Implications of Constraints towards Students’ Involvement in Volunteer Activities

Abstract

Volunteerism is a global issue that is increasingly gaining attention due to its importance to individuals, society and country. Even though the volunteerism sector contributes largely to individuals, society and country, the decline in volunteerism and lack of participation in the activities is becoming a worrying issue for many parties, especially those involving university students. The declining participation of university students in volunteer activities can be associated with the existence of constraints, caused either by individuals or their surroundings. These constraints mean that there is something that hinders or limits university students from being involved in volunteer activities. This study will look at three aspects, namely intrapersonal constraints, interpersonal constraints and structural constraints. The aim of this study is to identify the types of constraints faced by university students and the effects of these constraints towards the participation of university students in volunteer activities. This study uses the survey method and the quantitative approach. Around 400 students from three public universities, namely Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) that are involved in volunteer activities were selected as respondents. The study results show that the main constraints hindering respondents from being active in volunteer activities is structural constraints that recorded the highest mean value of 4.98 and standard deviation of 1.1, followed by interpersonal constraints with a mean value of 4.05 and standard deviation of 1.5, and finally intrapersonal constraints with a mean value of 3.23 and standard deviation of 1.5. In terms of the effects of these constraints on the involvement of university students in volunteer activities, it is shown that these have a significant influence (?=0.14, p<0.05). This proves that the presence of constraints greatly affects the involvement of university students in volunteer activities.