| Abstract: | Reported membership of voluntary organizations is taken as an index of community participation. Data derived from a Mental Health Survey in Canberra in 1971 are analysed and participation behaviour compared with information from American participation studies. A high participation rate was expected because of Canberra's high ranking on socio-economic variables compared with Australia as a whole. However, nearly half of the adults sampled report belonging to no formal organizations. Sex, age and socio-economic status are found to be related to joining behaviour and conform to well-established findings in the United States. |
