- A recent study by the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) identified a link between a person’s tendency to give today and their childhood experience of volunteering or donating
- The centre aims to examine this more closely in its next report and has suggested schools and other groups could make the most of such a nexus
- Sociologists and social service agencies said the link was “not surprising”, and agreed that more study is needed on the matter
- Some regular volunteers told TODAY that their families inspired them to give to the community through action, though not necessarily by volunteering together
- Other parents spoke of taking their children along to volunteer in hopes of imparting positive values to the youngsters
SINGAPORE, July 1 — One of Kelda Chua’s earliest memories of volunteerism was tagging along with her father to distribute food to needy families when she was in primary school.
Now, the 30-year-old volunteer manager at Care Community Services Society still volunteers regularly for various causes on top of her full-time work.
“Whatever (volunteering experience) that has happened in my younger days has definitely impacted how I am now, how I have grown to have this in my blood, in my system,” she said.
Chua and other volunteers were speaking to TODAY following a study released last month by the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC), which among other things observed a link between an individual’s tendency towards giving today and their childhood experience in volunteering or donating.
In the report, “giving” refers to voluntarily helping others outside of one’s social circle, mainly by volunteering and donating.
It was the first time the annual report had explored this issue, with plans to examine the link in more detail in the next report.
Among other findings, the National Giving Study 2023 released on June 12, found that those who volunteered or donated before the age of 13 were more likely to have done so in the past 12 months.
Sociologists and social service organisations were unsurprised by the overall finding but agreed more study is needed on the link.
Meanwhile, not all adults who actively volunteer now who spoke with TODAY recalled doing so in their childhood.
Nonetheless, those among them with children still make it a point to take their children along when they are out volunteering, in hopes of inculcating positive values in them.
Early introduction to giving
NVPC’s 2023 study involved almost 2,000 local residents aged 15 and up, surveyed between September 2023 and January 2024.
The report found:
- Having a childhood experience of volunteering had a small but statistically significant effect on how often people volunteered in the past 12 months
- A childhood experience of donating explained a smaller but still statistically significant proportion of how often they donate
- The effect of childhood volunteering was present across all age groups, but strongest among seniors
“Further research should be conducted to understand the causal link between giving in childhood and in adulthood,” the report added.
Asked how the finding would impact NVPC’s work or that of voluntary welfare organisations, Ng Soek Mun, NVPC’s director for knowledge and insights had some concrete suggestions.
“As our report suggested, non-profit organisations and charities can explore programmes introducing children to giving, to start building a culture of giving that extends into adulthood,” he said.
“Similarly, schools, educators, and learning institutions could consider further exploration to maximise the long-term impact of childhood giving, such as strengthening existing volunteering opportunities that emphasise on helping others,” he added.
The next National Giving Study will further explore the links between childhood and adult giving, he said.
“We may also consider other studies with relevant partners to delve deeper into this topic,” said Ng.
He said the body examined the issue in the 2023 report as it had been curious after overseas studies had found a strong nexus between childhood experience and adult giving.
‘Long arm of childhood’
Sociologists and social service agencies said the link identified in the NVPC results followed a broader pattern.
Amy Lin, head of community partnerships at Care Community Services Society, said: “I feel it’s a natural course of things that will happen. Once a value is instilled at a younger age, there is an effect further down the road into adulthood.”
Dr Vincent Chua, an associate professor of sociology and anthropology at the National University of Singapore, said the finding was “interesting”.
But the more pertinent questions are “how so, and why?”, he added.
“One potential mechanism is the internalisation of charitable norms and values during childhood that can lead to a stronger sense of moral obligation to give, which persists into later life,” he said.
Dr Shannon Ang, an assistant professor of sociology at Nanyang Technological University, noted that broadly, the long-term effects of childhood circumstances on later-life outcomes are well-established, with researchers calling it the “long arm of childhood”.
“If you have done or are exposed to some activities — whether that is music, sports, or volunteering — before as a child and associate good memories or feelings with it, it is reasonable to expect that such familiarity and positive associations will lead you to continue pursuing such activities into older age,” he said.
On why the impact was more apparent among seniors, the sociologists offered various possible explanations.
For example, seniors — especially retirees — have more time on their hands to do volunteer work than when they were younger adults with jobs and other commitments.
Assoc Prof Chua also referred to a notion called “generativity”, referring to a concern to guide the next generation, usually through parenting, teaching and mentoring.
“Seniors are motivated to create a complete and meaningful version of their personal life story. And one way to do this is to contribute to others. It is their way of leaving a legacy,” he added.
Asst Prof Ang cautioned that while these findings were interesting, “we shouldn’t fixate too much on using this to ‘solve’ our low rates of volunteering”.
He said it was important to clearly understand why the correlation between childhood giving and giving as adults exists.
“One glaring omission that I find from the NVPC report is the lack of an analysis along SES (socioeconomic status) lines, especially since the report finds that financial and time constraints are important barriers to giving,” he said.
“So it may simply be that those from more well-to-do family backgrounds (thus having more exposure to volunteering) are also more likely to become well-to-do later on in life (and therefore are more likely to volunteer),” he added, citing past studies.
