Childhood Predictors of Volunteering Across 22 Countries in the Global Flourishing Study

While prior work documents individual and societal benefits to volunteering, less is known about how childhood experiences shape volunteering in adulthood globally. Using data from The Global Flourishing Study, a diverse and international sample of 202,898 individuals across 22 countries, we examined 11 candidate childhood predictors of volunteering in adulthood, and whether these associations vary by country. Random effects meta-analyses showed evidence of positive associations between several childhood predictors and likelihood of subsequent volunteering, including having a good relationship with father, comfortable subjective financial status, childhood abuse, sense of belonging, more frequent religious service at age 12, and being male. Sensitivity analyses showed that several of these associations were at least moderately robust to unmeasured confounding. There was little evidence of several other predictors (e.g., relationship with mother, parental marital status, self-rated health, immigration status, and year of birth) being associated with adulthood volunteering. Associations between childhood predictors and volunteering varied between countries, reflecting diverse societal influences. These findings enhance our understanding of childhood predictors of volunteering in adulthood and, with further research, provide valuable evidence for informing policy and practice aimed at fostering volunteering globally.