Associations Among Religiousness and Community Volunteerism in National Random Samples of American Adults

Abstract

The connection between religiousness and volunteering for the community can be explained through two distinct features of religion. First, religious organizations are social groups that encourage members to help others through planned opportunities. Second, helping others is regarded as an important value for members in religious organizations to uphold. We examined the relationship between religiousness and self-reported community volunteering in two independent national random surveys of American adults (i.e., the 2005 and 2007 waves of the Baylor Religion Survey). In both waves, frequency of religious service attendance was associated with an increase in likelihood that individuals would volunteer, whether through their religious organization or not, whereas frequency of reading sacred texts outside of religious services was associated with an increase in likelihood of volunteering only for or through their religious organization. The role of religion in community volunteering is discussed in light of these findings.

KEYWORDS:

• helping behaviors
• religion
• values
• volunteering