Kontakt X:X | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2026.037

Motivation of blood donors in the context of social competencesSocial Sciences in Health - Original article

Roman Pospíšil ORCID...1, Pavlína Rabasová ORCID...1, *, Karel Pavlica ORCID...1, Hana Konečná ORCID...2, Zuzana Čermáková ORCID...3
1 University of Ostrava, Faculty of Social Studies, Department of Health and Social Studies, Ostrava, Czech Republic
2 University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Institute of the Humanities in Helping Professions, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
3 Blood Centre of University Hospital Ostrava, Czech Republic

Introduction: The study explores social competences as an important component of blood donor motivation, understood as socially competent, goal-directed behaviour in specific situations.

Aim: To analyse donor motivation in relation to social competences and selected sociodemographic factors.

Methods: The sample comprised 517 donors from the Blood Centre of the University Hospital in Ostrava. Data were collected using a self-designed questionnaire and the Social Competence Inventory (ISK-K). Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach's alpha, and correlation and comparative analyses were conducted.

Results: Acceptable reliability was confirmed for the Self-Control, Social Orientation, and Offensiveness scales, while Reflexivity was excluded. Donors achieved average scores in Social Orientation and below-average scores in Self-Control and Offensiveness compared to population norms. Statistically significant differences were found between the Size of Place of Residence and Social Orientation (p < 0.01) and Offensiveness (p < 0.05). No significant differences were identified in relation to gender, education, or number of donations.

Conclusion: Donor motivation is associated with selected social competences and varies by place of residence, indicating the need for region-specific recruitment and retention strategies.

Keywords: Blood donors; Extrinsic motives; Intrinsic motives; Motivations; Social competences
Grants and funding:

The research was conducted as part of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TA CR) project entitled "Quality and Sustainability of Body Part Donation Programmes in the Czech Republic" (No.TL05000144).

Conflicts of interest:

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Received: December 18, 2025; Revised: March 3, 2026; Accepted: May 6, 2026; Prepublished online: June 9, 2026 

