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Impacts of Adolescent and Young Adult Civic Engagement on Health and Socioeconomic Status in Adulthood
Child Development
Abstract
The present study examines links between civic engagement (voting, volunteering, and activism) during late adolescence and early adulthood, and socioeconomic status and mental and physical health in adulthood. Using nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a propensity score matching approach is used to rigorously estimate how civic engagement is associated with outcomes among 9,471 adolescents and young adults (baseline Mage = 15.9). All forms of civic engagement are positively associated with subsequent income and education level. Volunteering and voting are favorably associated with subsequent mental health and health behaviors, and activism is associated with more health-risk behaviors and not associated with mental health. Civic engagement is not associated with physical health.
... Finally, although the importance of understanding how civic engagement connects to long-term outcomes has been noted, researchers have suggested some mediators that connect civic engagement with later outcomes (Ballard et al., 2019;Fenn et al., 2024;Thompson et al., 2024), only a few researchers have investigated the mediators of the effects of civic engagement, and studies were limited to specific groups, such as college students or noncollege young adults (Fenn et al., 2023;Wray-Lake et al., 2019). Education is an essential indicator for economically disadvantaged minorities in an inner city, which impacts their opportunities for social mobility and economic well-being in their lifespan (Haveman & Smeeding, 2006;Heckman et al., 2018). ...
... Education is an essential indicator for economically disadvantaged minorities in an inner city, which impacts their opportunities for social mobility and economic well-being in their lifespan (Haveman & Smeeding, 2006;Heckman et al., 2018). On the other hand, civic engagement in youth or early adulthood was associated with higher educational attainment and income in adulthood (Ballard et al., 2019;Rosenbaum, 2021). Moreover, postsecondary education predicts civic engagement in young adulthood (Hemer, 2018). ...
... More longitudinal studies will shed light on the relationships between early civic engagement and midlife wellbeing and the developmental trajectories of civic engagement. Second, the mediating effects of civic engagement on developmental trajectories across the lifespan are not apparent (Ballard et al., 2019). Researchers have called for more research to investigate the pathways of civic engagement toward long-term outcomes (Ballard et al., 2019;Fenn et al., 2024;Thompson et al., 2024), but only a few studies have examined those pathways. ...
The beneficial impacts of civic participation on health are reported for adolescents and older adults. Still, civic participation is underrecognized in its potential to promote a wide range of well-being. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between civic participation in early adulthood and midlife well-being for a 1980 birth sample of minority youth who were economically disadvantaged and explore education as a mediator of such associations. The study sample included 1,101 participants from the Chicago Longitudinal Study, a quasi-experimental design of a cohort of low-income minority children followed since 1985. Midlife well-being was measured by life satisfaction, psychological well-being, civic engagement, educational attainment, conviction, and incarceration experiences. The results showed that civic participation in early adulthood was positively associated with life satisfaction (B = 0.08, 95% CI [0.02, 0.15]), psychological well-being (B = 0.75, 95% CI [0.09, 1.41]), civic engagement (B = 0.48, 95% CI [0.34, 0.62]), and years of education (B = 0.23, 95% CI [0.12, 0.34]). Civic participation in early adulthood was negatively associated with conviction (B = -0.08, 95% CI [-0.15, -0.00]) and incarceration (B = -0.10, 95% CI [-0.19, -0.00]). The significant associations between civic participation in early adulthood and psychological well-being and criminal involvement were fully accounted for by educational attainment at age 29. The findings suggest encouraging civic participation in early adulthood might promote well-being in midlife. Moreover, civic participation in early adulthood is connected with better psychological well-being and less criminal involvement in midlife via educational attainment.
