National Trends in Voluntary Association Memberships: 1974-1984

Abstract

Using national data from the General Social Surveys, the authors study changes in the number of voluntary associations in America between 1973 and 1984. Memberships are categorized as total volun tary associations, instrumental associations, and expressive groups. The average number of memberships was higher than usual in 1974 for almost all socioeconomic and demographically defined subsam ples. In the election year of 1980, memberships in total voluntary associations, instrumental associations, and expressive groups all tended to be lower than they had been in other years for many subsamples, and in 1984 some types of individuals had low rates of memberships. Multiple regression analyses showed that education was a good predictor of memberships in the three types of associa tions in all years, while occupational prestige and income were only weakly associated with memberships. Occupational prestige was more closely associated with membership in instrumental associations than it was with membership in expressive groups.