Childhood predictors of volunteering across 22 countries in the Global Flourishing Study

Abstract

While prior work documents individual and societal benefits to volunteering, less is known about how childhood experiences shape volunteering in adulthood around the world. Using data from the Global Flourishing Study, a diverse and international sample of 202,898 individuals across 22 countries, we examined 11 candidate childhood predictors of volunteering in adulthood, and whether these associations varied by country. Random effects meta-analyses showed evidence of associations between several childhood predictors and an increased likelihood of subsequent volunteering, including having a good relationship with one’s father, comfortable subjective financial status, childhood abuse, feeling like an outsider growing up, more frequent religious service attendance at age 12, and being male. Sensitivity analyses showed that several of these associations were at least moderately robust to unmeasured confounding. There was little evidence of several other predictors (e.g., relationship with mother, parental marital status, self-rated health, immigration status, and year of birth) being associated with adulthood volunteering. Associations between childhood predictors and volunteering varied between countries, reflecting diverse societal influences. These findings enhance our understanding of childhood predictors of volunteering in adulthood and, with further research, provide valuable evidence for informing policy and practice aimed at fostering volunteering globally.