Participation In Voluntary Associations Research Articles

Predicting Student Participation in Voluntary Associations From Attitudes and Personality: a preliminary report

Predicting Student Participation in Voluntary Associations From Attitudes and Personality: a preliminary report

Participation of Blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Whites in Voluntary Associations: A Test of Current Theories

To interpret the relatively high rates of voluntary organization participation among blacks, theorists have developed deprivation and normative explanations. Both interpretations suggest that oppressed minority groups will develop group coherence and salience to their members. However, unlike the deprivation argument, the normative conception does not view the development of activist norms as an inevitable outcome of this process. By examining the organizational behavior of Puerto Ricans, blacks, and whites in New York City, we test several key postulates from each interpretation. None of the postulates is consistently supported. Most damaging to both arguments is that black ethnic identifiers do not exhibit higher participatory rates than their more assimilated peers. That lower-class black women manifest an unusually active pattern of organizational membership as compared with their male counterparts is shown also to be incompatible with both the deprivation and normative conceptions. Further inquiries into the mechanisms which predispose a particular subgroup within a minority population to be more involved in voluntary organizations than another are recommended. Over the last decade and a half, studies have consistently reported that American black rates of participation in voluntary associations generally equal or surpass those of whites once social class and other background variables are taken into account (Antunes and Gaitz; Clemente and Sauer; *We gratefully acknowledge the helpful suggestions of Sherman Krupp, Marvin E. Olsen, Lauren H. Seiler, and Gaye Tuchman. The author's names are ordered alphabetically to signify equal authorship. The work reported in this paper was supported in part by NIMH Grant # 1RO2 MH 23806-015R to Donald Treiman, principal investigator, at the Center for Policy Research.

Urbanism, Voluntarism, and Afro-American Activism

This article examines various aspects of black participation and membership in voluntary associations and suggests that to understand their proper role in promoting black activism they have to be viewed within the context of black urbanization and urbanism. Descriptive and quantitative data on aspects of black urban socioeconomic characteristics are provided as a background for evaluating the theses that have been used to explain black voluntarism.

Aging and voluntary association participation.

This longitudinal analysis examines changes in voluntary association participation levels over a 4-year period using data from the middle age of the Duke Adaptation Study (N=374) and over a 2 1/2-year period using data from a study of older persons in Oberlin, Ohio (N=104). The findings showed; the extent of participation was high in both samples; mean levels of participation remained essentially unchanged; persons with stable or increasing participation levels outnumbered those with declining levels; and persons not participating at the time of the initial interview were unlikely to be participating later, while those who were participating initially were likely to have continued their participation. Contrary to predictions of declining activity based on disengagement theory, aging appears to be accompanied by stability and continuity in levels of voluntary association participation.

Voluntary association participation and life satisfaction: a replication note.

The results of a replication study carried out in Kansas City in 1973 are compared with the original study in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1970 to see if the relationship between participation in voluntary associations and life satisfaction of the aged holds up over time and in a different geographic region. In a confirmation of the original study, the data indicate that health and status characteristics are more potent predictors of life satisfaction than participation in voluntary associations, which shows a nonsignificant relationship to life satisfaction when controlling for the effects of health and status.

Participation in Voluntary Associations on a Working Class Housing Estate

Participation in Voluntary Associations on a Working Class Housing Estate

The effects of transportation and distance on voluntary association participation among the aged.

In a community with neither public nor commercial transportation facilities for intra-community mobility, the availability of means of personal transportation is related to higher levels of voluntary association participation among the aged. Further analysis indicates that the role of transportation as an explanatory variable is greater both as distance of residence from the sites of associations increases and as the analytical focus shifts from the number of memberships to the frequency of attendance at association meetings. Also considered are the implications of these findings for explaining the generally lower levels of voluntary association participation of the elderly compared with other adult age groups.

