Examining Correlates of Civic Engagement Among Immigrant Adolescents in the United States

Using a diverse urban sample of immigrant adolescents in the United States (N = 345) followed from 10^th grade (M_age = 15.69) to 12^th grade, this study examined the extent to which ecological assets (i.e., community connections and social network resources) predicted civic commitments (i.e., community engagement, social responsibility) as potentially mediated by fair society beliefs. The authors also examined whether ethnicity and generation status moderated these associations. As hypothesized, fair society beliefs were higher and predicted greater civic commitments only among Asian youth. Ecological assets were associated with greater civic commitments for all participants; these links were primarily direct for Latino immigrants and indirect (via fair society beliefs) for Asian youth. First-generation immigrants had more ecological assets and were more civically committed, however social network resources predicted fair society beliefs and community engagement only for second-generation youth. These differences indicate that immigrant youth are best understood as a heterogeneous group and suggest the need for further investigation of cultural variations in civic developmental processes.     

Motivations for Civic Participation Among Diverse Youth: More Similarities than Differences

Participating in civic life is an important developmental task of adolescence and a central tenet of democracy. What motivates diverse youth in the United States to become involved in civic life? Using a mixed-method and person-centered approach, the authors (1) identified subgroups of participants based on their motivations for political and nonpolitical volunteering and (2) explored differences in civic motivations by ethnic and immigration backgrounds among Asian and Latino adolescents. Using latent class analysis, the authors identified four classes of motivation for political (n = 414) and nonpolitical volunteer (n = 1,066) activities: helping identity, instrumental, personal issue, and weak motivation. Overall, first- and second-generation Latino and Asian youth and nonimmigrants showed more similarities than differences in civic motivations. Survey and interview data revealed that youth from immigrant backgrounds were more motivated to volunteer by instrumental reasons compared to nonimmigrants. Qualitative analyses also revealed that immigrant youth from Mexican backgrounds were mobilized around issues of immigration reform whereas youth from Asian backgrounds were concerned with issues in their local communities.     

Diverging Paths: Understanding Racial Differences in Civic Engagement Among White,African American,and Latina/o Adolescents Using Structural Equation Modeling

There is increasing concern about the large civic engagement gap between Whites and Latina/o and African American youth. Some suggest this may be because traditional models and measures of civic engagement may not be as applicable for youth from historically marginalized groups. With an urban sample of middle and high school‐age youth (n = 903, 52% female), we used structural equation modeling to identify differences in civic pathways between youth from different racial/ethnic backgrounds. We found significant differences between groups including much stronger relationships between exposure to democratic practices and civic self‐efficacy and knowledge for African American and Latina/o youth than for White youth and a stronger relationship between civic knowledge and future civic engagement for Whites and Latina/os than for African Americans. These findings suggest that educators and researchers interested need to take into account the diversity of youths' racial experiences when examining youth civic development.     

Religion and Civic Engagement in Muslim Countries

Previous studies of religion on civic and political participation focus primarily on Western Christian societies. Studies of Muslim societies concentrate on Islamic religiosity's effect on attitudes toward democracy, not on how Muslim religious participation carries over into social and political arenas. This article examines the relationship between religion and civic engagement in nine Muslim‐majority countries using data from the World Values Surveys. I find that active participation in Muslim organizations is associated with greater civic engagement, while religious service attendance is not. In a subset of countries, daily prayer is associated with less civic engagement. The main area in which Muslim societies differ from Western ones is in the lack of association between civic engagement, trust, and tolerance. Religious participation is a more significant predictor of secular engagement than commonly used “social capital” measures, suggesting a need to adapt measures of religiosity to account for differences in religious expression across non‐Christian faiths.     

Motivating Political Participation Among Youth: An Analysis of Factors Related to Adolescents’ Political Engagement

Prior research has identified political efficacy and political interest as strong predictors of political participation, but few studies have examined these two attitudes in tandem or compared their relative importance vis‐à‐vis political participation. Drawing on the expectancy‐value model of motivation, we begin to address this research gap while also considering several related issues. Our sample includes a diverse group of high school students in grades 10, 11, and 12 (N = 422) from the midwestern United States. Through quantitative analyses of participants’ survey data, we found that political interest (a central aspect of value) and political efficacy (closely related to expectancy) predicted participants’ expected future political participation, controlling for background characteristics—and that political interest was a particularly strong predictor. In addition, we identified political‐engagement differences on various demographic measures, such as grade level. We also found a significant interaction between political interest and internal political efficacy, suggesting that high levels of both attitudes can have an especially positive effect on adolescents’ political participation. We discuss the implications of these findings for researchers and educators interested in fostering political engagement among youth.     

