Youth volunteering: variability assessment of participation in different practices and levels of engagement

Abstract

In this article, we attempted to assess the level of engagement and immersion into volunteering of young people in a large Russian region – the Sverdlovsk region. The study results demonstrate that variability and engagement level are based on different motives. The basic motive determining willingness of people to spend their time on volunteering is “opportunity to help people.” When motive lacks, the respondents' motivation system has the lowest engagement in volunteering. The main reasons for determining engagement of a person in volunteering constantly are “a favorite thing, a hobby”. The decision tree model identified “communication with interesting people”, “interesting work” and “experience in social and political activity” as the main motives determining the variability of participation. Not only a certain combination of motives (as typical, for example, for regularity or duration of participation in volunteer activities) but the number of actualized motives involved (the greater their number, the higher the variability of participation) helps the variation grow.