What do sustain our will to volunteer? A cross-cultural Italian and Spanish comparison

A common model of sustained volunteerism in Italy and Spain in on young people is proposed. The longitudinal and cross-cultural study addresses the question: “is it possible to establish some basic relationships that increase or decrease over time in explaining volunteerism in young-adult across Italy and Spain?” Participants were 441 young adult volunteers (aged 24 to 31): 212 Italian and 229 Spanish. The volunteers completed measures of motivations to volunteer, volunteer-organization common values, role identity as a volunteer, intention to remain in the volunteer organization in the next 6 and 12 months and socio-demographics. Multigroup analysis is proposed. Results show that a common model explaining Italian and Spanish volunteerism exists: role identity works as a mediator variable in sustaining the involvement in volunteerism.