Motivations for Political Discussion: Antecedents and Consequences on Civic Engagement

Scholarship on informal discussion of politics and current events has mainly focused on its cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral effects. In comparison, fewer studies have addressed the antecedents of political talk. Using 2‐wave U.S. panel survey data, this study sheds light over 2 sets of motivations people may have for engaging in political conversation: civic‐oriented and social‐oriented goals; and their effects over civic participation. Using structural equation modeling, results suggest that both civic and social motivations are positive predictors of frequency of political discussion, and indirectly associated with civic engagement. From a theoretical perspective, these findings cast political talk as a more complex phenomenon than what deliberative theory suggests, and point to social motivations as an additional path to civic life.     

Examining civic engagement in ethnic minority youth populations: A literature review and concept analysis

Racial reckoning is defined as the subjugation of Black, Indigenous, and people of Color (BIPOC) to racial hierarchies and subordinate groups that influence multiple well-being outcomes throughout the developmental lifespan and across generations. With the two pandemics of racial reckoning and COVID-19 amidst a growing controversial political landscape, topics around civic engagement have been brought to the forefront of community conversation. Discussions surrounding civic engagement must go beyond addressing issues of public concern and examine the vehicle in which civic engagement may be delivered. This is becoming increasingly important as civic engagement is one of the main avenues of social change through individual and collective action, particularly regarding racial reckoning and healthcare disparities highlighted by COVID-19. The paper focuses on civic engagement among ethnic minority youth and young adults. An integrated model of civic engagement was created based off what was learned through this review. This proposed model of civic engagement is meant to be the first step to addressing the gap in civic engagement literature for ethnic minority youth. Weaknesses and future considerations regarding the model will also be discussed, as well as any implications for ethnic minority youth and young adults.     

Middle School as a Developmental Niche for Civic Engagement

The present study investigated how school climate, school connectedness and academic efficacy beliefs inform emergent civic engagement behaviors among middle school youth of color. These associations were examined both concurrently and longitudinally using a developmentally appropriate measure of civic engagement. Data were drawn from two subsamples of a larger study of social/emotional development in middle school (cross‐sectional sample n = 324; longitudinal sample n = 232), M = 12 years old, 46 % female, 53 % male. Forty‐two percent (42.2 %) of the sample self‐identified as African American, 19.8 % as Multiracial or Mixed, 19.4 % as Latino, 11.6 % as Asian American or Pacific Islander, 11.6 % identified as Other, and 5.2 % as Native American. The study tested and found support for a latent mediation model in which more positive perceptions of school climate were positively related to school connectedness, and this in turn, was positively associated with civic engagement; school climate was also positively associated with academic‐self‐efficacy beliefs, but such beliefs did not mediate the climate‐civic engagement association. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Civic Engagement,Political Identity,and Generation in Developmental Context

We provide a developmental account of civic engagement-specifically, political participation. Civic engagement is more likely among people with politicized identities, an activist stance, and an interest in diverse peers. The form of civic engagement (focused on transmission of parental values or on social change) is shaped by different generations' relative tendency to identify horizontally (with each other) or vertically (with previous generations). Adolescence is proposed as a formative period for the development of a politicized identity and student activism as providing an opportunity to develop both personal efficacy in the political realm and experience working toward a goal with diverse peers. The intersection of late adolescence with periods of intense social discontinuity increases within-generation identification and decreases interest in cross-generational transmission of values. Young American women in the middle to late 20th century experienced such a confluence of factors, and we focus on studies of women's political participation and development of politicized identities at this time. Thus, forms of civic engagement are shaped not only by individual experiences but also by cohort or generational identity.     

