Predictors of Volunteer Status in a Retirement Community

Abstract

In the present study, actual volunteers, latent volunteers, conditional volunteers, and definite nonvolunteers living in a retirement community are compared on social-structural, role, environmental, resource, lifestyle, and individual difference variables. Three functions emerged from the discriminant analysis. Actual volunteers attend church frequently, are free of activity limitations due to health, have volunteered previously, and belong to several clubs and organizations. Latent volunteers engage in informal religious behaviors, attend church about once a month, are about seventy years old (i.e., they are younger than the other groups), and are very satisfied with their neighborhood. Conditional volunteers engage infrequently in informal religious behavior, have no instrumental activity limitations due to health, did not attend college, have very high neighborhood satisfaction, and are seventy-four years old (i.e., older than latent volunteers and actual volunteers). Implications for recruiting latent and conditional volunteers are discussed.