Study Part of Landmark Project at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University
INDIANAPOLIS - A National Institutes of Health (NIH) unit has awarded a researcher at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University a $216,000 grant to study how early childhood circumstances affect the philanthropy and other helping behaviors of children as they grow older.
The National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD), a part of NIH, awarded the two-year grant to Dr. Mark Wilhelm, associate professor of economics and philanthropic studies in the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).
Wilhelm will examine changes in family circumstances, such as income shortfalls and divorce and remarriage, and how those changes impact the charitable giving and volunteering habits of the children as they become adults. The study also will observe the emphasis they place on helping behaviors in their own children.
"This new research will help us identify what stages in a child's life are most important in promoting helping behaviors, such as charitable giving and volunteering," Wilhelm said, adding that the research is only possible because of the type of information provided in the Center's signature research project, the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study (COPPS).
Wilhelm is co-director of the COPPS project, which is the only study nationally that surveys giving and volunteering by the same households over time as families mature, face differing economic circumstances and encounter changes in their family size, health and other factors.
It is conducted in conjunction with the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research and its long-running Panel Study of Income Dynamics, which has surveyed the same 5,000 households since 1968. As children of these respondents have matured, they have been added to the sample, which now exceeds 7,400 households. In 2001, researchers added the philanthropy component, designed and sponsored by the Center on Philanthropy.
"Results from Dr. Wilhelm's efforts will help us better understand how and when children become involved in charitable giving and volunteering, thereby becoming good, active citizens," said Eugene R. Tempel, executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. "We greatly appreciate NICHD's support of this project as the Center on Philanthropy continues to contribute important research to the philanthropic sector."
The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University increases the understanding of philanthropy and improves its practice through research, teaching, public service and public affairs programs in philanthropy, fundraising, and management of nonprofit organizations. The Center sponsors programs at its headquarters at IUPUI and at IU-Bloomington.
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