Perceived Social Support,Perceived Community Functioning,and Civic Participation Across the Life Span: Evidence from the Former East Germany

Are social contexts as important to civic participation in adulthood as they are in adolescence? And does their significance for civic participation vary across adulthood? Using data from a cross-sectional sample of German adults aged 18 to 75 who were surveyed in 2013 by mail, the authors investigated the relationships of perceived family support, perceived support from friends, place attachment, social cohesion, and organizational collective efficacy with three indicators of civic participation. The authors split the sample into four age groups: 18 to 29 (n₁ = 442), 30 to 44 (n₂ = 596), 45 to 59 (n₃ = 1,095), and 60 to 75 (n₄ = 931). Perceived support from family was negatively associated with the breadth (i.e., the number of domains) of civic participation in the youngest group and with future intentions for civic participation in three age groups. Perceived support from friends had positive relationships with the intensity (i.e., frequency) of civic participation and with future intentions at age 30 to 44. Place attachment and organizational collective efficacy were positively related to all indicators of civic participation, and some of these associations held across age groups. In contrast, social cohesion had no significant effects. The authors discuss implications for fostering civic participation across adulthood.     

Youth civic development: theorizing a domain with evidence from different cultural contexts

The authors use examples of youth civic engagement from Chile, South Africa, Central/Eastern Europe, and the United States--and also emphasize diversities among youth from different subgroups within countries--to illustrate common elements of the civic domain of youth development. These include the primacy of collective activity for forming political identities and ideas and the greater heterogeneity of civic compared to other discretionary activities, the groupways or accumulated opportunities for acting due to the groups (social class, gender, ethnic, caste, etc.) to which a young person belongs, and the role of mediating institutions (schools, community-based organizations, etc.) as spaces where youths' actions contribute to political stability and change.     

Tuning in emotionally: Associations of cultural exposure with distal and proximal emotional fit in acculturating youth

The more immigrant minorities are exposed to the majority culture, the more their emotional pattern fits that of majority culture members—a phenomenon termed emotional acculturation. To assess emotional fit, earlier studies compared minorities’ emotional experience with that of separate samples of “distant” majority members in their country of residence. We added “proximal” fit with the emotional experience of majority members in their social environment. Drawing on large random samples of immigrant minority and majority youth in Belgian high schools (N = 2,543), our study aimed (i) to test majority culture exposure and contact as predictors of emotional fit and (ii) to distinguish emotional fit with distal and proximal variants of majority culture. Minorities’ majority culture exposure predicted both distal and proximal emotional fit. In addition, contact with majority peers better predicted proximal fit. Our findings suggest that emotional acculturation is socially grounded in interactions with proximal majority members.     

Family Affluence, School and Neighborhood Contexts and Adolescents’ Civic Engagement: A Cross-National Study

Research on youth civic engagement focuses on individual-level predictors. We examined individual- and school-level characteristics, including family affluence, democratic school social climate and perceived neighborhood social capital, in their relation to civic engagement of 15-year-old students. Data were taken from the 2006 World Health Organization Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey. A sample of 8,077 adolescents in 10th grade from five countries (Belgium, Canada, Italy, Romania, England) were assessed. Multilevel models were analyzed for each country and across the entire sample. Results showed that family affluence, democratic school climate and perceived neighborhood social capital positively related to participation in community organizations. These links were stronger at the aggregate contextual than individual level and varied by country. Canadian youth participated most and Romanian youth least of the five countries. Gender predicted engagement in two countries (girls participate more in Canada, boys in Italy). Findings showed significant contributions of the social environment to adolescents' engagement in their communities.     

Participation in Voluntary Associations: Relations with Resources, Personality, and Political Values

Participation in voluntary associations is explained by different theories in sociology, psychology, and political science. Sociologists have emphasized the effects of resources such as human and social capital. Psychologists have demonstrated the role of empathy and extraversion as aspects of personality. Political scientists have considered political values and attitudes. This paper investigates the predictive value of personality characteristics, political values, and social conditions for civic engagement. Data from the Family Survey of the Dutch Population 2000 (n = 1,587) show that active citizens have more human and social capital available to them, they are more interested in politics, have more post materialistic value orientations, prefer leftist or Christian political parties, are less conscientious persons, and show more empathic concern with other people. Relations of personality characteristics with civic engagement were partly intermediated by church attendance and the level of education and varied in complex ways with hourly wages. My results show how social, political, and psychological characteristics are jointly related to civic engagement.     