... Some prior work in adolescents and young adults has assessed associations between volunteering and health and well-being. Volunteering has been associated with improved physical health (e.g., reduced cardiovascular risk: lower interleukin 6, cholesterol, & body-mass index [BMI] in a randomized controlled trial of adolescents), 8 health behaviors (e.g., increased physical activity, 9 decreased smoking, 10 decreased risk of heavy drinking, 11 decreased marijuana use, 12 reduced risk of teen pregnancy, 13 and decreased risky behaviors 14,15 ), improved psychosocial outcomes (e.g., decreased depressive symptoms, 14,[16][17][18] increased: life satisfaction, 19 purpose in life, 16,20 resilience, 21 and positive affect, 22 and higher perceived quality of volunteering has been associated with improved interpersonal skills 23 ). Further, volunteering in youth was positively associated with educational attainment and earnings in adulthood. ...
... Some prior work in adolescents and young adults has assessed associations between volunteering and health and well-being. Volunteering has been associated with improved physical health (e.g., reduced cardiovascular risk: lower interleukin 6, cholesterol, & body-mass index [BMI] in a randomized controlled trial of adolescents), 8 health behaviors (e.g., increased physical activity, 9 decreased smoking, 10 decreased risk of heavy drinking, 11 decreased marijuana use, 12 reduced risk of teen pregnancy, 13 and decreased risky behaviors 14,15 ), improved psychosocial outcomes (e.g., decreased depressive symptoms, 14,[16][17][18] increased: life satisfaction, 19 purpose in life, 16,20 resilience, 21 and positive affect, 22 and higher perceived quality of volunteering has been associated with improved interpersonal skills 23 ). Further, volunteering in youth was positively associated with educational attainment and earnings in adulthood. ...
... Further, volunteering in youth was positively associated with educational attainment and earnings in adulthood. 14,17 However, volunteering has not been associated with health and well-being outcomes in other studies (e.g., null associations with smoking, 11 depressive symptoms, 22 and loneliness 24 ), and has even been associated with adverse health outcomes (e.g., increased drinking 10 and higher loneliness 25 ). ...
Purpose: To investigate whether changes in volunteering from adolescence to young adulthood are associated with subsequent health and well-being outcomes in adulthood.
Design: Longitudinal cohort study.
Setting: National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.
Subjects: U.S. adults from Wave IV (2008/2009; N = 12,234) and Wave V (2016-2018; N = 9,971).
Measures: Any volunteering and nine types of volunteering (independent variables) and 41 health and well-being outcomes (dependent variables) using an outcome-wide approach with multiple linear-, logistic-, and generalized linear regressions.
Results: Volunteering in young adulthood was associated with better health behaviors (e.g., 34% decreased risk of binge drinking, 95% CI [0.54, 0.81]) and improved psychosocial and civic outcomes (e.g., lower depressive symptoms (β = −0.08, 95% CI [−0.14, −0.02]) in adulthood. Volunteering showed little evidence of associations with other health and well-being outcomes (e.g., loneliness, (β = −0.04, 95% CI [−0.09, 0.01])). Assessing volunteering by organization types showed a range of positive and negative outcomes. For example, volunteering in hospitals/nursing homes was associated with a 36% increased risk of high cholesterol (95% CI [1.06, 1.73]) and volunteering with political clubs was associated with a 52% increased risk of an anxiety diagnosis (95% CI [1.13, 2.05]).
Conclusion: Our findings suggest more work is needed to determine the conditions under which volunteering is health promoting and to minimize potential adverse effects associated with some types of volunteering.
... These findings are mixed; understanding the impacts of critical action on youth mental health is complex and may require more attention to the nuances of critical action behaviors. For example, engaging in low-risk behaviors such as voting and volunteering in adolescence has been associated with fewer depressive symptoms in young adulthood [36]. However, interpersonal critical action, such as challenging someone engaging in oppressive behaviors, has been associated with more depressive symptoms [37]. ...
... For instance, while some participants in Conner and colleagues' qualitative study indicated that activism was associated with stress, burnout, and exhaustion, others reported that activism allowed them to channel their negative emotions into something positive [29]. Ballard et al. found no associations between activism and depressive symptoms [36]. Studies also indicate that critical action in communal settings, including activism, may be more beneficial to youth when compared to individual critical action [29], yet Heberle et al. found no significant associations between communal action and depressive symptoms or psychological well-being [37]. ...
