Voluntary Organizations and Attitudes Toward the Community

Bibliographic Data

ID2274036
AuthorsJames G Hougland (University of Kentucky, corresponding author)
Year1982
Volume52
Issue1
Pages53-70
Publication date1982-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Inquiry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0245 • E-ISSN: 1475-682X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1475-682x.1982.tb01238.x
OpenAlexW1976583008
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited22

Voluntary organizations have long been believed to have important effects on the attitudes of their members, but the relatively few attempts to investigate such effects have produced inconsistent results. This paper uses a statewide proportional sample to investigate relationships between (a) membership and participation in ten types of voluntary organizations and (b) two types of attitudes about the community. After individual and community characteristics were controlled, experience with voluntary organizations was found to explain about five percent of the variance in respondents' perceptions of their ability to influence community affairs, but relationships with willingness to leave the community were considerably weaker. Somewhat stronger relationships were found when the analysis was confined to respondents for whom voluntary organizations or community participation was particularly salient. Overall, this paper indicates that the impact of voluntary organizations on community attitudes is weaker than earlier theoretical statements have suggested. However, it also shows that the relationship varies according to type of organization, salience of participation for the respondent, respondents' sociodemographic characteristics, and the specific community attitude being investigated

Business · Community organization · Economics · Management · Perception · Political science · Public relations · Respondent · Salience (neuroscience) · Salient · Sample (material) · Turnover · Variance (accounting) · Voluntary association · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Capital and Networks · Social Psychology

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