confidence, self-esteem, and
life satisfaction. You are doing good for
others and the community, which provides
a natural sense of accomplishment. Your
role as a volunteer can also give you a
sense of pride and identity. And the better
you feel about yourself, the more likely you
 are to have a positive view of your life and
future goals.
● Volunteering combats depression.
Reducing the risk of depression is another
important benefit of volunteering. A key
risk factor for depression is social isolation.
Volunteering keeps you in regular contact
with others and helps you develop a solid
support system, which in turn protects you
against stress and depression when you’re
going through challenging times. Working
with pets and other animals has also been
shown to improve mood and reduce stress
and anxiety.
● Volunteering helps you stay physically
healthy.
Volunteering is good for your health at any
age, but it’s especially beneficial in older
adults. Studies have found that those who
volunteer have a lower mortality rate than
those who do not, even when considering
factors like the health of the participants.
Volunteering has also been shown to
 lessen symptoms of chronic pain or heart
disease.

I have limited mobility—can I still volunteer?

Whether due to a lack of transportation, time
constraints, a disability or other reasons, many
people prefer to volunteer via phone or
computer. There are many projects where you
can help. Writing and graphic design lends
itself to working at home, and in today’s digital
age many organizations might also need help
with email and websites.

If you think home-based volunteering might

be right for you, contact organizations you like
and ask what some of the possibilities might
be. Some volunteer organizations may require
you to attend an initial training or periodical
meetings. You also want to make sure that you
are getting enough social contact, and that
the organization is available to support you
should you have questions.

Volunteering: The happiness effect

Helping others kindles happiness, as many
studies have demonstrated. When researchers
at the London School of Economics examined
the relationship between volunteering and
measures of happiness in a large group of
American adults, they found the more people
volunteered, the happier they were, according
to a study in Social Science and Medicine.
Compared with people who never
volunteered, the odds of being “very happy”
rose 7% among those who volunteer monthly
and 12% for people who volunteer every two to
four weeks. Among weekly volunteers, 16% felt
very happy—a hike in happiness comparable
to having an income of $75,000–$100,000
versus $20,000, say the researchers.

Adapted with permission from Simple

Changes, Big Rewards: A Practical, Easy
Guide for Healthy, Happy Living, a special
health report published by Harvard Health
Publications.

Benefits of volunteering #3: Volunteering can

advance your career
If you’re considering a new career,
volunteering can help you get experience in
your area of interest and meet people in the
field. Even if you’re not planning on changing
careers, volunteering gives you the
opportunity to practice important skills used
in the workplace, such as teamwork,
communication, problem solving, project
planning, task management, and
organization. You might feel more
comfortable stretching your wings at work
once you’ve honed these skills in a volunteer
position first.

Volunteering can provide career experience

Volunteering offers you the chance to try out a
new career without making a long-term
commitment. It is also a great way to gain
experience in a new field. In some fields, you
can volunteer directly at an organization that
does the kind of work you’re interested in. For
example, if you’re interested in nursing, you
could volunteer at a hospital or a nursing
home. Your volunteer work might also expose
you to professional organizations or
internships that could be of benefit to your
career.

Volunteering can teach you valuable job skills

Just because volunteer work is unpaid does
not mean the skills you learn are basic. Many
volunteering opportunities provide extensive
training. For example, you could become an
experienced crisis counselor while
volunteering for a women’s shelter or a
knowledgeable art historian while donating
your time as a museum docent.

Volunteering can also help you build upon

skills you already have and use them to benefit
the greater community. For instance, if you
hold a successful sales position, you raise
awareness for your favorite cause as a
volunteer advocate, while further developing
and improving your public speaking,
communication, and marketing skills.

When it comes to volunteering, passion and

positivity are the only requirements
While learning new skills can be beneficial to
many, it’s not a requirement for a fulfilling
volunteer experience. Bear in mind that the
most valuable skills you can bring to any
volunteer effort are compassion, an open
mind, a willingness to do whatever is needed,
and a positive attitude.
Benefits of volunteering #4: Volunteering
brings fun and fulfillment to your life
Volunteering is a fun and easy way to explore
your interests and passions. Doing volunteer
work you find meaningful and interesting can
be a relaxing, energizing escape from your
day-to-day routine of work, school, or family
commitments. Volunteering also provides you
with renewed creativity, motivation, and vision
that can carry over into your personal and
professional life.

Many people volunteer in order to make time

for hobbies outside of work as well. For
instance, if you have a desk job and long to
spend time outdoors, you might consider
volunteering to help plant a community
garden, walk dogs for an animal shelter, or
help out at a children’s camp. (UC San Diego)

Community Service: A Family's Guide to

Getting Involved

It's easy to feel disconnected, as many parents

juggle work, school, kids, and activity after activity.
But some simple things can bring a family closer
— playing a game, going for a hike, or cooking a
meal together.

One of the most satisfying, fun, and productive

ways to unite is volunteering for community
service projects. Volunteerism also sets a good
example for your kids and helps the community.
Reasons to Get Involved

Why should your family lend a helping hand?

● It feels good. The satisfaction and pride that

come from helping others are important
reasons to volunteer. When you commit your
time and effort to an organization or a cause
you feel strongly about, the feeling of
fulfillment can be endless.
● It strengthens your community.
Organizations and agencies that use
volunteers are providing important services at
low or no cost to those who need them. When
a community is doing well as a whole, its
individuals are better off, too.
● It can strengthen your family. Volunteering
is a great way for families to have fun and feel
closer. But it can be hard to find the time to
volunteer. So try rethinking some of your free
time as a family. You could select just one or
two projects a year and make them a family
tradition (for example, making and donating
 gift baskets to care facilities for the elderly
around the holidays).

