Assessments of Hypothetical Community Service Components in High Schools

The current study seeks to address some debates surrounding the imposition of mandatory volunteer programs in high schools by directly engaging students with interviews about their own reasoning surrounding matters of autonomy and the fostering of prosocial beliefs that are affected by the composition of a mandatory volunteer program. Participants were asked to evaluate five different vignettes depicting a different program. Results indicated that older youth tend to evaluate programs which offer choice more positively, while younger students make few distinctions. All age groups prefer mandatory programs to a voluntary program. No effect of program (service learning vs. community service) was present, although forced-choice data indicate a preference for service learning components. Implications for autonomy and prosocial development are discussed.MAS