The effect of school community service on volunteering and its motives

Abstract

In this study, we investigate secondary students’ experiences with school community service. Our aim is to explore the influence of school community service on attitudes towards volunteering. We examine whether community service motivates students to participate in volunteering in the future. We also explore the types of motivation which can be observed among secondary students in school community service. Our findings reveal that as of now, community service has only a short-term positive effect on volunteering. After completing community service, the importance of helping others, that is, the altruistic attitude strengthens. Furthermore, we find that community service increases the perceived importance of helping others among religious people. Our research contributes to improving the effectiveness of school-community service programmes by exploring the characteristics of groups that are less motivated to volunteer. This recognition can help programme coordinators to organise programmes in a more targeted way and to involve target groups more effectively.