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How Helping Others Helps Me: Adults' Views of Their Responsibility and Involvement in Community-Based Service Organizations and the Personal Benefits of Citizen Participation

Silverman, Zachary
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu171051888302778

Abstract Details

2024, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Psychology/Clinical.
Community-based organizations provide opportunities for citizen participation. These organizations typically depend on employees and volunteers to provide myriad services with the goals of positively impacting their clientele and their communities. To maintain and develop a base of citizen participators, community-based organizations must consider ways to motivate and make participation in their organizations worthwhile. The present study examined the relationship between individual characteristics (i.e., demographic information), participant context (i.e., direct contact with clientele, level of responsibility, volunteer/employee status) organizational factors (i.e., type of organization, time with organization, COVID-related distress), and personal psychological benefits (i.e., life satisfaction, psychological wellbeing, sense of community, mattering, self-efficacy) among employees and volunteers of three types of non-profit community-based organizations. A sample of 144 adults (91 employees 53 volunteers) affiliated with community-based organizations for at least a year (M = 7.26 years; SD = 7.76) completed an online survey to assess individual characteristics, community-based organizational factors, and personal psychological benefits of organizational involvement as citizen participation. Results indicated that individual characteristics (i.e., income) were differentially related to personal benefits (i.e., wellbeing/life satisfaction, mattering/sense of community, self-efficacy). Results also suggested that organizational factors (i.e. type of organization) were not associated with personal benefits of citizen participation. Further, results suggested that participant context factors (i.e., direct contact with clientele, level of responsibility, volunteer/employee status) were associated with personal benefits such that greater contact with clientele was associated with greater self-efficacy, and greater organizational responsibility was related to higher levels of all measured personal benefits. Overall, volunteers reported greater wellbeing/life satisfaction than did employees. Implications for future research and applications for community-based organizations are discussed.
Catherine Stein, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
William O'Brien, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Michael Zickar, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
87 p.
Clinical Psychology; Psychology
Citizen participation; community based organization; wellbeing; responsibility; contact with clientele;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Silverman, Z. (2024). How Helping Others Helps Me: Adults' Views of Their Responsibility and Involvement in Community-Based Service Organizations and the Personal Benefits of Citizen Participation [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu171051888302778

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Silverman, Zachary. How Helping Others Helps Me: Adults' Views of Their Responsibility and Involvement in Community-Based Service Organizations and the Personal Benefits of Citizen Participation. 2024. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu171051888302778.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Silverman, Zachary. "How Helping Others Helps Me: Adults' Views of Their Responsibility and Involvement in Community-Based Service Organizations and the Personal Benefits of Citizen Participation." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2024. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu171051888302778

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu171051888302778
128
© 2024, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License How Helping Others Helps Me: Adults' Views of Their Responsibility and Involvement in Community-Based Service Organizations and the Personal Benefits of Citizen Participation by Zachary Silverman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.