Higher Education for Social Cohesion (HERD) project

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• Hajnalka Fényes, Veronika Bocsi
• Values and the Motivations of Higher Education
  Students Volunteering in a Borderland Central
  Eastern European Region
• The presentation is part of the
  HERD Higher Education for Social Cohesion
  Cooperative Research and Development in a
  Cross-border Area"  (HURO/0901/253/2.2.2.)
  research project and supported by the European
  Union European Regional Development Fund.
• MSzT conference CEU, Budapest, 9. November 2012.

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• We examine the relation of value preferences of
  students and their volunteering activity.
• Although much research deal with volunteering, a
  relatively a small amount of studies examine the
  volunteering of higher education students and the
  effects on it.
• We suppose - based on the literature - that the
  effect of values on volunteering (which are
  related to the motivations of volunteering of
  students) are more pronounced than the effect of
  socio-demographic variables, and values are
  related to the type of voluntary activity
  (traditional or new) as well among students.

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Databases and the examined region

• We used the database of the HERD research. The
  data collection took place in the Partium region
  which is a historically cross-border region of
  Hungary, Romania and the Ukraine. The data
  collection took place in tertiary-level
  institutions of the three countries in 2012.
• We examined only the Hungarian and Ukrainian part
  of the Partium region, and the Branch of
  Babes-Bolyai University in Satu Mare (N1471).
• The research was conducted among first year and
  third year Bachelors training full time students
  and first year Masters training full time
  students. We asked students proportionately at
  different faculties, so the sample is
  representative concerning the faculties (we
  weighted cases to ensure the representativity due
  to the unequal answering willingness). We have
  made cluster sampling we asked all the students
  in the chosen seminar groups which were selected
  at random.

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Volunteering

• it is a non-obligatory activity,
• it is carried out for the benefit of others
  (individuals, or specific organizations or
  society as a whole),
• it is unpaid and
• normally it takes place in an organized context
• (Voicu and Voicu 2003, Meijts et al. 2003, Wilson
  2000, Chaan, Amrofell 1994, Handy et al. 2010,
  Dekker, Halman 2003, Bartal 2010)

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Types of volunteering

• Traditional based on altruistic values (being
  useful for the society, doing something for
  others) and on the importance of social
  interactions and community.
• New type of volunteering Modern motivations
  career development, personal growth, work
  experience, professional improvement, gaining
  information, developing and practicing skills,
  getting a job more easily, enlarging human
  capital, making friends, meeting people with
  similar interest, useful leisure activity
  (learning and practicing sports and cultural
  activities).
• Among young generation the mixed motivation type
  is also frequent, e. g. helping others is
  important for the students with modern
  motivations.
• (Perpék 2012, Czike, Kuti 2006, Stefanescu, Osvat
  2011, Handy et al. 2010)

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The relation between values and volunteering

• How can we locate volunteering in the field of
  value preferences?
• We can find related items among the values of
  Rokeachs (1973) test (both in instrumental and
  terminal values).
• The life-course examination of Morris -
  Christian type being kind, helping others (Varga
  2003)
• The typology of Schwartz (1992) (both types of
  volunteering)

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The typology of Schwartz (1992)
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The roots of volunteering

• Evolutionary Psychology and human-ethological
  models (Csányi 1994, Bereckei 2009).
• Theory of actions (Weber 1987)
• Cultural and social roots (Kluckhohn 1951,
  Csepeli 2005)
• Religious roots (Hamilton 1998, Fukuyama 1992)

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What factors effect volunteering?

• The individualist-collective axis (Hofstede and
  Hofstede 2005, Triandis 1990).
• Modernization process (Weber 2001, Inglehart
  1997)
• Effect of the political actors and the state
  Eastern Europe special position
• Effect of formal institutions for example
  higher educational institutions (Veroszta 2010)
• We must emphasize the fact that in any case the
  background of actions aiming at the community
  that can be grasped in values is formed in
  complicated economic, cultural, social, religious
  and political constellation.

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Previous results

• OTKA project at the University of Debrecen
  (Fényes, Kiss 2011a, 2011b, Fényes - Pusztai
  2012a)
• The demographic variables, such as age or gender
  did not effect volunteering.
• Only the more well-to-do students could afford to
  do volunteering, which may be due to the fact,
  that the examined university is situated in a
  relatively underdeveloped region of Hungary.
• Among the effect of values, preference for
  material well-being and enjoyable life reduced
  the probability of volunteering, but preferring
  happiness, true friendship and helpfulness
  increased it.
• Religiosity increased volunteering, especially
  churchgoing (religiosity as a social capital
  factor)
• Reason of volunteering helping others was
  significantly more popular among religious and
  among explicitly non religious students. This can
  be due to the fact that the not hesitating,
  explicitly non-religious students might prefer
  humanistic values, and helping others is also
  important for them. (Fényes-Pusztai 2012b HERD
  project)

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Methods and examined variables

• we used cluster and factor analyses, compare
  means runs and logistic regression analysis
• examined variables
• if the students volunteer during their studies or
  not (dependent),
• if yes, why he/she volunteer (with 6 possible
  answers),
• value preferences (with 16 item), where the
  importance is measured by 1-4 and 4 factor
  variables created from the 16 value preference
  variables.
• gender (1 male, 0 female),
• age (which did not vary much, as only full time
  university students were asked)
• social background variables such as parents
  educational level (years of study), if the
  parents read or not, the type of the place of
  residence (town or village), the financial
  position of the students and parents (possible
  financial problems (yes/no), durable consumer
  goods of parents and childrens (indexes), if
  the family go on summer holiday or not
• two variables concerning the religiosity of the
  student (one variable is if he/she religious or
  not, and other, whether someone is churchly
  religious or not)

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Hedonistic intellectual Conser-vative Pacifist micro-community Romantic
Inner harmony .263 .223 .473 .168
Family security .276 .153 .554 .227
National security .074 .570 .243 .091
Love, happiness .171 .219 .299 .913
Preserving respectable traditions .233 .746 .124 .086
Imagination .524 .182 .174 -.018
Material resources .354 .021 .103 .055
Intellect .642 .277 .174 .095
A world at peace .213 .292 .639 .090
Social order, stability .298 .523 .287 .191
An exciting life .640 .157 .187 .180
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Final cluster centers (only volunteers)
  Modern motivations Traditional motivations Mixed
To put in the CV no no yes
Work practice yes no yes
Making friends yes yes yes
Helping others no yes yes
Usefully spending leisure time no no yes
Learning languages no no yes
N 43 127 143
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Gender 0.76 0.71 ns 0.73()
Age 1.04 () ns ns ns
Fathed ns 0.71() ns
Mothed ns ns ns
Fatread ns ns ns
Motread 1,5 1.5 1.41()
Finprob ns ns ns
Indexpar ns ns ns
Idexstud 1.1 1.11 ns
Holidays ns ns ns
Typeloc ns ns ns
Churchly 3.36 3.37
Relown 1.43 1.45
Hed-intell 1.2
Conservative ns
Pac-micro ns
Romantic ns
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Summary

• Our results show that the hedonistic
  intellectual and conservative factors of value
  preferences have increased the frequency of
  volunteering.
• Our further result is that the hedonistic
  intellectual factor is positively related to the
  new and mixed type of volunteering, the pacifist
  micro community factor to the traditional
  and mixed type and the romantic factor to the
  mixed type.
• Further, our logistic regression model shows,
  that religiosity, especially church related
  religiosity and the hedonistic intellectual
  factor has increased the chance of volunteering,
  but the socio-demographic variables have only a
  small effect on it.

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Thanks for your attention!