Voluntary Associations and Minority Status: A Comparative Analysis of Anglo, Black, and Mexican Americans

The study focused on the voluntary associations of Anglo, Black, and Mexican Americans in Austin, Texas. A sample of 380 respondents provided the data. An information interview was used; trained interviewers coming from the same ethnic background as the respondent were employed. Ethnicity proved to be an important variable in predicting social participation, with Blacks having the highest and Mexican Americans having the lowest participation rate. Using multiple classification analysis, a number of structural variables were introduced as controls; and these variables, particularly education, were found to be responsible for the difference between Anglo and Mexican Americans. Blacks continued to have significantly higher rates of participation in voluntary associations after controlling on other variables. Both isolation and cultural inhibition theories can be found in previous literature to account for low participation rates among people having a subordinate status, and compensatory and ethnic community theories have been used to account for high rates of affiliation among these same groups. The findings from this study tend to cast doubt on isolation and cultural inhibition theories and to support compensatory and ethnic community theories.

Neighborhood Status and Membership in Locality Based Instrumental Associations

Previous research on differential membership and participation in voluntary associations has focused on either: (1) the reciprocal processes of individual attraction and group recruitment, or (2) the characteristics associated with membership and participation. The first approach utilizes similarity of between individual and organizational members to account for selective attraction (Beai, 1956; Harp, 1959; Black 1957; Smith, 1966). The second approach suggests that social positions structure and opportunities to participate; SES is often used as an indicator of and of time, and skills to participate in voluntary associations (Wright and Hyman, 1958; Axelrod, 1956; Scott, 1967; Hodge and Treman, 1968). Most research examining voluntary associations has not been sensitive to and opportunities as separate factors conditioning participation. Different types of voluntary organizations attract individuals from different positions because of status interests (Warner, et. al., 1949; Hodges, 1968; Booth et. al., 1968); and higher individuals belong to more associations because of their organizational skills (Booth, et. al., 1968). Yet the use of a single type of voluntary association which pursues goals which have widespread community support would help isolate interest as an explanation of differential participation by SES for a closer look at the relevance of time and skills as factors. In this paper, the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) is examined to determine if differences in membership and participation rates occur across neighborhood SES. Participation in PTA by of the neighborhood can be examined more as a function of time and skill than in the educational interprise (Gallup, 1971). Research findings consistently show that SES is positively related to

Voluntary association participation and life satisfaction: a cautionary research note.

Voluntary association participation and life satisfaction: a cautionary research note.

A Research Note On the Voluntary Association Participation of Political Activists

A Research Note On the Voluntary Association Participation of Political Activists

Religion, Economic Development and Lethal Aggression

selecting respondents within households. Public Opinion Quarterly 24 (Fall, 1965): 431-436. Rosow, Irving and Naomi Breslan 1966 A Guttman health scale for the aged. Journal of Gerontology 21 (October): 556-559. Rosow, Irving 1967 Social Integration of the Aged. New York: Free Press. Scott, John C. 1957 Membership and participation in voluntary associations. American Sociological Review 20 (June):315-326. Stuchert, R. P. 1963 Role perception and marital satisfaction -a configurational approach. Marriage and Family Living 25 (November) :415419. Tiger, Lionel 1969 Men in Groups. New York: Random House. Vesugi, Thomas and W. Edgar Vinake 1963 Strategy in a feminine game. Sociometry 26 (March):75-88. William, James H. 1958 Close friendship relations of housewives residing in an urban community. Social Forces 36 (May):358-362. Wolfle, Dael 1954 American Resources of Specialized Talent. New York: Harper.

Black Belonging: A Study of the Social Correlates of Work Relations among Negroes.

This work departs from other important sociological studies of voluntary associations in its use of occupation, rather than status and social class, as the clue to the nature of work conditions that directly affect participation in community voluntary associations.

Aging and Religious Disaffiliation

Patterns of lifetime church attendance and participation in voluntary associations among skid-row men and two samples of normal respondents are contrasted with models of aging and affiliation derived from previous research. All samples manifested substantial religious disaffiliation during adult life, with the model based in disengagement theory receiving the greatest support. With advancing age, church attendance becomes increasingly less important as a source of voluntary affiliation among both well-to-do and poor men. Comparison of results from cross-sectional and retrospective data suggest that currently accepted generalizations about lifetime patterns of aging and church attendance are open to serious question. Developmental patterns must be distinguished from variations due to societal change, and cross-sectional data do not permit this distinction. * Revision of a paper read at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Montreal, October 1968. The research reported here draws upon data collected by the Homelessness Project, a research program conducted from 1965 to 1968 at the Bureau of Applied Social Research, Columbia University, and supported by a grant from the National Institute of M ntal Health (MH-10861). Theodore Caplow was the Principal Investigator. Preparation of the present paper was completed under Project 1960, Department of Rural Sociology, College of AgriThis content downloaded from 157.55.39.17 on Thu, 01 Sep 2016 06:21:01 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

