Community Service Among a Panel of Beginning College Students: Its Prevalence and Relationship to Having Been Required and to Supporting “Capital”

Abstract

To meet several information needs in the study of community service, survey data gathered from a nationally representative sample of first-time beginning college students (approximately 9,500), first as freshmen and later as juniors, were analyzed. About half (48%-50%) of the students at both points in time performed community service, of which about one tenth (8%-9%) was required by the student’s college program. Having done community service in 2004, whether required or not, showed a statistically reliable relationship to having done community service in 2006. Results suggest that not all types of community service draw on the same "capital" or resources, offering possible directions for future methods to promote general and specific types of community service.