For the first time, this study examined both cross-sectional and longitudinal effects of contextual cultural and economic characteristics of individual formal volunteering. A study sample of 116,380 respondents from 33 countries and four waves from the European Values Study (1981-2008) was used. The hierarchical logistic models indicate that a long-standing theoretical idea regarding the positive relationship between contextual religiosity and formal volunteering is not supported by European data. Specifically, I found that people living in secular and economically equal countries are more likely to engage in voluntary activities. Longitudinally, there is a decrease in formal volunteering over 27 years; however, none of the cultural and economic country-level variables explain variation across time. These differential cross-sectional and longitudinal effects highlight the need to use repeated cross-sectional data.

中文翻译：

---

欧洲的正式志愿服务：跨越国家和时间的证据

本研究首次考察了个人正式志愿服务的情境文化和经济特征的横断面和纵向影响。使用了来自 33 个国家的 116,380 名受访者和来自欧洲价值观研究 (1981-2008) 的四波研究样本。分层逻辑模型表明，欧洲数据不支持有关情境宗教信仰与正式志愿服务之间正相关关系的长期理论观点。具体来说，我发现生活在世俗和经济平等国家的人们更有可能从事志愿活动。纵向来看，27 年来正式志愿服务的数量有所减少；然而，文化和经济国家层面的变量都不能解释随时间的变化。