Occupational Characteristics and Participation in Voluntary Associations

study analyzes the nature of the relations between participation in, and joining, voluntary associations and seven independent variables measuring dimensions of occupational tasks, organizational structure, and attitudinal importance of contacts. three dependent variables, i.e., participation, joining one or more associations, and joining three or more associations vary, to some degree, independently of one another and, therefore, are treated separately. seven independent variables are mental-manual, colleague control, bureaucratic control, formal contacts unimportant, informal contacts unimportant, leadership, and isolation. Twelve occupational groups were assigned numerical percentage scores on each of the independent and dependent variables. Correlational and multivariate analysis was performed on the variables. Task generalization as an explanation of participation and joining receives strong support from the study. Overall, three task-based variables, leadership, bureaucratic control, and mental-manual, explained most of the variation in the dependent variables. In general, more of the variation is accounted for in participation and joining three or more associations than in joining one or more. A consistent but often implicit approach in sociology is that homogeneity of experience leads to homogeneity of response. If people experience similar religion, education, occupation, or parental response, they will respond similarly to other stimuli, e.g., voting. One problem is determining what types of experiences are most crucial for what types of responses. Another problem is establishing the mechanisms that link homogeneity of experience to responses. Both problems are considered in the study, which focuses on certain homogeneous occupational experiences and the responses of participation in and joining voluntary associations. It has been demonstrated that participation in voluntary associations varies by occupations, and that occupational patterns do not follow any clear lines.' For example, not all 1 Frederick A. Bushee, Social Organization in a Small City, American Journal of Sociology, 51 (November 1945), pp. 217-226; Oscar Grusky, The Effects of Succession: A Comparative Study of Military and Business Organizations, in Morris Janowitz (ed.), New Military (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1964), pp. 83-111; Harold This content downloaded from 157.55.39.243 on Wed, 05 Oct 2016 04:44:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms OCCUPATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS 17 members of the same social class participate in the same way, and sometimes members of different classes participate in a similar manner. This paper is an extension of previous research which attempted to delineate characteristics of occupations that lead to differential participation in voluntary associations. Following the suggestions of Wilensky and especially Breer and Locke, these characteristics include the differential tasks and organizational requirements of occupations.2 One basic assumption is that work is a salient life experience and consequently work skills and attitudes are generalized to other areas of life, in this case, voluntary associations. Based on this assumption, predictions are made on the differential rates of participation and joining

An Analysis of Community and Professional Participation Among Occupations

Occupational groups in a large-scale research organization are analyzed with regard to their membership and participation in community and professional associations. Community participation is measured in three empirically distinct ways: (1) percentage of each occupation in one or more associations, (2) percentage in three or more associations, and (3) percentage witlh high participation scale scores. Participation in professional associations was measured by scale scores following Chapin's method. In addition, occupational groups are analyzed in terms of their membership in four types of community associations-church, fraternal, neighborhood, and sport. Among community associations. some support is found for the hypothesis that individuals who join one type of association are likely to join other types. However, the relation between participation in community and professional associations is low. The study clearly supports the general importance of occupations in the explanation of membership and participation in voluntary associations. V oluntary associations are considered to be integrative for both society and the individual, as well as providing a direct way for individuals to initiate change.1 Consequently, sociologists have shown a continued interest in group participation in voluntary associations.2 This study follows the tradition of research concerned with the differences between the social characteristics of joiners and nonjoiners. In this way, the study is an expansion and partial replication of previous

Patterns of Social Participation in a Two-Generation Sample of Italian-Americans

A STRIKNG feature of the social participation literature is the tendency to concentrate on one type of activity. For example, studies dealing with formal organizations have described the character of such groups and their participants. Studies of friendship participation have traced the patterns of friendships and the type of people who are attracted to each other as friends. Consequently, few sociologists have focused their attention upon a question like: Are there any patterns or relationships between the different types of social participation? Participation in formal voluntary associations and informal voluntary interactions may be related to each other, influence each other, or at least be similarly influenced by other variables.

