Award Date

12-1-2017

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Sociology

First Committee Member

Andrew Spivak

Second Committee Member

David Dickens

Third Committee Member

Bo Berhnard

Fourth Committee Member

Marcia Gallo

Number of Pages

137

Abstract

Volunteerism and work are topics which academics in several disciplines research. This study is an examination of the intersection of work and volunteerism via the lens of role theory. According to role theorists, the term role refers to behaviors which are either a result of social position or expectations (Biddle 1986). Cognitive role theorists use vocabulary such as “role conflict” and “role overload” to identify incongruences sometimes found in roles individuals have in their lives (Biddle 1986). These incongruences are primarily examined as they relate to individual level consequences. This research explores volunteerism and work as they relate to role theory.

I hypothesize that younger volunteers and volunteers with children at home will be more likely to perform parallel tasks in their work and volunteerism when compared to older volunteers and volunteers without children, respectively. Moreover, due to pressures placed upon people who are asked to volunteer, there is a reasonable expectation to see similar tasks being performed at both volunteer sites and worksites for those populations versus people who volunteer on their own accord so the volunteers may negate any potentially harmful consequences of conflicting roles. These analyses are performed using binary logistic regression. Additionally, hypothesizing that employment status plays a significant role in availability to

volunteer leads me to the final test performed in this research. Examining the differences between the number of hours employed individuals volunteer versus the number of hours unemployed people volunteer, this analysis is performed using an ANOVA (two-way between groups). The findings in this research are mixed and show that failing to reject the null is the result for both the volunteer age factor and the factor in which if a volunteer has children at home is considered.

Keywords

Leisure; Nonprofits; Volunteerism

Disciplines

Economic Theory | Medical Physiology | Physiology | Sociology

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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