What Kids Can Learn From Volunteering

If volunteering begins at an early age, it can

become part of kids' lives — something they might
just expect and want to do.

It can teach them:

● A sense of responsibility. Kids and teens

learn what it means to make and keep a
commitment. They learn how to be on time for
a job, do their best, and be proud of the
results. But they also learn that, ultimately,
we're all responsible for the well-being of our
communities.
● That one person can make a difference. A
wonderful, empowering message for kids is
 that they're important enough to have an
impact on someone or something else.
● The benefit of sacrifice. By giving up a toy to
a less fortunate child, a child learns that
sometimes it's good to sacrifice and that there
are important things besides ourselves and
our immediate needs.
● Tolerance. Working in community service can
bring kids and teens in touch with people of
different backgrounds, abilities, ethnicities,
ages, and education and income levels.
They'll learn that even the most diverse
individuals can be united by common values.
● Job skills. Community service can help
young people decide on their future careers.
Are they interested in the medical field?
Hospitals and clinics often have teenage
volunteer programs. Do they love politics?
Kids can work on the real campaigns of local
political candidates. Learning to work as a
team member, taking on leadership roles,
setting project goals — these are all skills that
can be gained by volunteering and will serve
kids well in any future career.
 ● How to fill idle time wisely. If kids aren't
involved in traditional after-school activities,
community service can be a wonderful
alternative.

Getting Your Family Involved

The Internet offers lots of sites with information

about volunteer opportunities. You can also call a
favorite charity, hospital, or church directly to see
if they have any needs. Or contact a local
volunteer clearinghouse, which matches up
volunteers and community organizations and can
help you find openings at nonprofit organizations
in your area.

When looking for a volunteer position, remember

that it may be difficult to find the perfect volunteer
slot. Be flexible, and keep looking if the agency
you were referred to doesn't meet your needs. It
may take a while to find a perfect fit, but once you
do, it will be worth it.

Good Volunteer Jobs for Families and Kids

Families can do many volunteer jobs. Even the

smallest child (with adult supervision) can pick up
garbage at the park, playground, or beach. You
don't even have to be part of a big effort to do this.
Get your family together, find some garbage bags,
and head out.

Or become involved in repair and renovation

efforts for low-income residents. Younger kids
might not be able to do the big jobs, but helping
out by fetching a paintbrush or holding the nails
involves them just the same.

Work at a community food bank or soup kitchen

as a family. Find an organization that serves the
elderly. Take food to people who are homebound
and visit with them. Your kids can brighten a
 lonely senior's day instantly. Offer your family's
help at the local animal shelter. Help plant flowers
or trees. The possibilities are endless.

Whatever you choose to do, volunteering and

community service can benefit both the
community and your family. Get involved today!

Most importantly, students learn that the work they

do can make a real impact in the world. By getting
involved in community service at a young age,
children also:

1. Develop a Richer Perspective of the World They

Live In

Volunteering is an essential part of preparing

students to "take responsibility as open minded,
principled citizens in a global community." While
performing community service, children have the
opportunity to see first-hand just how much their
work can have an impact on the world. Many of our
students at Whitby volunteer locally at food shelves,
animal shelters, in retirement communities, and even
at orphanages abroad. They get to interact with
people who have vastly different backgrounds, and
learn patience and empathy as they develop a global
perspective.

For example, Grade 5 Whitby students recently

partnered with students in Grades 1 and 2 to host a
"Green" (used) Book Fair. Through the sales of
donated books, the children were able to donate
money to help other children at Chester Addison
Community Center in Stamford.
2. Connect What They Learn in School to the Real
World

Community service gives students an opportunity to

explore academic interests through a real world
lense. If a child is intrigued when he or she learns
about recycling in school, for example, they can pick
up recyclables from local businesses and take them
to a local recycling center to see the impact
firsthand. Volunteering during an election can help
them learn more about how the government
functions, or cleaning up the Long Island Sound can
help them learn more about environmental issues
firsthand.

We've found that when students connect what

they're learning in school to issues that actually
matters in real life, they throw themselves into
learning. Research also back this up. Studies show
that students who give back to the community
perform better in school, particularily in subjects
such as math, reading, and history. Furthermore,
students who participate in community service are
also more likely to graduate from high school.

3. Get Ahead in the College Admissions Process

As admission to elite colleges and universities has

become more competitive, volunteer experience can
prove an advantage in the college admissions
process. For that reason, many students start doing
community service projects as they advance through
high school. Students who begin earlier, however,
have a distinct advantage because their breadth of
experience allows them to quickly step up to
leadership positions within organizations.

Starting community service before high school also

has many other benefits for students. Those extra
years of volunteering give students a leg up when
applying for scholarships—especially scholarships
that are designed to reward participation in
community service. The relationships students build
with other volunteers also work to their advantage
when it comes time to ask for letters of
recommendation for college applications and
scholarships.

