Volunteers’ Sustained Volunteering in Emergencies: Empirical Findings From a Survey Study in Tianjin, China

The sustainability of volunteer engagement is paramount for augmenting the effectiveness and quality of volunteerism. Prior research has predominantly focused on sustained volunteering within non-emergency contexts, with a notable absence of examination in emergency settings. This study addresses this gap by investigating the interplay between volunteers’ motives, satisfaction, community identity, and sustained volunteering among 967 volunteers who responded to China’s Omicron outbreak. The findings indicate that volunteers’ value, social, and enhancement motives, and their satisfaction with the person-task congruence are positively associated with sustained volunteering in emergencies. In contrast, protective and understanding motives were found to have a negative correlation with sustained volunteering within emergency contexts. Furthermore, community identity positively moderated the relationship between volunteers’ motives and sustained volunteering. These insights contribute to the understanding of the determinants of sustained volunteering in emergencies.