Engaging in Community Service and Citizenship: A Comparative Study of Undergraduate Students Based Upon Community Service Participation Prior to College

Abstract

This study addressed community service participation and citizenship among undergraduate students, based upon participation in community service prior to college. In particular, this study investigated three service groups: mandatory volunteers in high school, non-mandatory volunteers prior to college, and students who had never volunteered prior to college. Gender, race/ethnicity, and parent(s)/guardian(s) education were also examined. Data were collected from 47,898 undergraduate students at 52 institutions across the U.S., as part of the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership. Two four-way analyses of variance were conducted to evaluate differences in college 1) community service participation and 2) citizenship, when considering service group, gender, race/ethnicity, and parent(s)/guardian(s) education. Regarding community service participation, significant main effects emerged for service group, gender, and race/ethnicity. Results for citizenship evidenced significant main effects for service group and race/ethnicity, and interaction effects for parent(s)/guardian(s) education by race/ethnicity by gender, and parent(s)/guardian(s) education by race/ethnicity by gender by service group.