... In the base model with no interaction terms, Black youths' critical reflection about inequality was not related to mental health distress, and Black youths' engagement in critical action (e.g., joining a protest or a social justice activity) was positively associated with mental health distress, indicating that youth who participated in more types of action experience more symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. This finding aligns with research that found that some types of critical action are associated with worse mental health outcomes for adolescents [37], and deviates from other studies that have found null results [36,37]. A three-way interaction qualified these associations. ...
This study examined experiences of individual, institutional, and cultural racism, along with critical consciousness (i.e., critical reflection, critical agency, critical action), and how they are associated with mental health outcomes for Black adolescents (N = 604; Mage = 15.4; 47.4% female). Consistent with previous research, we found that more experiences of racism were associated with more mental health distress for Black adolescents. We also found that the relationship between racism and mental health varied by critical reflection and critical action, in a three-way interaction effect. The positive association between racism and mental health distress was weaker for the Black adolescents in our sample who reported higher than average critical reflection and lower than average critical action. This evidence suggests that the reflection and action components of critical consciousness, together, can serve as an adaptive coping strategy to guard against the harm racism can cause to mental health. Black adolescents experience less mental health distress when they have a deep understanding of oppression, but do not engage heavily in actions to dismantle those unjust systems. These findings have implications for how youth researchers and practitioners can support critical consciousness development in ways that do not compromise adolescent mental health.
... Compared to psychological and social well-being, the effects on emotional well-being are much more inconclusive. Because emotional well-being represents current emotional experiences and thus is related to various affective states, studies that measured this dimension of wellbeing as positive affect, happiness, and satisfaction with life, which are known indicators of emotional well-being Regarding other indicators of mental health, existing literature showed that protest action can lead to an increase in anxiety (Hope et al., 2018) and risky health behavior (Ballard et al., 2019). Furthermore, Hope et al. (2018) showed that this effect is similar to the case of depressive symptoms, as it was evident only for Black students but not for Latinx students, meaning that the effect of protest action was not the same for all marginalized groups. ...
... Also, at least among LGBT adolescents, online engagement can be positively associated with anxiety symptoms (through mediation by exposure to web-based discrimination) and a higher risk of substance use (Tao & Fisher, 2023). Social engagement (Ballard et al., 2019;Nicotera et al., 2015) and voting (Ballard et al., 2019) reduced various risky health behaviors among American youth. On the other hand, from a person-centered approach where mental health was viewed as trajectories formed from mental distress and mental well-being, social engagement was not associated with any of these trajectories among Norwegian adolescents (Wiium et al., 2023). ...
... Also, at least among LGBT adolescents, online engagement can be positively associated with anxiety symptoms (through mediation by exposure to web-based discrimination) and a higher risk of substance use (Tao & Fisher, 2023). Social engagement (Ballard et al., 2019;Nicotera et al., 2015) and voting (Ballard et al., 2019) reduced various risky health behaviors among American youth. On the other hand, from a person-centered approach where mental health was viewed as trajectories formed from mental distress and mental well-being, social engagement was not associated with any of these trajectories among Norwegian adolescents (Wiium et al., 2023). ...
Youth civic engagement is usually framed positively by existing literature, which finds that it can benefit young people’s well-being. Despite that, the literature lacks summarized evidence of the effects of various forms of youth civic engagement on different dimensions of well-being (i.e., psychological, emotional, social, and mental health). This scoping review identified 35 studies on this topic. Results demonstrated that social engagement (e.g., volunteering) generally positively affected psychological and social well-being and mental health. In contrast, the effects of other forms of civic engagement (i.e., protest action, conventional and online engagement) on these dimensions were more heterogeneous. Mixed evidence was found for the effects of all forms of civic engagement on emotional well-being. The issue of possible opposite effects, i.e., from well-being dimensions to civic engagement, was also addressed. They were found mainly for emotional well-being, which usually predicted civic engagement but not vice versa. Overall, this scoping review stresses the importance of distinguishing between different forms of civic engagement and between different dimensions of well-being in future research.
