Sport volunteerism: a study on volunteering motivations in university students

Volunteers form an integral part of the sport industry. Recognition of the volunteers' motivations to attract them in sport programs is the aim of each organization. Although several studies have been conducted regarding volunteers in sport, there is not a clear idea about the effective motivational factors on the sport volunteers on different communities. This subject might be due to the effects of social variables on the volunteering motivations. The aim of this study was to analyze the motivational factors in university sport. The samples consist all of the 304 students who participated as volunteers in sport programs at the Iranian universities. For data collection, a structured questionnaire comprising 39 items in the form of seven different factors (material, social, career supportive, purposive, progress and obligation) regarding the motivational factors of sport volunteering was used. The items in the questionnaire were scored on a 5-point Likert-type scale. This study demonstrated that the social and obligation factors were the highest and lowest effective factors on the sport volunteers’ motivation. Also, there was a significant difference between the effect of social and career factors in two genders (P<0.05). This means that boys and girls had higher scores in career and social factors. In conclusion it is stated that university students have a large impact on the general ideas at the communities; therefore, promotion of sport volunteering activities at the universities could develop the culture of volunteering in various parts of the communities.