Effects of short-term service ministry trips on the development of social responsibility in college students.

摘要

This study investigated the impact of service ministry trips on the development of social responsibility in college students at a small Quaker liberal arts university in the Pacific Northwest. Students (50 female, 14 male) who participated on 5 different short-term service ministry trips served as the service ministry group, while students (23 females, 13 males) in a general psychology class served as the control group. Over three administrations of the Global Social Responsibility Inventory, (Starrett 1996) students provided responses that offered support for service ministry trips as a method of increasing a sense of social responsibility in college students. Analysis revealed that the students who participated in the service ministry trips demonstrated a stronger sense of social responsibility at the end of the trip than did the control group, and that the increase maintained itself at the four week follow-up test. Further analysis was mixed regarding whether service ministry trips to locations that provided interpersonal interaction with marginal groups demonstrated a stronger sense of social responsibility than either the control group or a service ministry trip that were primarily devotional in nature.