Who helps and why? A longitudinal exploration of volunteer role identity, between-group closeness, and community identification as predictors of coordinated helping during the COVID-19 pandemic

Tools

Wakefield, J. ORCID: 0000-0001-9155-9683, Bowe, M. ORCID: 0000-0002-0491-1472 and Kellezi, B. ORCID: 0000-0003-4825-3624, 2022. Who helps and why? A longitudinal exploration of volunteer role identity, between-group closeness, and community identification as predictors of coordinated helping during the COVID-19 pandemic. British Journal of Social Psychology. ISSN 0144-6665

Full text not available from this repository.

Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/BJSO.12523

Abstract

Mutual aid groups have allowed community members to respond collectively to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing essential support to the vulnerable. While research has begun to explore the benefits of participating in these groups, there is a lack of work investigating who is likely to engage in this form of aid-giving, although early accounts suggest existing volunteers have played a significant part in the mutual aid phenomena. Taking a social identity approach, the present study sought to identify what social psychological processes predict this continued engagement by exploring predictors of coordinated COVID-19 aid-giving for pre-existing volunteers. A two-wave longitudinal online survey study (N = 214) revealed that volunteer role identity among existing volunteers at T1 (pre-pandemic) positively predicted perceptions of volunteer-beneficiary intergroup closeness at T1, which in turn positively predicted community identification at T1. This in turn positively predicted coordinated COVID-19 aid-giving at T2 (3 months later). This paper therefore reveals the intra- and intergroup predictors of pandemic-related coordinated aid-giving in pre-existing volunteers. Implications for voluntary organisations and emergency voluntary aid provision are discussed.

Item Type:

Journal article

Publication Title:

British Journal of Social Psychology

Creators:

Wakefield, J., Bowe, M. and Kellezi, B.

Publisher:

Wiley

Date:

21 January 2022

ISSN:

0144-6665