Youth without college education are less likely to volunteer: New CIRCLE report examines the correlation between college experience & volunteering
Tisch College, Tufts University —Despite the upward trend in youth volunteering, young adults with no college experience are half as likely to volunteer as their collegiate counterparts, according to a new report examining the relationship between youth volunteering and college experience. Roughly 43 percent of the 20-to-29-year-old population has not attended college. Download the fact sheet (in PDF) here.
Conducted by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University’s Tisch College and released jointly with the National Conference on Citizenship, the report found that 25 percent of young adults who have attended college volunteered in 2007 while only 11 percent of those with no college experience volunteered. This gap has remained constant since 2002.
Peter Levine, director of CIRCLE, said young people without college experience are underutilized and underestimated: “Studies show all young people want to get involved in their communities, and lack of college experience should not be the deciding factor,” Levine said. “Schools, communities and government need to create more opportunities for all young people, not just the ones with a college education. Volunteering and participation in civic life is an important part of society, and no one should be excluded from an opportunity to do so.”
The report found that young people who used new media tools such as email, social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace) and text messaging were more likely to volunteer. College and non-college youth use new media at similar rates. However, online forms of civic engagement (such as commenting on a blog for civic purposes) are less common among young people without college experience. These findings should be interpreted with caution because more research is needed on this topic.
“Facebook, Twitter and other new media were successfully utilized in the 2008 election to promote voting and political involvement among young people,” said David B. Smith executive director of NCoC “With both college and non-college youth using social networking sites more and more, this technology may help to close the volunteer gap between these two.”
Using data from the Census Current Population Survey (CPS) and other research, the report also found disparities within specific gender, racial and ethnic demographics. Regardless of college experience, young women volunteer at higher rates than young men. Additionally, whites with some college experience volunteer the most among 20-to-29-year-olds, volunteering at a rate of 28.2 percent. African Americans and Latinos with no college experience were the least likely to volunteer, with volunteering rates at 7.2 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively. American youth who live in rural areas have slightly higher rates of volunteering than the 19 percent national average for youth.
Eight in 10 young volunteers became involved by approaching the organization or being asked to become involved. Youth with college experience were more likely to have started volunteering through a pre-existing connection with that organization (33 percent) compared with 21 percent of non-college youth. Of those who started volunteering in some other way, youth without college experience were more likely to have started volunteering through a relative than college youth.
When asked for which type of organization they volunteered, “religious” organizations were the top choice for young people regardless of college experience. Most spend their time mentoring youth and teaching/tutoring, although young people with college experience were slightly more likely to provide professional or management assistance including serving on a board or committee.
Levine said he hopes the findings of this report motivate people to reach out to younger generations and inspire interest in civic affairs. “Given this poor economic climate and the downward trend in youth civic engagement, it is important, now more than ever, to impress upon our young people active involvement in civic life.”
The press release is available here.
August 12th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
[…] CIRCLE – A nonpartisan research center studying youth civic engagement and civic education. »… […]
August 15th, 2009 at 9:15 am
[…] are half as likely to volunteer as those in the same age group who do attend college, according to a report by CIRCLE and jointly released with the National Conference on Citizenship. Conducted by the Center […]
August 24th, 2009 at 5:46 am
I’m going to share this news around my friends! thx a lot
September 7th, 2009 at 6:31 am
Out of school youth are less likely to volunteer because they lack awareness. We all know that being active in volunteering need encouragement from others. Since they tend to lack information, that will result to lack of awareness.
September 15th, 2009 at 9:09 am
volunteering in religious activities ranked first, that’s good news
September 18th, 2009 at 8:13 am
sssssssssss
October 26th, 2009 at 10:11 am
School greatly influenced students in deciding whether they will engage themselves in other activities (like volunteering). Their teachers/professors are the ones who encourage them.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Really informative post. Thanks for sharing
November 16th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
It’s obvious that school and teachers are the first people who are to tell students that volunteering nowadays is extremely important.
November 17th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
AS a volunteerer, I can say that I’m glad that researchers payed attention on our work. P
November 18th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
I agree that young people should be involves in civic life, because our future life depends on them.
December 5th, 2009 at 12:40 am
Thanks for sharing. Very useful.
December 20th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Given this poor economic climate and the downward trend in youth civic engagement, it is important, now more than ever, to impress upon our young people active involvement in civic life.
December 29th, 2009 at 7:16 am
Nice and Thanks for sharing
December 30th, 2009 at 12:11 am
Needing college experience to volunteer seems like a catch 22. Having volunteer work on your resume helps get into college, so needing college to volunteer wouldn’t allow this.
February 9th, 2010 at 5:53 am
Social networking sites is the best means to update the youth about the daily happenings in our society. Since most people into networking sites get the latest news about anything, it can really help their networking members to increase their awareness.
February 13th, 2010 at 6:42 am
Volunteering rate is increasing among college students is a good news for this society.The information collected form social networking sites are quite correct.
February 16th, 2010 at 1:29 am
I believe that social networking sites don’t miss the latest news about anything. As a result, all members of any social networking sites are keep updated. These members are usually comprised of high percentage of youth.
March 1st, 2010 at 5:40 am
Keep up the good work! YOu have a great blog
March 18th, 2010 at 3:09 am
However, online forms of civic engagement (such as commenting on a blog for civic purposes) are less common among young people without college experience. These findings should be interpreted with caution because more research is needed on this topic.
May 5th, 2010 at 2:49 am
I totally agree with Jessie. We should encourge the youth to update themselves.
May 15th, 2010 at 3:54 am
Thank you for this analysis because I’m student of sociological department and I need such surveys for my diploma. I think I can take this subject for the basis. Keep up your work.
June 7th, 2010 at 9:49 pm
So now you solved my problem, and I downloaded my copy from here. Thanks for sharing.
June 16th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Interesting relationship showed in this research, thanks for sharing the results.
June 21st, 2010 at 12:19 pm
I think that college gives a sense of belonging and therefore people are more inclined to help.
June 27th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
When you’re in the corner and have got no cash to move out from that, you would need to receive the home loans. Just because it should aid you emphatically. I take term loan every time I need and feel OK just because of this.
June 28th, 2010 at 12:19 am
I totally agree with Jessie. We should encourge the youth to update themselves.
July 2nd, 2010 at 8:53 am
Thanks for very useful stuff for my college research project.
December 2nd, 2011 at 5:48 am
[…] buttons or signs; and contact the media. Although young white people are somewhat more involved in nonpolitical volunteering than their black counterparts, the gap is not […]