The Impact of Modern Volunteering on Local Community Experiences: The Moderating Role of Volunteering-related Ambivalence

Journal title PSICOLOGIA DI COMUNITA'
Author/s Flora Gatti, Biagio Marano, Martina Mutti, Maura Pozzi, Elena Marta, Francesco Tommasi, Federica de Cordova, Anna Maria Meneghini, Fortuna Procentese
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2025/2
Language English Pages 28 P. 113-140 File size 0 KB
DOI 10.3280/psc2025oa21763
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<p>Modern volunteerism has undergone a broad transformation, which has made episodic and online forms stem. This study investigates (a) how traditional, episodic, and online volunteering affect volunteers’ local community experiences – meant as Sense of Community (SoC), Sense of Re-sponsible Togetherness (SoRT), and social generativity – and (b) the moderating role of volunteering-related ambivalence in this. The results show that only traditional volunteering has a positive impact on SoC, while online volunteering harms social generativity. Ambivalence plays a complex role: it weakens the positive impact of traditional volunteerism on SoC, yet it reverses and strengthens the effect on social generativity when it comes to online one-making it positive. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.</p>

Keywords: traditional volunteering;episodic volunteering;online volunteering;Sense of Community (SoC);Sense of Responsible Togetherness (SoRT);social generativity

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Flora Gatti, Biagio Marano, Martina Mutti, Maura Pozzi, Elena Marta, Francesco Tommasi, Federica de Cordova, Anna Maria Meneghini, Fortuna Procentese, The Impact of Modern Volunteering on Local Community Experiences: The Moderating Role of Volunteering-related Ambivalence in "PSICOLOGIA DI COMUNITA'" 2/2025, pp 113-140, DOI: 10.3280/psc2025oa21763