Standardization of an Educational Variable: The Need and its Consequences

In evaluating formal education as a factor explaining differences in rates of participation in the voluntary associations of a rural southern mountain community, sex and age differences in absolute levels of educational attainment were adjusted for by transforming them to standard scores within homogeneous cohorts. While this procedure produced only moderate changes in the conclusions drawn from a factorial analysis, examination of cases whose classifications were adjusted indicates that it was an appropriate solution to this particular problem. Substantively, both the standardized and unstandardized data indicate that education is always significantly and positively associated with variations in participation rates, whereas the other factors controlled and evaluated (sex, age, work situation) were only moderately associated in limited situations. T his paper presents the findings of an evaluation of a standardization technique employed in a study of the relationship of level of formal educational attainment to the extent of participation in voluntary associations.1 This analysis was prompted by the fact that studies which suggest evidence of the existence of such an association fail to establish whether the association exists independently of or as an artifact of associations also observed between associational participation and such factors as age, occupation, and sex.2 Our aim in this report is two-fold: (1) * This is a revised version of a paper read at the annual meeting of the Southern Sociological Society in April 1964. collection of the data in this study was made possible, in part, by the North Carolina State Agricultural Experiment Station. 1Horace D. Rawls, Education and Participation: A Factorial Analysis, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University, April, 1963. 2 Some of the studies examined control one or two related variables in assessing the role of education, but none control more than two. Moreover, none apply analytic procedures that permit estimates of the relative importance of the various independent factors and their interactions. (a) Those which suggest the role of education include: F. Stuart Chapin, Design for Experiments, American Sociological Review, 3 (December 1938), pp. 786-800; WV. G. Mather, Income and Participation, American Sociological Review, 6 (June 1941), pp. 380-383; M. Komarovsky, Associations of Dwellers, American Sociological Review, 11 (December 1946), pp. 686-698; J. M. Foskett, Social Structure and Participation, American Sociological Review, 20 (August 1955), pp. 431-438; B. G. Zimmer, of Migrants in Structure, American Sociological Review, 20 (April 1955), pp. 218-224; M. Axelrod, Urban Structure and Participation, American Sociological Review, 21 (February 1956), pp. 1318; J. C. Scott, Jr., Membership and Participation in Voluntary Associations, Am.erican Sociological Review, 22 (June 1957), pp. 315-326; C. R. Wright and J. M. Hyman, Association Memberships of American Adults: Evidence from National Sample Surveys, Anierican Sociological Review, 23 (June 1958), pp. 384-394. (b) Those which suggest the role of age and sex include: Selz C. Mayo, Age Profiles of Participation in Rural Areas of Wake County, North Carolina, Rural Sociology, 15 (September 1950), pp. 242-251; J. C. Scott, Jr., op. cit.; B. G. Zimmer, op. cit.; M. Axelrod, op. cit.; M. J. Cornish, in Voluntary Associations, in Voluntary Health Associations and Disease: Some Public Views (Part III) (New York: Bureau of Applied Research, Columbia University, 1960); W. S. McCain, Jr., The Participation of Old People in a California Retirement Community, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1947; W. Bell and M. T. Force, Urban Neighborhood Types and Participation in Formal Associations, American Sociological Review, 21 (February 1956), pp. 25-34; M. Komarovsky, op. cit.; R. Freedman and M. Axelrod, Who Belongs to What in a Great Metropolis, Ad-tlt Leadership, 1 (November 1952), pp. 6-9; C. R. Wright and J. M. Hyman, op. cit.; Nicholas Babchuk, Ruth Marsey, and C. W. Gordon, Men and Women in Community Agencies: A Note on Power and Prestige, American Sociological Review, 25 (June 1960), pp. 399-403; W. A. Anderson, The Family and Individual Participation, This content downloaded from 207.46.13.101 on Sat, 08 Oct 2016 04:33:03 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

Military Participation in Voluntary Associations

Military Participation in Voluntary Associations

Political Cynicism: Measurement and Meaning

Political Cynicism: Measurement and Meaning