Role-modeling and conversations about giving in the socialization of adolescent charitable giving and volunteering

•We model whether adolescents give to charitable organizations/religious congregations.•The main independent variables: do their parents role-model giving and talk to them about giving.•The data are from a nationally-representative sample of American adolescents aged 12–18.•Role-modeling and talking about giving are strongly associated with adolescents' giving.•Similar results also obtain in a model of adolescents' volunteering.

This study investigated the relationship between the monetary giving and volunteering behavior of adolescents and the role-modeling and conversations about giving provided by their parents. The participants are a large nationally-representative sample of 12–18 year-olds from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics' Child Development Supplement (n = 1244). Adolescents reported whether they gave money and whether they volunteered. In a separate interview parents reported whether they talked to their adolescent about giving. In a third interview, parents reported whether they gave money and volunteered. The results show that both role-modeling and conversations about giving are strongly related to adolescents' giving and volunteering. Knowing that both role-modeling and conversation are strongly related to adolescents' giving and volunteering suggests an often over-looked way for practitioners and policy-makers to nurture giving and volunteering among adults: start earlier, during adolescence, by guiding parents in their role-modeling of, and conversations about, charitable giving and volunteering.