Numerous studies demonstrate the effectiveness

of university-based community service programs
on students’ personal, social, ethical, and
academic domains. These effects depend on both,
the characteristics of students enrolled and the
characteristics of the programs, for instance
whether they are voluntary or mandatory. Our
study investigates whether effects of voluntary
service programs are indeed caused by the service
experience or by prior self-selection. Using data
from a pre–post quasi-experimental design
conducted at a public university in Europe and
taking students’ socioeconomic background into
account, our findings on self-efficacy, generalized
trust, empathic concern, and attributions for
poverty show that there are no participation
effects. Instead, students who join in community
service differ significantly from nonparticipants with
regard to almost all investigated domains a priori,
indicating strong self-selection. Our results
underline the importance of structured group
reflection, most notably with regard to
attitude-related topics.

Keywords

volunteering, community service learning,

self-efficacy, empathic concern, generalized trust,
attributions for poverty

Community service has been established at many

universities in North America and beyond. As a
form of experiential learning, it provides students
with the opportunity to engage in authentic
activities outside the classroom. Scholars widely
agree that community service has a positive
impact on students’ personal, social, ethical, and
academic domains (e.g., Astin & Sax, 1998;
Hooghe, 2003; Seider, Rabinowicz, & Gillmor,
2011; Stukas, Clary, & Snyder, 1999; Yoa, 2008).
Especially for students in their late adolescence, a
period considered sensitive for the development of
civic engagement (van Goethem, van Hoof, Orobio
de Castro, Van Aken, & Hart, 2014), the
“transformative potential” (Jones, Gilbride-Brown,
& Gasiorski, 2005) of community service has been
demonstrated frequently (Celio, Durlak, &
Dymnicki, 2011; Yorio & Ye, 2012). For instance,
students’ service experience relates with clarifying
their career goals (Yoa, 2008), civic responsibility
(Astin & Sax, 1998), and self-efficacy
(Vogelgesang & Astin, 2000).

Opportunities to engage in community service

have steadily increased during the last decades
(Griffith, 2012). Not all students enrolled in such
programs, however, are indeed transformed by
their experiences (Jones et al., 2005). First, this is
because the impact of such programs may be
moderated by participants’ characteristics, as a
meta-analysis of 49 single studies reveals (van
Goethem et al., 2014). Students’ abilities to
engage with their community service course
largely “depend on the intersection of their own
sociocultural backgrounds,” and this becomes
especially apparent in environments where
privileged university students meet with community
service beneficiaries that are mostly from
out-groups (Jones et al., 2005, p. 4). So far, the
issue of students’ background related to
service-program outcomes has not received much
attention (van Goethem et al., 2014), and there is a
dearth of critical analysis of the effects of service
learning (Deeley, 2010). Second, the outcomes of
service programs may also be owed to the
characteristics of the program, for example,
whether it is voluntarily or mandatory (Furco, 2002;
Raskoff & Sundeen, 2001; van Goethem et al.,
2014). In the United States, more than 80% of
students engage in community service on a
voluntary basis (Griffith, 2012). In some states,
countries or universities, however, participation is
mandatory (van Goethem et al., 2014).

Above all, it is still unclear whether the impact of

voluntary community service is caused by the
service experience itself or because students with
specific traits or background characteristics
self-select into the program (Hooghe, 2003;
Quintelier, 2013). Research on volunteering
supports the latter. Bekkers (2012), for example,
found that volunteers’ higher levels of generalized
trust can be ascribed to self-selection rather than
to participation. Self-selection may also reinforce
or suppress participation effects (e.g., Wilson &
Musick, 1999).

Our study particularly addresses these two issues,

students’ background characteristics and the
obligatory nature of the program. We employ data
from a quasi-experimental design with pre–post
control-group comparisons that makes it possible
to distinguish between the effects of participation
and students’ self-selection. We focus on students’
levels of self-efficacy, empathic concern and
generalized trust as well as their attributions for
poverty.

First, we assess students’ self-selection and

examine whether participants differ from
nonparticipants in terms of the domains mentioned
above and in terms of their socioeconomic
background. Second, we look at participation
effects and analyze how students who participated
developed in those domains compared with
nonparticipants. To do so, we collected and
analyzed data from a large public university in
Austria in 2011. The findings enable us to
contribute to the discussion of causes and
outcomes of voluntary community service, and to
examine self-selection and the effects of
participation for various groups of students.

Answers to these questions are crucial for the

implementation of such programs, above all as
service programs spread increasingly across
European higher education. Thus, our findings are
relevant for learning about the characteristics and
the conditions that moderate the outcomes of
community service and for identifying associations
 with students’ socioeconomic background. Beyond
this, they might also inspire research on the effects
of volunteering.

We structure our article as follows. First, we

discuss prior findings on university-based service
programs and derive hypotheses. Then we report
on data collection and the measures applied, and,
finally, we present our results and discuss our
findings.

