| This study investigated the impact of service ministry trips on the development of social responsibility in college students at a small Quaker liberal arts university in the Pacific Northwest. Students (50 female, 14 male) who participated on 5 different short-term service ministry trips served as the service ministry group, while students (23 females, 13 males) in a general psychology class served as the control group. Over three administrations of the Global Social Responsibility Inventory, (Starrett 1996) students provided responses that offered support for service ministry trips as a method of increasing a sense of social responsibility in college students. Analysis revealed that the students who participated in the service ministry trips demonstrated a stronger sense of social responsibility at the end of the trip than did the control group, and that the increase maintained itself at the four week follow-up test. Further analysis was mixed regarding whether service ministry trips to locations that provided interpersonal interaction with marginal groups demonstrated a stronger sense of social responsibility than either the control group or a service ministry trip that were primarily devotional in nature. |
