Abstract
This study assesses the importance of four aspects of religious commitment on the decision to volunteer in secular and religious organizations, and on the hours committed to volunteering by volunteers. The four aspects are faith affiliation, frequency of worship, religiosity, and religious background-being active in a religious organization when in grade school. After considering the influence on volunteering of a number of control factors, all four factors were found to be significantly (in a statistical sense) associated with the likelihood of volunteering and hours contributed. For example, faith affiliation was found to be significantly associated with the likelihood of volunteering, of volunteering by the religiously affiliated, of volunteering in secular organizations, of volunteering in secular organizations by the religiously affiliated, of volunteering in religious organizations, and of volunteering in religious organizations by the religiously affiliated. Religiosity and religious background were also found to be associated with these forms of volunteering, and attendance was found to associated with these forms of volunteering in all cases where the variable was available. Attendance was unavailable for the religiously unaffiliated, but for this sub-population religious background was found to be significantly associated with volunteering. Attendance was found to be associated with hours volunteered, the total hours, secular organization hours, and religious organization hours. All significant associations were positive, as theory predicts. It is recommended that frequency of attendance be asked of the religiously unaffiliated,(41% of unaffiliated children attend services at least once a year) and that, in view of the importance of religious factors, frequency of prayer for those in need (one more form of giving) be added to the list of religious factors surveyed in the Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating. It is also recommended that the four aspects of religion be included in path or stuctural equation models in order to determine causal influences of religion on volunteering. Wording of the religion questions should not be changed for two reasons: the present wording is yielding very useful new information on relationships, and consistency over time allows survey results to be pooled and small region and sub-population behaviour to be analyzed.