Effects of Service Programs

Previous research on the effects of service

programs, including five meta-analyses (Celio et
al., 2011; Conway, Amel, & Gerwien, 2009; Novak,
Markey, & Allen, 2007; van Goethem et al., 2014;
Yorio & Ye, 2012), generally supports the
presumption that community service is beneficial
for adolescents (Driscoll, Holland, Gelmon, &
Kerrigan, 1996; Eyler & Giles, 1999). In particular,
evidence has been provided regarding students’
personality (e.g., self-concept, self-efficacy, and
self-esteem), social attitudes (e.g., social
responsibility, civic engagement, reducing
stereotypes), learning (e.g., outcomes, course
grades, and attitudes), career development, ethical
values, and the ability to take responsibility and to
deal with the consequences of actions (Celio et al.,
2011; Pless, Maak, & Stahl, 2011; Yorio & Ye,
2012). Although most studies claim a positive
impact on these dimensions, the effects on
students’ outcome may also depend on the
characteristics of the program, for example, the
type of reflection or if it is optional or mandatory
(e.g., Furco, 2002; van Goethem et al., 2014).
Regarding the latter, there is a debate about
whether participation should be mandated or not.
Scholars argue, on one hand, that mandatory
programs yield poorer learning outcomes for
students who are less inclined to participate. They
also undermine students’ intrinsic motivation and
thus reduce their future willingness to volunteer
(e.g., Chan, Ngai, & Kwan, 2017; Clary, Snyder, &
Stukas, 1998). On the other hand, mandatory
programs bring students to volunteering who would
not have done so otherwise, thus providing an
opportunity to make new experiences as civic
actors (e.g., Henderson, Brown, Pancer, &
Ellis-Hale, 2007; Metz & Youniss, 2005). There are
also studies that do not find a negative association
(e.g., Henney, Hackett, & Porreca, 2017) or that
even discern a positive association between
mandatory participation and students’ future
volunteering (Henderson et al., 2007). Again other
studies reveal that mandatory programs have no
effect on students’ intentions to volunteer. Those
who volunteer free of will, however, are more likely
to say that they will volunteer in the future than
those who perceive their volunteering externally
controlled (Stukas et al., 1999). Mandatory
programs’ negative impact on students’ learning
outcome is contested, too, as studies find no
differences in the effects of mandatory or voluntary
programs on students’ civil, social, or personal
domains (e.g., Chan et al., 2017; Henderson et al.,
2007; Yorio & Ye, 2012).

Insights on this issue are also provided by

literature on the effects of volunteering on the
volunteer (Wilson & Musick, 1999). It not only
reveals significant differences between volunteers
and nonvolunteers with respect to traits and
attitudes (Taniguchi & Thomas, 2011; van Tienen,
Scheepers, Reitsma, & Schilderman, 2011; Wilson,
2000), but also shows that the intention to
volunteer is associated with self-efficacy, social
values, understanding, empathy, and sense of
social justice (Jiranek, Kals, Humm, Strubel, &
Wehner, 2013). Whereas studies suggest that
effects of self-selection are stronger than
participation effects (Bekkers, 2012), those effects
have not been investigated yet for students’
voluntary community service. Hence, we analyze
how students’ participation in a voluntary
community service program is related with their
self-efficacy, empathic concern, generalized trust,
and external and internal attributions for poverty.
Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy is defined as an individual’s “belief in

one’s capabilities to organize and execute the
courses of action required to manage prospective
situations” (Bandura, 1995, p. 2). According to this
concept from Bandura’s (1977) socio-cognitive
theory, “. . . expectations of personal efficacy
determine whether coping behavior is initiated,
how much effort will be expended, and how long it
will be sustained in the face of obstacles and
aversive experiences” (p. 191).

Although most studies show that community

service is positively related with students’
self-efficacy (Morgan & Streb, 2001, 2002;
Vogelgesang & Astin, 2000), some do not support
this finding. Lakin and Mahoney (2006), for
instance, report that changes in self-efficacy were
not significant for participating middle-school
students. They argue that participation merely
mitigates a usual decline of self-efficacy during
adolescence. Likewise, Gerholz and
Slepcevic-Zach (2015) did not find any impact on
students’ self-efficacy. From other studies,
however, we learn that self-efficacy might be a
predictor of voluntary engagement, including
community service (Eyler, Giles, & Braxton, 1997;
Giles & Eyler, 1994). We, therefore, assume both
self-selection and participation effects. Compared
to nonparticipating students, students who
participate in community service display a

● Hypothesis 1a (H1a): higher level of

self-efficacy at t1.
● Hypothesis 1b (H1b): stronger increase of
self-efficacy between t1 and t2.

Empathic Concern
Scholars studying empathy usually distinguish
between cognitive and affective aspects. The first
refers to adopting another’s views, whereas the
latter delineates emotional responses of
compassion, concern, and the tender feelings for
others, referred to as empathic concern (M. A.
Brown, 2011; Davis, 1994). Research suggests
that service programs relate positively with the
affective component in particular (Jones & Hill,
2003; Mitani, 2014), mainly because they confront
students with the community (M. A. Brown, 2011).
A helper’s empathic concern is higher if help is
given to distant others and helpful actions are
unplanned (Einolf, 2008). Empathic concern also
correlates with volunteering. Volunteers show
higher empathic concern than nonvolunteers
(Bekkers, 2005; Finkelstein & Brannick, 2007;
Mitani, 2014). An experimental study by Brunelle,
Danish, and Forneris (2007) confirmed that
community-service participation strengthens
empathic concern, too. Causality, however,
remains unclear (Mitani, 2014; van Tienen et al.,
2011; Wilhelm & Bekkers, 2010). Thus, we assume
that empathic concern selects into community
service, and that community service enhances
empathic concern. Compared to nonparticipating
students, those who participate in community
service display a

● Hypothesis 2a (H2a): higher level of empathic

concern at t1.
● Hypothesis 2b (H2b): stronger increase of
empathic concern between t1and t2.

