College Students and Community Service: Who, With Whom, and Why?

The community service volunteer vs. nonvolunteer status of 124 college students was examined in relation to motivation, gender, extraversion‐introversion, and social anxiety. Volunteers and female students were hypothesized to have higher levels of motivation to participate than were nonvolunteers and males, and to have higher levels of interest in volunteering. The data for volunteer status and gender were significant only with respect to interest in volunteering, with volunteers and females significantly more interested in volunteering than were nonvolunteers and males. Gender differences were also found for volunteering style preference and participation within particular volunteer groups. Volunteers were also hypothesized to have lower levels of extraversion and higher levels of social anxiety than nonvolunteers because socially anxious introverts were thought to seek the anxiety‐reducing structure of a volunteer activity. This hypothesis was not supported.