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Volunteer Participation in Context: Motivations and Political Efficacy Within Three AIDS Organizations
Author(s) -
Stewart Eric,
Weinstein Rhona S.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1023/a:1022265213167
Subject(s) - empowerment , political efficacy , referral , context (archaeology) , qualitative research , politics , health psychology , psychology , qualitative property , social psychology , public relations , public health , sociology , nursing , political science , medicine , social science , paleontology , machine learning , computer science , law , biology
Employed quantitative and qualitative data in a contextual examination of participation in three San Francisco‐area HIV/AIDS organizations: an urban, gay community‐based social change setting; an urban, broadly focused information/referral setting; and a suburban individual support setting. The settings attracted different kinds of volunteers and engaged them differently with the setting, each other, and community. In quantitative analyses external political efficacy (belief in the responsiveness of sociopolitical systems to change efforts) significantly distinguished settings, but was best predicted by setting‐moderated relationships to scaled motivations. Qualitative data more clearly illuminated volunteers' motivations for participation, as well as complex, embedded relationships between setting, motivations, attitudes about sociopolitical participation, and personal and community experience and identification. Together the findings underscore three unique but related stories for the three AIDS organizations, and the value of contextual approaches to participation and empowerment.