Enacted Identities of Immigrant-Origin Emerging Adult Women in Online Contexts: Capturing Multiple and Intersecting Identities Using Qualitative Strategies

Using a multiple intersecting identities enactment framework, and a qualitative methodology, this article examined the multiple and intersecting identities immigrant-origin emerging adult women enacted online and explored the meanings they ascribed to these identities (N = 14, M age ≈ 20; 57% = second-generation immigrant). Thematic analyses of 84 narratives revealed that the immigrant-origin emerging adult women enacted a range of identities online including: personal/individual, relational/social, gender, ethnic, civic, student, occupational, and athletic. Personal/individual and relational/social identities were enacted most frequently, and intersected most often. First-generation and second-generation immigrant women were somewhat similar in the rate with which they enacted their identities online. Results showed that second-generation immigrant women enacted their personal/individual, ethnic, and civic identities as well as their intersecting identities online most often. Findings have implications for theory and research about online enactment of multiple and intersecting identities among immigrant-origin youth.     

Predicting electoral activism among gays and lesbians in the United States

Although battles over gay and lesbian rights have appeared prominently in political arenas, scholars have created few empirical studies on gay and lesbian activism. To address this absence, this quantitative study identified factors that inspired greater electoral engagement among gays and lesbians in the United States (n = 285). After integrating “resource,” “mobilizing,” and “framing” variables into regressions, this study found that electoral activism was inspired by many sorts of motivators. In sum, activist tendencies were swayed by educational levels, perceptions of political potency, a desire to conceal sexual orientations, surviving hate crimes, and joining certain political groups. Interestingly, this study supported “new social movement” theories that downplay economic factors as predictors of involvement in gay and lesbian rights campaigns.     

Sense of community,civic engagement and social well‐being in Italian adolescents

This study investigates the relationship between sense of community, civic engagement and social well‐being in a sample of Italian adolescents. Participants were 14–19 year‐old high school students (N = 566) from two demographically distinct cities. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing sense of community, social well‐being (Keyes, 1998 ), involvement in structured group activities (group membership) and civic engagement. Results showed that involvement in formal groups is associated with increased civic involvement and increased sense of community. Sense of community predicts social well‐being and explains some of the association between civic engagement and social well‐being. Findings suggest that, to increase social well‐being, it is important to provide adolescents with more opportunities to experience a sense of belonging to the peers' group and promote prosocial behaviours in the community context. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inside the Black Box: College Graduation and Civic Engagement

Scholars agree that college graduation is positively associated with civic engagement. They are less certain about why. College graduates are more likely to grow up in advantaged households and have higher household income and access to social capital after graduation than non-graduates. These pre and post college factors are positively related to civic engagement. However, some suggest that college itself encourages graduates to be more involved. The goal of this study was to compare the pre college, college, and post college predictors of civic engagement using data from surveys of over 5,000 alumni of a large U.S. public university. Results show that college extracurricular activities and discipline studied in college, and post college social capital are the most important predictors of graduates' civic engagement. These findings help explain why college graduates are more involved, advance social capital theory, and suggest strategies for increasing civic engagement.     

"Unapologetic and unafraid": immigrant youth come out from the shadows

Young immigrants are challenging the boundaries of citizenship and insisting on their human rights. This chapter examines the civic lives of immigrant youth through the case of Latina/os, exploring the paradox of their apparent low civic education and engagement levels and remarkable participation in recent protests. After an overview of demographics and what we know about immigrant youth civic life, the focus shifts to the undocumented. Many retain a sense of community obligation, yet because of their developmental stage and U.S. education, their engagement differs from that of their parents' generation. Young immigrants are reconfiguring organizing and reenergizing U.S. democracy through their use of new information technologies.     

The Effects of Investments in theSocial Capital of Youth on Political and Civic Behavior in Young Adulthood: A Longitudinal Analysis

This paper uses the National Education Longitudinal Study to examine whether early investments in the social capital of young people produce greater political involvement and civic virtue in young adulthood. Parental involvement in a young person's life, youth religious involvement, and voluntary association participation were some of the forms of social capital hypothesized to influence adult political behavior. Structural equations modeling was used to trace the effects of the presence of social capital as early as the 8th grade year in shaping young adult political and civic behavior. The analysis shows that early extensive connections to others, close familial relationships, religious participation, and participation in extracurricular activities in one's youth are significant predictors of greater political and civic involvement in young adulthood.