Volunteering in disasters: A mixed method research

This research aimed to unravel the factors contributing to university students' reluctance to participate in disaster volunteering and sought to develop an assessment scale for this behavior. Employing an exploratory sequential mixed-method design, the qualitative phase involved semi-structured interviews with 13 purposefully sampled students, resulting in the identification of seven themes and an initial item pool of 81 for the scale. Expert evaluations, using the Lawshe technique, refined the items to 64. pilot testing, error identification, and correction led to the administration of the scale to 731 individuals through convenience sampling. Data analysis, conducted with SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 24.0, confirmed the scale's suitability for factor analysis, indicated by a Kaiser Meyer Olkin value (>0.6) and the significance of Bartlett's test (p<0.05). Exploratory Factor Analyses resulted in the removal of 32 items due to overlapping and factor loadings below 0.33. Confirmatory Factor Analysis validated this structure, resulting in a final scale with 6 factors and 31 items: Value (11 items), İnformation (5 items), Economy (3 items), Advertising and Promotion (5 items), Family Ties (4 items), and Fear (3 items). The total Cronbach Alpha value for the scale is high at 0.92, with sub-dimensions demonstrating reliability between 0.75 and 0.93. Higher scores on the scale indicate an increased tendency to avoid volunteering in disasters. This developed scale holds considerable potential to enhance the involvement of individuals in disaster volunteering processes, offering insights to organizations in this field. Advocating for volunteerism awareness across educational levels may positively influence participation in such activities.