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Who helps and why? A longitudinal exploration of volunteer role identity, between‐group closeness, and community identification as predictors of coordinated helping during the COVID‐19 pandemic
Author(s) -
Wakefield Juliet Ruth Helen,
Bowe Mhairi,
Kellezi Blerina
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/bjso.12523
Subject(s) - closeness , psychology , mutual aid , pandemic , social identity theory , social psychology , beneficiary , covid-19 , identity (music) , volunteer , identification (biology) , longitudinal study , similarity (geometry) , social group , political science , medicine , mathematical analysis , agronomy , artificial intelligence , image (mathematics) , computer science , mathematics , law , pathology , acoustics , biology , physics , botany , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Mutual aid groups have allowed community members to respond collectively to the COVID‐19 pandemic, providing essential support to the vulnerable. While research has begun to explore the benefits of participating in these groups, there is a lack of work investigating who is likely to engage in this form of aid‐giving, although early accounts suggest that existing volunteers have played a significant part in the mutual aid phenomena. Taking a social identity approach, the present study sought to identify what social psychological processes predict this continued engagement by exploring predictors of coordinated COVID‐19 aid‐giving for pre‐existing volunteers. A two‐wave longitudinal online survey study ( N = 214) revealed that volunteer role identity among existing volunteers at T1 (pre‐pandemic) was positively associated with volunteer‐beneficiary between‐group closeness at T1, which in turn was positively associated with community identification at T1. This in turn positively predicted coordinated COVID‐19 aid‐giving at T2 (3 months later). This paper therefore reveals the intra‐ and intergroup predictors of pandemic‐related coordinated aid‐giving in pre‐existing volunteers. Implications for voluntary organisations and emergency voluntary aid provision are discussed.