Table 2.

Percentage of the total sample and each of four subgroups stating the motivations for volunteering

Motivation	Total	Subgroup
		1 N = 95	2 N = 75	3 N = 88	4 N = 77
Feel responsibility to help others	72.5	78.9	69.3	73.9	66.2
Helping others is part of my philosophy of life	65.1	70.5	62.7	69.3	55.8
Enhance my awareness of mental health issues1	61.2	60.0	50.7	59.1	75.3*
Acquire new skills	56.1	56.8	56.0	52.3	59.7
Give something back	50.4	47.4	64.0	43.2	49.4
I wanted to do something useful with my spare time2	33.7	45.3	38.7	21.6*	28.6
Meet new people	22.7	28.4	22.7	14.8	24.7
Curious to find out if I am suitable for the role	20.6	24.2	13.3	19.3	24.7
To gain psychologically relevant experience (e.g. for my career)3	20.3	9.5*	10.7	22.7	40.3**
To feel needed and acknowledged4	19.4	26.3	22.7	18.2	9.1*
Helping others is part of my religious belief5	16.4	21.1	16.0	20.5	6.5*
Test out career aspirations6	12.5	4.2*	8.0	13.6	26.0*
Find explanations for my own behaviour	9.9	13.7	8.0	6.8	10.4
Because of a recommendation of somebody in the mental health/social work field	6.6	7.4	8.0	4.5	6.5
Have close contact with others	6.3	8.4	6.7	2.3	7.8
“Befriending” looks good on my CV7	4.5	2.1	0.0	4.5	11.7**
To feel like a better person	3.9	5.3	6.7	1.1	2.6
To be accepted and liked	3.0	6.3	2.7	1.1	1.3
I have received voluntary help in the past, and wanted to give something back	2.1	2.1	0.0	1.1	5.1

^1–7Items that significantly related to subgroup membership: ¹X² (3) = 10.20 p = .017, ²X² (3) = 12.88, p = .004, ³X² (3) = 30.47, p < .001, ⁴X² (3) = 8.74, p = .033, ⁵X² (3) = 8.07, p = .045, ⁶X² (3) = 20.19, p < .001, ⁷X² (3) = 15.01, p = .002

*Significantly different from expected value at 5% level

**Significantly different from expected value at 1% level