Faith Commitments and Spiritual Influences as Correlates of Adolescents' Involvement in Service in the Valuegenesis Study
Authors:   ,   Andrews University, Nagy Andrea 
Published: April 2023

Purpose. The first goal of this research was to examine the changes that took place over the three administrations of the Valuegenesis survey, in terms of students’ involvement in service. Secondly this study sought to determine the relationship between adolescents’ commitment to religious values and Seventh-day Adventist beliefs, and their involvement in service to others. The third goal of this research was to explore the relationship between home, church, and school variables, and the participation in acts of service of students attending Seventh-day Adventist schools. Methodology. The present research study uses quantitative research methods and is a secondary analysis. Correlations studies were done using the Valuegenesis data obtained by permission from the Hancock Research Institute. The population sample included students in Grades 6 through 12 from Seventh-day Adventist schools across North America. Results. Findings from one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) provided empirical evidence to the changes in adolescents’ service involvement patterns over the three administrations of the Valuegenesis study (1990–1991, 2000–2001, and 2010–2011). ANOVA test results for the Horizontal Faith scale indicated a decrease in adolescents’ service involvement patterns from Valuegenesis1 to Valuegenesis2 and Valuegenesis1. Although results for the Evangelism scale were slightly higher in Valuegenesis1 than in Valuegenesis2 and Valuegenesis3, the mean scores in all three studies indicated the same frequency of students’ involvement in mission-oriented service. Likewise, though a slight increase was shown for the Altruism scale from Valuegenesis1 to Valuegenesis2, the mean scores indicated the same frequency of voluntary service involvement among adolescents participating in the studies. Canonical correlation employed to test the second hypothesis revealed significant relationship between adolescents’ commitment to religious values and their involvement in service. Results indicated that the greater adolescents’ commitment to religious values and Seventh-day Adventist beliefs the greater their involvement in service. Canonical correlational analysis, employed to test the third hypothesis, identified significant relationship between home, church, and school variables, and the service involvement of adolescents attending Seventh-day Adventist schools. Thus findings from the canonical correlation revealed that the greater the spiritual influences at home, at church, and at the Seventh-day Adventist school the greater adolescents’ involvement in service. Conclusions. Consistent with results from this study, there are some changes in the service involvement attitudes of teenagers from the first to the second and third administrations of the Valuegenesis study. Meanwhile this research indicated that adolescents’ commitment to religious values and beliefs is significantly related to their involvement in serving others. The current study also revealed a close connection between the influences of the home, the denominational school, and the church, and adolescent students’ voluntary participation in service to others.