Examination of the relationship between personality characteristics, demographic variables, and length of volunteer service.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether predictable differences existed between volunteers who completed their I-year commitment to the Big Brothers/Big Sisters (BB/BS) organization and those volunteers who dropped out early. The participants consisted of 53 BB/BS volunteers (32 committed and 21 drop outs). The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) was administered to all the participants. The hypotheses were that committed volunteers would be warmer, more emotionally stable, more rule conscious, more sensitive, more extraverted, less vigilant, less anxious, older and more highly educated than the noncommitted volunteers. The results indicated committed volunteers were actually less warm, less extraverted, less vigilant, and more rule conscious than noncommitted volunteers. The results are discussed in light of the supported and unsupported hypotheses.