Motives for students’ volunteering involvement

Abstract

Volunteering is defined as a non-profitable activity that enables a person to contribute to the development of their local community (Allen & Rushton, 1983). In an everyday conversation with students, one could conclude that many are involved in various volunteer activities. Therefore, this research aimed to determine the motives for students’ involvement in volunteering activities on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Specifically, the research aimed to determine the motives for students’ volunteer involvement at the counseling line “Plavi telefon” (“The Blue Phone”). For some time now, the Blue Phone has gathered a lot of volunteers, who primarily come from helping professions. The Blue Phone is a service provided by the non-government organization “Nova generacija” (“New Generation”), which is seated in Banja Luka. The Blue Phone offers free psychological counseling and help to all the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, via phone, email, and chat. In this paper, I presented the data I obtained by interviewing the student volunteers who were involved at the Blue Phone (n = 10). The sample comprised 9 psychology students and 1 pedagogy student (9 females and 1 male student), with an average age of 21 years (M = 21.63, SD = 1.12). Students were interviewed via online platforms such as “Google Meet” and “Zoom”. Obtained results suggest that the most frequently named reasons for students’ volunteering involvement were: professional improvement, striving for personal growth, and the need to help others. As a positive aspect of volunteering, most students name organizational characteristics and volunteers’ treatment (e.g., providing support and giving validation to the volunteers themselves). Many volunteers stated they feel comfortable and accepted by the other volunteers, as well as by the employees of the Blue Phone. As a negative aspect of the volunteering work, volunteers name the so-called “testing calls” (e.g., when both teenagers and adults call the Blue Phone to ridicule and insult the volunteers’ work). Besides the testing calls, some volunteers find it hard to find a balance between the time they invest in volunteering and the time they should invest in their everyday curricular activities at their faculties. Results show that the motives for the students’ volunteer involvement at the Blue Phone are the same as the ones listed in the earlier research on volunteerism (e.g., the altruistic motives and the need for professional growth), but the negative aspects of volunteering, that students listed (e.g., the testing calls) are relevant only for the volunteering at the Blue Phone. In this paper, I discussed the importance of the obtained results, since providing psychological help can be challenging for most volunteers and has rarely been given attention to in Bosnia and Herzegovina.