Understanding Trajectories of Youth Volunteering: Pandemic Dilemmas, Volunteer Persistence, Institutional Transitions, and Moral Domain Reasoning

Abstract

Although past research has examined patterns of volunteering over the life course, little research has examined trajectories of youth volunteering, notably how youth volunteer behaviour may change over time, why some youth persist as volunteers, and the role of moral and other judgments in youths’ real-life decisions about volunteer engagement. To examine patterns of youth volunteering, this thesis developed a novel volunteer trajectory model (Chapter 2) and applied the model to examine trajectories of youth volunteering following a disruptive event (i.e., the COVID-19 pandemic; Chapters 3 and 5) and institutional transitions (i.e., high school to university; Chapters 4 and 5). To further understand volunteering trajectories, this thesis also integrated and applied ideas from moral developmental theory to examine how youth justify their real-life decisions about volunteering over time (Chapters 3 and 4). This dissertation is structured in six chapters. The general introduction (Chapter 1) situates the research in the youth volunteering and moral development literatures. Chapter 2 presents the volunteer trajectory model. Chapter 3 is a mixed method study that examined trajectories of youth volunteering and volunteer decisions during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chapter 4 is a qualitative interview study that explored the persistence of youth volunteering from a moral developmental perspective. Chapter 5 is a mixed method study that examined youths’ volunteering trajectories through institutional transitions, their experiences with compulsory community service, and the impact of the pandemic on youth volunteering. Together, these studies contribute a novel approach to understanding youth volunteering by examining real-world trajectories of volunteering and volunteering decisions from a moral developmental perspective (discussed in Chapter 6).