Betaalde arbeid als verdringer van vrijwilligerswerk? Overbelasting als mogelijke verklaring

Do paid work activities displace volunteering? A potential explanation from role overload theory
Recent changes in Dutch society might lead to a shortage of volunteers. On the one hand, the
demand for volunteers is increasing: in the social welfare domain because of governmental austerity policies and in other domains such as sports because of the higher supervision intensity
of activities. On the other hand, the supply of volunteers is likely to decrease as more and more
women and older workers are active in the labor market, which reduces the time that is available
for volunteering. Role overload theory would suggest that the increasing labor participation rate
of certain categories of workers goes along with a decline of participation in voluntary work. The
secondary data analysis shows that various role loads (work, care for children living at home) are
associated with differences in participation in voluntary work. However, while a higher number of
contractual work hours and hours spent on work-related training are negatively associated with
volunteer work, care for children living at home is positively associated with volunteering. These
results provide only limited support for role overload theory.