‘Seed’ of volunteerism can be planted any time
Some adults who volunteer today recall exposure to charitable work when they were younger, even if it was simply observing what their parents did, rather than being actively engaged in such activities.
For example, 20-year-old Jonas Ng who offers tutoring for free at two organisations a few times a week, said his family did not take him out to do volunteer work when he was younger.
But the full-time national serviceman added: “Every time my family and I go grocery shopping, my mother will always make it a point to buy a few necessities and leave them on the donating shelves.”
Alan Pek, 60, has been active in various volunteer work for about 40 years.
The assistant vice-president of a major international bank cites his foster family as a major part of his motivation. He has cerebral palsy and was raised by a foster family soon after birth.
“This has nurtured unconditional empathy as manifested by my foster family as well as due to my special needs,” he said.
For 43-year-old civil servant Brian Cheung, his family has been volunteering together monthly for about two years, packing and delivering items to needy households.
“Taking our children along is a natural thing to do since we spend our weekends together anyway and they learn best through seeing what their parents do,” said the father of three, aged between four and nine.
He shared that volunteering was not something that his family did together back when he was a child himself.
“Perhaps, it is a reminder that the seed (of volunteerism) can come from anywhere” and at any point in one’s life, he said.
Tips on volunteering with kids
For parents intending to take their young ones along for their next volunteer activity, or organisations hoping to attract families to do so, here is advice shared by the organisations and regular volunteers:
1. Find a cause you are passionate about
For a start, Chua, the regular volunteer, said that finding a cause that resonates can help motivate an individual to give their time.
For example, if asked to choose between volunteering at an animal shelter and helping disadvantaged children, she would go for the latter, partly due to her “interest in people” that developed when she majored in psychology in university, she said.
A spokesperson for Methodist Welfare Services said that the ability to “communicate very clearly” the organisation’s cause and how volunteers can contribute helps to attract volunteers.
“Certainly, an alignment between an organisation’s cause and what tugs at the volunteers’ hearts or beliefs always motivates people to step forward,” said the spokesperson.
2. Ensure the activities are suitable for children
Families can also prioritise volunteering for causes where the activities are age-appropriate.
Some activities that may be more suitable for a younger child to participate in include rations packing, giving out cooked food, beach clean-ups, and volunteering at an animal shelter, said Lin from Care Community Services Society.
Shallene Lim, a frequent volunteer at charity organisation Its Raining Raincoats, said that she started involving her son Matthew, 7, regularly only this year as he would have been too young to help much before this and she would have instead had to focus on looking after him at the events.
3. Prepare children to take part
Parents should also help their children to understand why they are volunteering together. Having to care for their young children who simply feel obliged or are unwilling to follow along, may take their time and attention away from the cause.
Lin said: “As an agency, we also hope to see more of such families who will come on board and volunteer, but it’s an uphill task – because perhaps preparation is not done fully.
“You see parents dragging this preschooler or this lower-primary child along (to volunteer)... the parent will be busy taking care of their children more so than volunteering.”
4. Find a community to volunteer with
Some of the volunteers who spoke to TODAY said that part of the reason they stuck with volunteering regularly is because they enjoy meeting “like-minded people” who share a common passion for the cause they are helping.
Agreeing, Ng from NVPC added: “Our research also supports the observation that those who give as part of a tightly knitted group tend to be motivated to give more.”
Regardless, Lin from Care Community Services Society has observed an “increasing trend” of parents who take their children along to do volunteer work, some as young as pre-schoolers.
Parents who did so told TODAY that there were benefits of doing so, for both the beneficiaries and the children.
Cheung said that as many of the beneficiaries are the elderly, having his children around “often add sparks of joy” when they make the delivery.
“Kids also have a disarming effect and add a more human touch, rather than appearing at their doorsteps like a deliveryman just doing my job,” he said.
This was the case for Shallene Lim, whom TODAY met along with her three young children at an event organised by Its Raining Raincoats, a charity organisation focused on supporting migrant workers.
Her oldest child Matthew, 7, was helping with chores such as opening boxes and moving around light items, while the younger two also brought joy to the migrant workers there, many of whom are separated from their own children back in their home countries.
Lim, a 41-year-old primary school teacher, said she began regularly taking her eldest child to the organisation’s monthly events at the start of this year, after the youngster asked to tag along.
When asked why he did so, Matthew answered simply: “I enjoy helping mummy helping other people”.
Lim said taking Matthew along teaches him to be more independent. As she would not be able to “handhold him all the time” while busy overseeing such events, the child has learnt to “make himself useful” and help out with small tasks.
More importantly, parents hoped that getting the family involved in volunteer work can help impart positive values to their children from a young age.
Emily Pan’s family — including her two children aged four and six — volunteer together every month by packing food for households in need, and delivering these to the beneficiaries.
Through volunteering together, the 38-year-old homemaker hopes that her children will be “exposed to people from all walks of life and (to be aware) that there are people in the community that need to be taken care of”.
As for Lim, she hopes that when her children grow up, they will “not go through the rat-race” of just studying hard and aspiring for high-paying jobs, but rather find a greater meaning in life.
“I want them to find their purpose in life, pursue it and bring value to people around them. And volunteering is one small step for them to discover what they can do for others.” — TODAY
