Who Participates?

Abstract

Reported membership of voluntary organizations is taken as an index of community participation. Data derived from a Mental Health Survey in Canberra in 1971 are analysed and participation behaviour compared with information from American participation studies. A high participation rate was expected because of Canberra's high ranking on socio‐economic variables compared with Australia as a whole. However, nearly half of the adults sampled report belonging to no formal organizations. Sex, age and socio‐economic status are found to be related to joining behaviour and conform to well‐established findings in the United States.

Statlis and Voluntary Associations: a Cross-Cliltliral Study of Males in Three Metropolitan Areas

“…FINDINGS Seventy-five percent or more of the respondents in each city belonged to at least one voluntary association (Table 1). This compares favorably with other studies (Nelson, Baker and Nelson, 1974;Babchuk and Booth, 1969;Curtis, 1971;Graham, 1974).…”

“…Studies in the United States have almost invariably found a positive correlation between these status variables and just about any measure of involvement (Nelson, Baker and Nelson, 1978;Babchuk and Booth, 1969;Curtis, 1971). The same trend has been found in studies of other industrial countries such as England (Curtis, 1971); Sweden (Olsen, 1974); Norway (Hallenstvedt, 1974); and Australia (Graham, 1974).…”

“…However, women are more likely than men to be unaffiliated, although female members are usually more active in their groups than males who are members (Curtis, 1971;Booth, 1972;Olsen, 1974;Graham, 1974). …”

Survey of Voluntary Recreation Workers in New South Wales

“…Generally, participation is biased towards the higher education and income groups, middle aged people and men. Even in Canberra, where education, income and urbanization factors might be expected to lead to increased participation in organizations, Graham found that 45 % of the population reported no formal organization membership .. 3 An alternative to reliance on a grassroots recreation system is to have more government involvement in recreation. Bloomfield recommended that the government's role in recreation should be largely confined to acting as a catalyst in promoting recreation generally and assisting voluntary agencies with administration and training volunteers.…”