Who Stays Involved? A Longitudinal Study on Adolescents’ Participation in Voluntary Associations in Germany

The extent to which people are active in voluntary associations varies with age. While previous research provides clear evidence for an inverse u-shaped pattern across an adult’s life, much less is known about the formative period of adolescence and young adulthood. In this article, we examine changes in voluntary participation starting at age 14 and assess the impact of adolescents’ educational transitions and their socioeconomic status. Our analyses rely on longitudinal survey data following a representative sample of adolescents in Germany (N = 5,013) over 6 years. Using fixed effects regression and moderated mediation analyses, we examine how adolescents’ educational transitions and their socioeconomic status drive changes in participation. Results indicate a substantive decline in participation as individuals grow older. Transitions into higher tertiary education partly account for this decline. Finally, we find that adolescents from higher socioeconomic status are especially likely to reduce their participation, in part because they are more likely to undergo transitions into higher tertiary education. These findings suggest that the socioeconomic gap in participation decreases as adolescents grow older.