Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes, the related variables and the potential determining factors towards community service in college students using the “Community Service Attitudes Scale (CSAS)” edited by Shiarella, McCarthy and Tucker. Subjects were sampled from NCCU, NTNU and five other public and private universities in northern Taiwan to include students with different genders, fields of study, past experiences and academic training on community service. The effective sample size was 848. The reliability and validity of CSAS were tested. The effects of those differential background profiles on community service attitude were investigated, and the significance of those effects were evaluated. The results showed that reliability and the validity of CSAS were 0.94 and 0.45–0.87, respectively. The overall community service attitudes of the sampled college students were good, while significant differences were observed due to their genders, personality in locus of control, fields of study, whether they have participated in extracurriculum or courses related to service education. In specific, students who have had extracurricular activity related to public and community service, who have elected the curricula of service-learning, and those with internal locus of control showed better attitudes towards community service. This study demonstrated that extracurricular activities and curricula elections related to service-learning provide positive influences in community service attitudes and in preparation for good citizens for college students.
| Keywords: | college students; service-learning; community service attitudes |
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