The authors substantiate the need for and the relevance of studying self-realization based on the records requested from the electronic database SciVal. The data categorized into thematic clusters, as well as by the countries and universities of the world and by journals from the list of the Scopus scientific database have been analyzed. A review of domestic and international scientific publications on the problem of social self-realization of volunteers is performed to discover and describe the motives of their participation in non-profit associations and their personal characteristics.Sixty adolescents (30 girls and 30 boys), participating in socially significant projects carried out on the territory of the Rostov region, composed the study sample. The average age of the respondents was 15.5 years. The experience in volunteering ranged from 2 to 5 years. Methodological toolkit included: multidimensional questionnaire of self-realization by S. I. Kudinov and the authors-developed questionnaire “Meaningful motives of self-realization”.The study revealed the following regularities: female volunteers have statistically significantly higher levels of social self-realization than the male volunteers. Regardless of gender, social self-realization of adolescent volunteers is moderately structured. As adolescents – participants in socially significant projects – grow up, the components of their social self-realization undergo changes, depending on their gender: female volunteers become more conservative, and male volunteers reduce personal barriers. For male volunteers, the predominant motive for social self-realization is the utilitarian-pragmatic one, whereas for female volunteers, it is the communicative motive.This knowledge about the discovered patterns in social self-realization of volunteers can be used to organize effective psychological and pedagogical help for adolescents as a part of an integral system of support for initiative and talented youth and to further encourage involvement of young people in social practices.