The Relationship Between Community Residents' Social Identity and Their Willingness to Volunteer for Social Work Through the Lens of Social Identity Theory: A Case Study Of 100 Community Residents in Meishan City of China

With the continuous development of social work in China, the participation of civil force is indispensable. This paper aims to explore the relationship between the degree of Chinese community residents' social identification with three types of social groups (namely, community residents, social work professionals, and social work recipients) and community residents’ willingness to participate in social work-related volunteer service through the lens of social identity theory. The purpose of the research is to further apply the conclusions to social work practice in the time to come, so as to encourage more civil force to participate in social work. The research method of this study is a survey by questionnaire. Research results show that the degree of Chinese community residents' social identification with community residents, social work professionals and social work recipients are all positively correlated with their willingness to participate in social work-related volunteer service, among which the positive correlation between the degree of Chinese community residents' social identification with social work recipients and their willingness to participate in social work-related volunteer service is most significant. This study proves that enhancing community residents' social identification with social work recipients can effectively promote community residents’ willingness to participate in social work-related volunteer service. In other words, by enhancing community residents’ level of social identification with social work recipients in the future, there will be undoubtedly more civil forces encouraged to participate in Chinese social work.