Does Service Learning Improve Quality of Life?

Abstract

Service Learning has been found to benefit students' understanding of course material (Primavera, 1999), increase grades (Scales, Blyth, Berkas, & Kielsmeier, 2000), and improve attendance and skills acquisition (Kozeracki, 2000; Robinson, 2000). However, there is a lack of robust literature as to what the ramifications of service learning are on students' mental health and quality of life. Thus, with the present study, participants from a Catholic high school who were engaged in service learning, were given the Quality of Life Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory at the beginning of their course and three months after beginning to engage in service learning. The participants' Quality of Life Scale scores significantly increased over the course of the experiment; however, their depression scores did not significantly change.