Generalized Trust
It is widely assumed that voluntary engagement
strengthens generalized trust (Brehm & Rahn,
1997; Claibourn & Martin, 2000; Jennings &
Stoker, 2004), defined as “an abstract
preparedness to trust others and to engage in
actions with others” (Stolle, 2001, p. 205).
Although Putnam (2000) claims that this
relationship is reciprocal, others call the
assumption that volunteering creates trust simply
“a mistake” (Uslaner, 2002, p. 4). They argue that
trust is a fairly stable personality trait that is
shaped in earlier life stages. Although volunteers
display higher levels of trust than nonvolunteers
(Bekkers & Schuyt, 2008; E. Brown, 1999; Caputo,
2009), longitudinal analyses or analyses with
lagged variables did not find any causality between
volunteering and trust (Bekkers, 2012; Gross,
Aday, & Brewer, 2004; Hooghe, 2003; Jennings &
Stoker, 2004; van Ingen & Bekkers, 2015).

Although these findings rather suggest a selection

rather than a participation effect, they do not
completely exclude that participation also breeds
trust, for example, for individuals adapting to new
milieus (van Ingen & Bekkers, 2015) and for
adolescents who are confronted with
heterogeneous encounters (Flanagan, Gill, &
Gallay, 2014; Flanagan & Stout, 2010). Therefore,
we add the following two hypotheses:

Compared to nonparticipating students, those who

participate in community service display a

● Hypothesis 3a (H3a): higher level of

generalized trust at t1.
● Hypothesis 3b (H3b): stronger increase in
generalized trust between t1 and t2.
Attributions for Poverty

Beliefs about the causes of poverty are crucial for

the perception of social justice. In particular,
believing that poverty is caused by either structure
or agency indicates whether individuals support
welfare policies aimed to reduce poverty.
Individuals’ attributions for poverty are related with
social class, political affiliation, religiosity, gender,
and age (Bullock, 1999). Although it is difficult to
modify such attributions, experiential learning can
alter them (Seider, Gillmor, & Rabinowicz, 2011;
Yorio & Ye, 2012). Prior research has distinguished
between two attributional directions: individualistic
(internal) and structural (external; Seider, Gillmor,
& Rabinowicz, 2011; Seider, Rabinowicz, &
Gillmor, 2011).
Attributions for poverty and community service
relate in some ways. First, students’ majors play a
role. Those majoring in business are more inclined
to internal attribution than students with social
science majors (Meier & Frey, 2004; Seider,
Gillmor, & Rabinowicz, 2011). Second,
participating in community service links with
increased awareness for inequality and poverty,
that is, external attributions (Seider, Gillmor, &
Rabinowicz, 2011). Therefore, we assume both
self-selection and participation effects, suggesting
four more hypotheses:

Compared to nonparticipating students, those who

participate in community service display a

● Hypothesis 4a (H4a): higher level of external

attribution for poverty at t1.
 ● Hypothesis 4b (H4b): stronger increase in the
external attribution for poverty between t1 and t2.
● Hypothesis 5a (H5a): lower level of internal
attribution for poverty at t1.
● Hypothesis 5b (H5b): stronger decrease in the
internal attribution for poverty between t1 and t2.

Method and Data

Sample Description

We use data from pre–post quasi-experiments with

students who participated in a community service
program at WU Vienna, a large public business
university in Austria. Data were collected by us in
2011, comprising a sample of 63 students taking
part in the program (treatment group) and 362
students not taking part (control group, Table 1).
 Table 1. Descriptives and Bivariate
Analysis Testing for Group
Differences (Self-Selection) and
Nonresponse Bias.

Table 1. Descriptives and Bivariate Analysis

Testing for Group Differences (Self-Selection)
and Nonresponse Bias.

View larger version

The community service program offers students

the opportunity of being a “buddy” or mentor for
children from disadvantaged groups, most of them
refugees. The goal of the program is to support
these children with their schoolwork, to offer them
positive role models and to foster their integration.
It also enables students to work with a nonprofit
and aims to strengthen their personal, civic, and
ethical development. Each student meets with a
child at least once a week and supports him or her
in educational and social issues. Students have
also to participate in training and reflection
sessions. In total, they spend about 80 hours with
their mentees, attend seminars of about 35 hours,
and group supervision of about 10 hours per year.

Participation in this program is voluntary. To take

part, students have to apply with a CV and a letter
of motivation. They have to commit for at least half
a year and do not receive any credit points for
participation. If there is any doubt as to whether a
particular applicant fits into the program, a
personal interview is conducted to review the
application. All students who meet these minimal
requirements are accepted. Thus, taking part in the
program is primarily a question of self-selection.

Students participating in this program filled in a

questionnaire before taking part (pretreatment
measurement, t1) and a year thereafter
(posttreatment measurement, t2), containing
measures for self-efficacy, empathic concern,
generalized trust, and attributions for poverty.1 In
addition, we collected data on students’ prior
voluntary engagement and their socioeconomic
background, including family income during
childhood and their parents’ highest level of
education. To assess self-selection (Quintelier,
2013), a control group filled in the questionnaire at
the same two points in time. Overall, we analyzed
data from 425 students.
Measurement and Scales

To measure self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977), we

applied the German version of the general
self-efficacy scale (GSE) developed by Schwarzer
and Jerusalem (1995, see Table 2). This 10-item
scale is available in 31 languages. Cronbach’s
alphas range from .76 to .90.2 The normalized
German GSE means are 3.89 (males) and 3.71
(females; Hinz, Schumacher, Albani, Schmid,
Brähler, 2006). In our sample, the means are 3.89
and 3.63. Cronbach’s alpha is .84 (pretreatment)
and .86 (posttreatment).

