TABLE 4.

Examples of Participant Motives for Participating in the First Year of the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial: Baltimore, MD, 2006–2007 School Year

Motives37 and Examples	Screened and Eligible Participants, No. or No (%)	Participants Not Recruited, No. or No (%)	Participants Recruited, No. or No (%)	Pa
Participants responding to motivation questions	310	176	134
Altruism	188 (61)	104 (59)	84 (63)	.52
Giving back to the community	118	64	54
Helping others is important	125	71	54
The idea of doing something “good”	40	19	21
Volunteering is a social responsibility	58	29	29
Wanted to help in a research study	7	4	3
To make a difference and help schoolchildren	3	1	2
Ideology	204 (66)	109 (62)	95 (71)	.10
Worthwhile cause	170	91	79
Civil rights (helping the underserved)	123	65	58
Religious reasons, calling from God	28	18	10
To be a better person	72	37	35
Material reward	87 (28)	46 (26)	41 (31)	.39
It is good for me	68	37	31
Money for participation would be helpful	22	11	11
Relative (child) attends a school with EC	1	0	1
Good for my health (physical, mental, etc.)	1	0	1
Status reward	27 (9)	13 (7)	14 (10)	.34
Learn new skills	23	12	11
Gain recognition in the community	2	0	2
Gain experience or connections to get a job	4	2	2
Social relationships	56 (18)	29 (16)	27 (20)	.41
Make friends	42	20	22
Be with friends in existing school with EC	8	6	2
Make friends with people of different age	30	12	18
Leisure time	120 (39)	71 (40)	49 (37)	.50
Bored	85	48	37
Make better use of spare time	112	67	45
Personal growth	75 (24)	38 (22)	37 (28)	.22
Grow personally	54	27	27
Have a sense of purpose in life	40	20	20
Feel valued and needed	21	9	12
Want to learn	23	12	11

Note. EC = Experience Corps Baltimore City. The total number of participants who were screened and were eligible was N = 368.

^aBetween participants recruited and not recruited.