Volunteerism During Young Adulthood: An Italian Investigation into Motivational Patterns

This paper explores the motivational frame of Italian young adults involved in volunteerism and its relation to several variables included in Omoto and Snyder’s Volunteer Process Model framework. Some 461 Italian young adults (aged 24–31) involved in voluntary activities with children and adolescents were considered. Referring to Omoto and Snyder’s functionalist and motivational framework, a Ward’s method cluster analysis was performed to identify specific patterns of motivations originating from the aggregation of 4 factors of motivation (social, career, ego-protective, and values) measured with the Voluntary Function Inventory (VFI). The results show that young volunteers are inspired by a distinctive and composite pattern of motivations, including both self and other-oriented motivations. Multiple motivations underlying the activities are associated to satisfaction and good integration in the organization confirming that people spurred by more than one motivation are less vulnerable to costs related to the activity and are more likely to maintain a longer involvement.