Participation in Voluntary Organizations Among Moderate Income Home Owners and Renters

Abstract

Owning one’s home has long been a part of the “good life” in the United States. Although realized by most of today’s adult population, It may become increasingly difficult to achieve in the future, especially for families with moderate and low economic resources. Given the importance and popularity of the status of home ownership among most Americans, it is surprising that so little is known about its subsequent social effects.

This paper explores one possible consequence of ownership, participation in voluntary organizations. While social scientists have rarely investigated the effects of home ownership, they have studied participation in voluntary organizations in great detail (Riger and Lura Kas, 1981; Hyman and Wright, 1971). One of the consistent results in those analyses is that socio-economic class is directly and strongly correlated with participation in voluntary organizations (Cohen and Hodges, 1964; Hyman and Wright, 1971). Because socio-economic class is also positively correlated with home ownership, it is difficult to glean information from the literature about the effects of home ownership that are separate from the effects of social class. The investigation reported in this paper wiii aid in that endeavor by use of a quasiexperimentaf research design that matches moderate income owners with renters and compares levels of participation in four types of voluntary organizations.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Garland F. White

Garland F. White is associate professor and Paul T. Schollaert is associate professor and chairperson in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia.

Paul T. Schollaert

Garland F. White is associate professor and Paul T. Schollaert is associate professor and chairperson in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia.