Is Volunteering Work, Prosocial Behavior, or Leisure? An Empirical Study

Three paradigms of volunteerism are evident in the literature. Volunteering is described as ‘work, ’ as a prosocial activity, and a leisure activity. This paper tests the validity of each of these models in a longitudinal analysis of nationally representative survey data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) dataset. The data provided weak support for volunteering as work, but support was found for volunteering as prosocial behavior and volunteering as a leisure activity. The strongest results, however, related to the continuity of volunteering over time, and these results provide support for socioemotional selectivity and role identity theories of volunteering