For measuring generalized trust, we applied a

two-item scale originally developed by Rosenberg
(1956) and recently adopted by Bekkers (2003,
2012), reading as “In general, most people can be
trusted” and “You can’t be too careful in dealing
with other people.” As this scale yielded
unsatisfactory reliability measures (Cronbach’s
alpha ≤ .1 at pre- and posttreatment), we omitted
the second item (van Ingen & Bekkers, 2015).3

For measuring the attributions for poverty, we

applied a scale of eight items adapted from the
Attributions for Poverty measure (Seider, Gillmor, &
Rabinowicz, 2011). We adjusted the scale to the
national context, arriving at four items representing
statements of external and four items of internal
attributions (Table 3). Cronbach’s alphas are .67
(pretreatment) and .73 (posttreatment) for the
external and .80 (pre- and posttreatment) for the
internal scale. Within the questionnaire, the items
were randomly mixed up with those of the other
scales (e.g., self-efficacy).

To control for students’ socioeconomic

background, we collected data on their gender,
age, and country of birth. Two dichotomous
variables measure whether they are currently
employed and whether they are currently engaged
in additional volunteering. Further variables
measure the highest level of education of both
students’ mother and father (primary, secondary, or
tertiary education) and the monthly disposable
family income during students’ childhood
(measured by five categories). Finally, the
community type during students’ childhood,
measured by the number of inhabitants, was
surveyed.

Nonresponse Bias

To check for a nonresponse bias, we examined

whether students who completed the questionnaire
at posttreatment differ systematically from those
who did not complete it. Regarding our key
variables on self-efficacy, empathic concern,
generalized trust, and attributions for poverty, no
significant differences between the responders and
nonresponders were revealed indicating no
nonresponse bias. Nevertheless, we observed a
nonresponse bias with regard to current
volunteering (p = .014), type of community during
childhood (p = .032) and fathers’ level of highest
education (p = .028) in the treatment group. At the
posttreatment measurement, the percentage of
those who volunteer (37.5% vs. 69.6%), of those
who live in large communities (more than 3,00,000
inhabitants; 12.8% vs. 34.8%), and of those with a
father who has completed tertiary education
(30.0% vs. 60.9%) is significantly lower among the
responders compared with the nonresponders.
Within the control group, we observed a gender
bias. The percentage of females in the
posttreatment responders group is significantly
higher than in the group of nonresponders (79.4%
vs. 54.7%; p < .001). We thus have to be cautious
to interpret results in terms of these variables.

Analysis
To test our hypotheses, we applied t tests for
analyzing self-selection and a repeated measure
analysis of variance (ANOVA; Bortz & Döring,
2006; Girden, 1992) for assessing participation
effects. Self-selection is given when there is a
difference between the control and the treatment
group in pretreatment measures, also referred to
as the “group effect.” If there is a difference
between pretreatment and posttreatment
measures regardless of group affiliation (control
and treatment group together), we call it the time
effect. The interaction between group and time
effect is what we call participation effect. This
refers to changes between pre- and posttreatment
measures within the treatment group compared
with changes between pre- and posttreatment
measures within the control group. In addition to
the statistical significance (p value), ηp2)
represents the estimated effect and the percentage
of the explained variance. Although there is an
ongoing discussion on the validity of those effect
sizes (Richardson, 2011), ηp2) values below 0.01
can be interpreted as small, values up to 0.06 as
medium, and values above 0.14 are classified as
large effects.

In addition, we investigate whether self-selection is

associated with students’ socioeconomic
background. We first test for differences between
the treatment and the control group using bivariate
analysis (Pearsons Chi square, t test;
Mann–Whitney U test) and then apply logistic
regressions. Furthermore, we deploy linear
regression analysis to explore whether students
with certain socioeconomic background
characteristics might benefit of the program more
than others. Therefore, we conduct a regression
on each of our five domains at the posttreatment
measures and include the measures on the
respective scale from the pretreatment measures,
a dummy for treatment or control group and all
socioeconomic variables as controls. For dealing
with missing data, we apply listwise deletion in the
regression analyses and testwise deletion for
bivariate tests. Correlation tables are available in
the supplemental material.

Self-Selection

Descriptive statistics suggest self-selection for all

investigated domains into the hypothesized
direction, and bivariate analyses confirm these
results with the exception of self-efficacy (Table 1).

There is no significant (p = .334) difference in the

mean level of self-efficacy between the treatment
group and the control group (M = 3.76, M = 3.69;
Hedges’s g = 0.13). Therefore, H1a has to be
rejected. When compared with the normalized data
set from Germany (Hinz et al., 2006), neither group
differs significantly from the overall population.

In contrast, results report a significant

self-selection effect concerning empathic concern.
The mean level of empathic concern in the
treatment group (4.07) is significantly (p = .012;
Hedges’s g = .38) higher than in the control group
(3.80). Consequently, H2a is supported. Results
for generalized trust also confirm our hypothesis.
The mean is significantly higher (p = .010;
Hedges’s g = .37) in the treatment group (M =
2.97) than in the control group (M = 2.58). There is
a significant effect of self-selection for external
attributions for poverty, too. Participating students
score significantly (p < .001 Hedges’s g = .59)
higher (M = 3.64) than the members of the control
group (M = 3.28). For internal attributions for
poverty, participants score significantly (p < .001;
Hedges’s g = .65) lower (M = 2.23) than the
members of the control group (M = 2.74). Thus,
both H4a and H5a are supported.

