A review of the literature showed that systematic studies on adolescent volunteerism, particularly in the Chinese context, were very limited. The present study was conducted to fill this knowledge gap. The conceptual model was an integrative model comprising elements of the ecological perspective and the cognitive motivational approach. Both personal and environmental factors were taken into account during the examination of psychosocial correlates of students' volunteering intention and behavior in Hong Kong based on the paradigm of post-positivism. With reference to literature, a series of hypotheses were put forward for empirical testing.
The first part of the study was to construct and validate four instruments assessing personal beliefs on volunteerism and perceived environmental influence, including (1) Revised Personal Functions of Volunteerism Scale, (2) Beliefs Against Volunteering Scale, (3) Microsystem (Family, School, Peers) Influence on Volunteerism Scale, and (4) Cultural Influence on Volunteerism Scale. A small-sample validation study (N = 192) showed that the instruments had high internal consistency, good content validity and acceptable criterion-related validity in distinguishing between volunteers and non-volunteers. The scales were used in the main study.
The second part of the study was a large-scale quantitative survey with 6,213 secondary school students from F.1 to F.6 (Grade 7 to 12) recruited via convenience sampling. The respondents completed a 244-item questionnaire which measured beliefs on volunteerism, perceived environmental influence, personal competence assets, prior volunteering experience, intention to volunteer, volunteering interests, details of current volunteering behavior and socio-demographic characteristics.
The findings from the main study showed that the scales used in the study possessed acceptable psychometric properties. While most of the proposed antecedents were found to be related to volunteering behavior