The college prime time: Development of students' community involvement interests using the place attachment theory

The time students spend in college is invaluable. Students gain in-depth knowledge of various subjects, develop their career goals and learn how to socially interact with their peers. At the same time, it is important that students learn to be participating and responsible citizens of their community during their prime time in college (Giles & Eyler, 1994). This study was done to better understand how to get students involved in the communities around the school area, using the place attachment theoretical framework. It also aimed to look at the impact of actual participation in a volunteering event on students' future intentions to help their communities. It was hypothesized that students' actual participation in the volunteering event would increase their place attachment to the school area and their interests in volunteering for the communities in the future. A conceptual model was constructed to understand how participating in a volunteering activity affected participants' place attachment and volunteering intentions. Specifically, it was hypothesized that students' place attachment to their school area was predicted by their social relations in the area, their adult attachment style and their knowledge of the school area. These factors were then expected to relate to their interests in volunteering for the communities around the school area and their actual involvement in a randomly assigned volunteering event. Two-hundred-sixty-seven students from the Introduction to psychology participant pool were recruited. Two-hundred-and-nine students were asked to participate in an event, while fifty-eight other students served as a control group who did not participate in an event. The conceptual model was tested with three path models using Mplus software. Results confirmed the hypothesized models. Also, as hypothesized, volunteering intention at time 2 was higher than that of time 1 only for activity group but not control group. However, place attachment was found to be increased across time for both activity and control group. Implications for getting students involved in their communities and their development into responsible citizens were discussed.