Download citation

References

  1. Alanzi T, Alanzi N, Alsleman N, Bu-Sarair D, Almaqabel AAA, Alharbi R, et al. (2023). The Impact of Social Media Applications on Donor Engagement and Retention in the Saudi Arabian Blood Donation System. Cureus 15(10): e47395. DOI: 10.7759/cureus.47395. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
  2. Bednall CT, Bove LL (2011). Donating Blood: A Meta-Analytic Review of Self-Reported Motivators and Deterrents. Transfus Med Rev 25(4): 317-334. DOI: 10.1016/j.tmrv.2011.04.005. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
  3. Bierhoff HW, Klein R, Kramp P (1991). Evidence for the Altruistic Personality from Data on Accident Research. J Pers 59(2): 263-280. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467‑6494.1991.tb00776.x. Go to original source...
  4. Chand S, Amita R, Gupta D (2023). Addressing concerns and suggestions of blood donors: An assured way for donor motivation, recruitment, and retention. Asian J Transfus Sci 17(1): 103-107. DOI: 10.4103/ajts.ajts_154_21. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
  5. Ferguson E, Hill A, Lam M, Reynolds C, Davison K, Lawrence C, Brailsford SR (2020). A typology of blood donor motivations. Transfusion 60(9): 2010-2020. DOI: 10.1111/trf.15913. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
  6. Fogarty H, Sardana M, Sheridan L, Chieng P, Kelly S, Ngwenya N, et al. (2023). Motivators and barriers to blood donation among potential donors of African and Caucasian ethnicity. Blood Transfus 21(1): 13-23. DOI: 10.2450/2022.0014-22. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
  7. France CR, France JL, Ysidron DW, Martin CD, Duffy L, Kessler DA, et al. (2022). Blood donation motivators and barriers reported by young, first-time whole blood donors: Examining the association of reported motivators and barriers with subsequent donation behavior and potential sex, race, and ethnic group differences. Transfusion 62(12): 2539-2554. DOI: 10.1111/trf.17162. Go to original source...
  8. Greif S (1987). Soziale Kompetenzen. In: Frey D, Greif S (Hrsg.). Socialpsychologie. Ein Handbuch in Schlüssellbegriffen. München: Psychologie Verlags Union, pp. 312-320.
  9. Hoskovcová S, Vašek Z (2017). ISK: Inventář sociálních kompetencí. Praha: Hogrefe - Testcentrum, 164 p.
  10. Kanning UP (2002). Soziale Kompetenz - Definition, Strukturen und Prozesse. Z Psychol Z Angew Psychol 210(4): 154-163. DOI: 10.1026//0044-3409.210.4.154. Go to original source...
  11. Kanning UP (2017). Diagnostika sociálních kompetencí. Praha: Hogrefe, 124 p.
  12. Kermani FR, Kafi-Abad SA, Maghsudlu M, Hosseini KM, Mohammadali F, MohammadJafari A (2024). Development and validation of the self-regulation of blood donation scale for blood donors. Hematol Transfus Cell Ther 46 (Suppl 6): S299-S305. DOI: 10.1016/j.htct.2024.09.2482. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
  13. Lejdarová H, Švenda P, Lejdar T, Smékalová M (2019). Analýza fluktuace dárců krve mezi státním zařízením transfuzní služby a soukromým plazmaferetickým centrem. Transfuze Hematol 25(2): 153-158. Go to original source...
  14. Nakonečný M (2014). Motivace chování. 3rd revised ed. Praha: Triton, 599 p.
  15. Niklas N, Loimayr C, Lenz J, Süßner S, Schuster G, Jungwirth D, et al. (2023). The Impact of Digital Transformation on Blood Donation and Donor Characteristics. Transfus Med Hemother 50(6): 531-538. DOI: 10.1159/000530270. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
  16. Official Journal of the European Union (2024). Nařízení Evropského parlamentu a Rady (EU) 2024/1938 o standardech kvality a bezpečnosti pro látky lidského původu určené k použití u člověka a o zrušení směrnic 2002/98/ES a 2004/23/ES. [online] [cit. 2026-01-22]. Available from: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/CS/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202401938
  17. Padilla-Garrido N, Fernández Herrera MD, Aguado Correa F, Rabadán Martín I (2021). Motivators, barriers, and communication channels for blood donation in relation to students at a university in Spain. Transfus Apher Sci 60(6): 103270. DOI: 10.1016/j.transci.2021.103270. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
  18. Petermann F (1995). Trainingsozialer Kompetenz bei Kindern und Jugendlichen. In: Margraf J, Rudolf K (Hrsg.). Training Sozialer Kompetenz, pp. 109-126. Baltmanns-weiler: Röttger-Schneider, 243 p.
  19. Piliavin JA, Callero PL (1991). Giving Blood: The Development of an Altruistic Identity. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 313 p.
  20. Rabušic L, Soukup P, Mareš P (2019). Statistická analýza sociálněvědních dat (prostřednictvím SPSS). Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 576 p.
  21. Riemann R, Allgöwer A (1993). Eine Deutschsprachige Fassung des "Interpersonal Competence Questionarre"(ICQ). Journal of Individual Differences 14(3): 153-163. [online] [cit. 2026-01-22]. Available from: https://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/record/1777119
  22. Romero-Domínguez L, Martín-Santana JD, Sánchez-Medina AJ, Beerli-Palacio A (2021). The influence of sociodemographic and donation behaviour characteristics on blood donation motivations. Blood Transfus 19(5): 366-375. DOI: 10.2450/2021.0193-20. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
  23. Tošner J, Sožanská O (2006). Dobrovolníci a metodika práce s nimi v organizacích. 2nd ed. Praha: Portál, 152 p.
  24. Ursachi G, Horodnic IA, Zait A (2015). How Reliable are Measurement Scales? External Factors with Indirect Influence on Reliability Estimators. Procedia Economics and Finance 20: 679-686. DOI: 10.1016/S2212-5671(15)00123-9. Go to original source...
  25. Záškodná H, Mlčák Z (2009). Osobnostní aspekty prosociálního chování a empatie. Praha: Triton, 391 p.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.