We next analyze whether students’ socioeconomic

background moderates our findings on
self-selection. Bivariate analyses indicate that the
pretreatment measures differ significantly between
treatment and control group with regard to gender
(p = .010) and volunteering experience (p = .025).
Female students are overrepresented in the
treatment group (78.7% vs. 61.5%), and those
currently volunteering are underrepresented
(49.2% vs. 64.1%; ). Logistic regressions on the
likelihood of being in the treatment or in the control
group affirm that gender and volunteering are
significantly associated with self-selection (Exp(B)
= 1.97; p = .053; Exp(B) = .577; p = .066; Model 1,
Nevertheless, further logistic regression analyses
confirm that the significant difference between the
treatment and the control group regarding
empathic concern, generalized trust and both
external and internal attributions for poverty still
remain when controlling for students’
socioeconomic background characteristics (Model
3 to Model 6, ). The level of students’ self-efficacy,
however, does not differ significantly (Model
2,)Summing up, we find empirical support for H2a
to H5a. We observed a significant self-selection
effect at pretreatment for empathic concern,
generalized trust, and attributions for poverty. H1a
 is not confirmed, as there is no significant
difference between the two groups regarding their
level of self-efficacy. All findings have been
consistently corroborated by multivariate analyses
including students’ socioeconomic background
characteristics.

Participation Effect

The estimated marginal means for the treatment

group and the control group on each of the
supposed outcomes (repeated measure ANOVA).
The corresponding means (M), standard deviations
(SD), and effect sizes (Hedges’s g and Cohen’s d)
are provided.
We find no support for any participation effect on
self-efficacy. Neither is there a time nor a
treatment effect (group × time: F = 0.27; p = .602).
The mean levels of self-efficacy of the control
group (t1 = 3.66, t2 = 3.68) and treatment group (t1
= 3.81; t2 = 3.88) do not differ significantly. Neither
we find any significant treatment effect for
empathic concern (F = 0.382; p = .537). Although
the mean level within the control group increases
slightly from M = 3.80 to M = 3.86, the level of
empathic concern for the treatment group remains
almost the same (t1 = 4.09, t2 = 4.07; Table 5).

Likewise, for generalized trust, no significant

participation effect can be found (F = 0.003, p =
.959). Instead, generalized trust increased both in
the treatment (from M = 2.98 to M = 3.30) and in
the control group (from M = 2.43 to M = 2.75),
revealing a significant time effect (F = 14.449, p <
.001). Contrary to our expectations, external
attributions for poverty decreased over time within
the treatment group (t1 = 3.66; t2 = 3.56) and within
the control group (t1 = 3.23; t2 = 3.18), but we
neither revealed a significant time nor a significant
participation effect (F = 0.394; p = .531). For
internal attributions for poverty, we find a slight
increase within the treatment group (t1 = 2.15; t2 =
2.33)—which again contradicts our
expectations—and a slight decrease within the
control group (t1 = 2.72; t2 = 2.64). The results,
however, are not significant, indicating no
participation effect (F = 2.319; p = .130).
Consequently, we have to reject H1b to H5b.

Again, we deploy multivariate analysis to explore

whether socioeconomic background characteristics
are associated with students’ increase or decrease
in the outcome variables (Table 7). Results indicate
that some of those variables influence participation
effects. For self-efficacy, it is the place of birth (not
abroad) and father’s education that contribute to
an increase. For external attributions for poverty, it
also is the place of birth (not abroad) that
contributes positively, whereas father’s education
and being in employment contributes negatively.
For internal attributions for poverty, mother’s
education has a slightly negative effect. There is
no simple explanation for these effects. Father’s
education and a domestic place of birth may
indicate intergenerational social mobility, which is
associated with perceptions of individual blame
(Gugushvili, 2016). It may also indicate rather
conservative milieus.5 Mothers’ higher education,
however, positively affects liberal attitudes (Noack,
2004; Zuckerman, Singer, & Singer, 1980), and is
often used as a proxy for socioeconomic status
(Condon & Holleque, 2013). This indicates that
participation effects, though not observable for the
overall group, might be working for specific
subgroups depending on their socioeconomic
background.

Discussion

With our study, we contribute to the discussion on

the effects of university-based community service
and inform decisions on how to implement such
programs. Our first set of findings enhances the
debate on whether service programs might be
offered voluntary or mandatory (Chan et al., 2017).
Results reveal that students who volunteer for the
community service program show higher levels of
empathic concern, generalized trust, and external
attributions for poverty, while their level of internal
attributions for poverty is lower compared with
students of the control group. These results widely
confirm our hypotheses and are in line with prior
research: Citizens who engage in voluntary action
achieve more favorable scores in many
dimensions of personality compared with those not
volunteering (Jiranek et al., 2013; Taniguchi &
Thomas, 2011; van Tienen et al., 2011; Wilson,
2000). Our research design allows us to provide
evidence that this is rather due to prior
self-selection and not to volunteering itself,
contributing to the discussion on the antecedents
and consequences of volunteer engagement.
Thus, we can infer that voluntary service programs
at universities attract those students who already
show better scores on social and personal
domains (Finkelstein & Brannick, 2007; Mitani,
2014; Pinazo, Peris, & Gámez, 2010).

