Volunteer Functions Inventory: A systematic review / El inventario de funciones del voluntariado: una revisión sistemática

The objective of this research study was to conduct a systematic review of the research on volunteers using Clary et al.’s VFI (1998). A total of 48 research studies including 67 independent samples met eligibility criteria. The total sample of the studies analyzed ranged from 20375 to 21988 participants, depending on the motivation analyzed. The results show that the Values factor obtained the highest mean score, both overall and in each type of volunteering, whereas the lowest scores were for the Career and Enhancement factors. Studies conducted with samples with a mean age under 40 years obtain higher scores on Career and Understanding scales when compared to studies in older samples. The group of studies with less than 50% women yield higher mean scores on the Social scale than studies with more than 50% women in the sample. All the scales show reliability coefficients between .78 and .84. Only eight of the articles provide data on the reliability of the scale with a mean value of .90. Of the 26 studies that performed factor analysis, 18 confirmed the original structure of six factors (AU)

Antecedentes: las motivaciones son variables clave para comprender el comportamiento de los voluntarios. El objetivo de esta investigación es realizar una revisión sistemática de las investigaciones sobre voluntariado que hayan usado el VFI de Clary et al. (1998). Método: 48 investigaciones, con 67 muestras independientes, cumplían los criterios de elegibilidad. El total de la muestra de los estudios oscila entre 20.375 y 21.988 participantes, según el motivo analizado. Resultados: el factor Valores obtiene la mayor puntuación media en general y en cada tipo de voluntariado, las puntuaciones más bajas corresponden a los factores Mejora del Curriculum y Defensa del Yo. Los estudios realizados con muestras menores de 40 años de edad media obtienen puntuaciones mayores en las escalas de Mejora del Curriculum y Conocimiento. Los estudios con menos del 50 % de mujeres arrojan medias más altas en la escala Social que los estudios con más del 50 % de mujeres en la muestra. Todas las escalas muestran coeficientes de fiabilidad entre .78 y .84. Solo ocho artículos aportan datos sobre la fiabilidad de la escala total con una media de .90. De los 26 estudios que realizaron un análisis factorial, 18 confirman la estructura de seis factores original (AU)

Volunteer Functions Inventory: A systematic review.

The objective of this research study was to conduct a systematic review of the research on volunteers using Clary et al.’s VFI (1998). A total of 48 research studies including 67 independent samples met eligibility criteria. The total sample of the studies analyzed ranged from 20375 to 21988 participants, depending on the motivation analyzed. The results show that the Values factor obtained the highest mean score, both overall and in each type of volunteering, whereas the lowest scores were for the Career and Enhancement factors. Studies conducted with samples with a mean age under 40 years obtain higher scores on Career and Understanding scales when compared to studies in older samples. The group of studies with less than 50% women yield higher mean scores on the Social scale than studies with more than 50% women in the sample. All the scales show reliability coefficients between .78 and .84. Only eight of the articles provide data on the reliability of the scale with a mean value of .90. Of the 26 studies that performed factor analysis, 18 confirmed the original structure of six factors.