Shine, Lauren (2009) Adolescent Volunteers in Rural Queensland: The Role of Communal Mastery and Community Cohesion. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
The factors that engage adolescents in their communities are important to understand in order to retain adolescents as active participants in a sustainable community. This thesis is investigating the factors communal mastery and community cohesion in terms of discriminating those adolescent who volunteer in their community from those who do not volunteer. Also investigated is whether adolescents who volunteer more frequently than others report higher levels of communal mastery and community cohesion, and whether there were gender differences in engagement in volunteer behaviour. Forty-seven male and female high school students between 13 to 18 years of age completed self report measures including the Communal Mastery Scale (Hobfoll, Schroder, Wells, & Malek, 2002), and the Neighbourhood Cohesion Instrument (Buckner, 1988). Discriminant function analysis found that 72.4% of adolescents could be correctly classified as volunteers, and 66.7% of adolescents could be correctly classified as non-volunteers. Scores on the attraction to neighbourhood component of the Neighbourhood Cohesion Instrument, and the Communal Mastery Scale were not found to contribute to the discrimination of adolescent volunteering behaviour. Chi Square analysis revealed no differences between proportion of males and females who volunteered. These findings suggest that volunteer behaviour is related to adolescents’ sense of community, and their neighbouring behaviour. Discussion includes consideration of the importance of adolescents’ perceptions and experiences in their communities in relation to their development of community engagement behaviour. The limitations of the study will also be discussed in addition to the further research directions necessary to address the dearth of literature in this area.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Sciences - Department of Psychology (Up to 30 Jun 2013) |
| Supervisors: | Pretty, Grace |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) (Psychology) |
| Date Deposited: | 16 Mar 2026 01:57 |
| Last Modified: | 16 Mar 2026 01:57 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52755 |
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