Apart from that, our results show that self-selection

into the program is not related to students’
socioeconomic background. Yet, it relates with
students’ gender and current volunteering. The
latter is not surprising. Students who are already
engaged in volunteering elsewhere are less likely
to volunteer in the program at their university.
Obviously, the program particularly attracts
students who have not been engaged so far. As
research shows that “being asked” is among the
most important triggers for volunteering (e.g.,
Gil-Lacruz, Marcuello-Servós, & Saz-Gil, 2016;
Piatak, 2016; Smith, 1994), our findings confirm
that service programs at universities—though
offered on a voluntary base—bring novices into
volunteering. This supports the idea of offering
such programs on a voluntary base.

The finding that females are more likely to

self-select is in line with literature showing that
females are more likely to volunteer than men
(e.g., Wilson, 2000), partly explained by a
gendered socialization for helping others (e.g., M.
A. Brown, 2011) for gender difference in empathic
concern. If university-based programs aim to have
both genders equally represented in community
service, it might be beneficial to offer such
programs mandatory or to diversify recruitment
efforts to appeal to a wide range of students,
representative of the student body. For instance, to
involve peers representing the range of the
universities’ body of students in the recruitment
process.

Our findings on participation effects do not support

any of our hypotheses. Students who had
participated in the community service program did
show neither higher levels of self-efficacy,
empathic concern, generalized trust, or external
attributions for poverty compared with
nonparticipants after completing the program, nor
lower levels of internal attributions for poverty. We
even observed minor changes within the treatment
group between pre- and posttest opposite to our
hypothesized directions: decreases in empathic
concern and external attributions for poverty and
an increase in internal attributions for poverty,
although none of the three changes is significant.
At first glance, these results are puzzling as they
contradict with the majority of empirical research
on this topic. Yet, there is also scant literature on
service programs that discusses non- or even
opposing participation effects on students and
provides alternative explanations (Butin, 2005;
Deeley, 2010; Jones et al., 2005). Studies that do
so, mostly based on qualitative approaches,
investigate “the complexities that emerge when
undergraduate students engage with ill structured,
complex social issues present in the community
service settings typically associated with
service-learning courses” (Jones et al., 2005, p. 4).
They particularly argue that in such settings,
mainly privileged college students encounter with
somehow disadvantaged individuals (e.g., by
social class, ethnicity, ability or any combinations
of these), which might uncover previously held
assumptions and stereotypes (Jones et al., 2005).
Such settings bring students into situations for
which they are not appropriately prepared. In line
with this argument, taking part in community
service was probably disenchanting for some
students, giving them their first close contact with
poverty, refugees, and disadvantaged people, and
opening their eyes to the failures and misbehavior
of those they encountered. For instance, some
program participants reported that their mentee
often was late for the appointment, did not appear
at all, or did not appreciate the buddies’ visit, which
was highly disappointing for them.6 Thus, exposure
to and contact with refugee children led to a slight
decrease in students’ favorable attitudes. These
results also suggest revisiting the contact
hypothesis (Allport, 1954; Rae, Newheiser, &
Olson, 2015; Sigelman & Welch, 1993). Our
findings reflect recent research on the contact
hypothesis, which reveals that exposure to poverty
strengthens both external and internal attributions
for poverty (Lee, Farrell, & Link, 2004; Merolla,
Hunt, & Serpe, 2011). The changes in attributions
for poverty might also be explained by the
fundamental attribution error (e.g., Tetlock, 1985),
namely, the more closely students observe poverty,
the more they will hold individual actors at least
partly responsible.

Following this, the type of reflection of the

service-learning experience is highly relevant for
the outcomes. In a meta-analysis of 40 empirical
studies, Yorio and Ye (2012) found that the
outcomes on students’ understanding of social
issues (but not on personal insights or cognitive
development) significantly depend on the type of
reflection. For our case, these findings suggest
that effects might have been more in line with our
expectations if structured group reflections instead
of written individual reflections would have been in
place (M. A. Brown, 2011; van Goethem et al.,
2014; Yorio & Ye, 2012). In particular, benefits
regarding attitude-related topics are said to result
primarily from reflection (van Goethem et al.,
2014).

Furthermore, as we found that females and those

without volunteer experience are overrepresented
in the program when offered on a voluntary base, it
is particularly crucial to decide whether service
programs should be mandatory and what credits
students can earn for participating. We have
discussed the pros and cons of both options
above.

Of course, our study has limitations. First, we have

investigated a particular type of community
service: The service was individual support for
disadvantaged children and participants helped at
a variety of families and nonprofit organizations.
The effect of the specific placement was not
examined, though some placements probably
produced more beneficial experiences than did
others. Second, we analyzed the effects on
students of business administration and economics
at a university embedded in the European welfare
state context. We hesitate to postulate validity of
our findings far beyond this scope. Third, maybe
the studied domains are too stable and trait-based,
and expecting stronger changes in these domains
was overoptimistic. Future research should,
therefore, also focus on the change of state-based,
more specific measures. One could also argue that
the domains under investigation will not change
immediately, but maybe within a longer time span
after completing the program. Fourth and finally,
the reasons for the observed changes opposing
our expectations need to be analyzed in depth by
more qualitative inquiry. As previous research has
shown, qualitative and quantitative analyses might
sometimes reveal diverging results, underpinning
the need for combining both approaches to
evaluate participation effects of university-based
service programs.

In conclusion, our results enhance the literature

that broadly confirms favorable participation effects
of community service programs. We share findings
that contradict with the majority of studies,
shedding some critical light at the challenges for
implementing service programs at universities.
Overall, informing the debate about the effects of
community service, our findings suggest to
carefully considering the organizational context
and program characteristics when implementing
such programs.