Volunteering in the schools – Differences between mothers and fathers
Hajnalka Fényes - Zsolt Csák
Abstract
The study examines the volunteering activities of parents at school as a form of parental involvement. The international literature points out that if both parents are involved in the children's school-related tasks, it increases the children's performance. However, fathers' involvement lags behind that of the mothers, and there are only few studies that compare the involvement of mothers and fathers at school. Therefore, the first research question of this study is what differences are in a Central and Eastern European sample with regard to the parental volunteering at in schools between mothers and fathers. The second research question is that what factors influence parents' volunteering beyond their gender. The data comes from a survey with parents, in which Hungarian parents from Hungary and beyond the border participated (N=1002). During the analysis, in addition to bivariate methods, we also analysed the factors influencing parental volunteering in the framework of linear regression models. Our results based on the responses of parents who filled the questionnaire show that a higher willingness of mothers to participate in school volunteering activities was only evident in the case parents, who were generally and presumably less motivated in volunteering. However, further individual characteristics of the parents, in accordance with the dominant status model of volunteering, were important differentiating factors in the case of parent who were motivated in responding the questionnaire. Finally, in line with the literature, the institution-level variables strongly impacted the involvement of parents in volunteering at school, and it was significantly high in primary schools, in parochial or privately maintained schools. Overall, the involvement of parents, including fathers, in volunteering activities also depends on the school, and in case of successful involvement, both the school and the children can benefit from it.
Keywords: parents, volunteering, primary and secondary schools, gender differences, quantitative analysis