Factors Affecting Voluntary Behaviors among Prison Health Volunteers at the Medical Correctional Hospital, Department of Corrections, Ministry of Justice

Abstract

This research has 3 objectives: 1) to describe the volunteer behavior of Prison Health Volunteers (PHVs), 2) to compare the volunteer behavior of PHVs classified by personal factors, and 3) to examine the relationships between enabling factors-- volunteer motivation, social support, and volunteer spirit model-- and the volunteer behavior of PHVs in the Correctional Hospital. This quantitative research collected data from a sample of 102 PHVs. Data analysis employed descriptive statistics, namely frequency, percentage, mean, one-way analysis of variance, and Pearson's correlation coefficient.
The results revealed that the overall volunteer behavior was at a high level. For hypothesis testing, it was found that personal factors comprised of gender and age showed statistically significant differences with volunteer behavior at .05 level of significance. In meanwhile, all enabling factors had positive correlation with the volunteer behavior at moderate level-- attitude toward volunteering (r = 0.666), self-efficacy perception (r = 0.660), social support, particularly from support (r = 0.565), and self-esteem (r = 0.528), respectively. Additionally, it was inferred that PHVs who had high level of volunteer motivation, social support, and volunteer spirit model, tended to demonstrate volunteer behavior extensively. Therefore, the Correctional Hospital should emphasize the importance of volunteer activity design, focusing on creating positive volunteer motivation among PHVs in parallel with fostering social support and volunteer spirit model, to promote participation and continuously develop volunteer behavior.
The findings from this research can be applied to design and develop volunteer activities in the Correctional Hospital by focusing on fostering positive volunteer motivation, providing social support, and promoting volunteer spirit models