... Scholars across disciplines have called for policies that expand civic engagement opportunities for young people as an investment in youth's health (Institute of Medicine, 2015). In some studies, youth community service has been linked to better psychological health (Ballard et al., 2019;Chan & Mak, 2020;Hart et al., 2014;Schreier et al., 2013;Wray-Lake, DeHaan, et al., 2019), but most of this research examines community service at a single time point or over a short time frame. From a developmental perspective, understanding change in community service during youth's formative transition to adulthood and its relationship to adult health can yield novel insight into the dynamic ways in which youth behaviors connect to later functioning. ...
... A randomized control trial of high school students found that volunteering increased cardiovascular health (Schreier et al., 2013). Studies using National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health data found that adolescents' and young adults' community service predicted lower depressive | 3 THE CONTRIBUTION OF COMMUNITY SERVICE DURING THE TRANSITION TO ADULTHOOD TO HEALTH IN ADULTHOOD symptoms and lower substance use in adulthood (Ballard et al., 2019;Kim & Morgül, 2017;. ...
... Age 18-30 community service One item assessed community service in Waves 1-7: "How often do you participate in community affairs or volunteer work?" Single-item measurement for community service or volunteering is common in the literature (Ballard et al., 2019; T A B L E 1 Sample descriptives. ...
Prior studies have linked young people's community service to indicators of health, yet little research takes the long view by connecting youth's community service to health in the next decade of life. Using a lifespan developmental lens, this study examined community service over the transition to adulthood and uses change over time in community service to predict indicators of behavioral, physical, and psychological health at ages 35 and 40. Data were taken from Monitoring the Future U.S. national multi‐cohort data spanning ages 18–40 in high school cohorts from 1976 to 1995 for age 40 ( N = 4300) and 1976 to 2000 for age 35 ( N = 5879). Models estimated a growth curve model for community service from ages 18 to 30 and found that the slope for community service was associated with alcohol use, binge drinking, marijuana use, healthy behaviors, and life satisfaction at ages 35 and 40, with cigarette use at age 35 only, and with self‐esteem and depressive symptoms at age 40 only. Less decline in community service over the transition to adulthood was associated with lower substance use, more healthy behaviors, and higher psychological well‐being in adulthood. This study contributes evidence that community service and health are linked across the lifespan and suggests the value of examining the long‐term implications of developmental change across adolescence and the transition to adulthood.
... Broadly, civic engagement involves taking action on one's own or with others with the intention of positively contributing to their community, society, or a matter of public concern [29]. These actions can take many forms but largely can be categorized as volunteer efforts or political action [30]. For example, cleaning up one's community, voting, staging a peaceful protest, and raising money for a local food bank all qualify as civic engagement. ...
... Civic engagement is critical to community and society's positive development [31]. And adolescent civic engagement is associated with higher educational attainment and income in adulthood as well as fewer risky health behaviors and fewer depressive symptoms in adulthood [30]. In other words, civic engagement shares many positive outcomes with positive youth development. ...
... This practice is essential for adolescents to develop identities that are congruent with their daily actions via purpose formation. Thus, civic purpose may be the link between adolescent civic engagement and the subsequent positive outcomes during adulthood [19,30,35]. Future longitudinal research is necessary to consider these possible pathways. ...
As tomorrow’s leaders, adolescents are navigating coming-of-age tasks in the context of both the fast-growing promises of technology and the burdens of overwhelming global challenges. The Climate Leaders Fellowship (CLF) is an extracurricular program that supports adolescents interested in environmental sustainability. Program participants are connected with like-minded peers and mentors across the globe who help them develop and implement community-based volunteer projects (CLF, 2022). This study focuses on whether and how participation in CLF shaped adolescents’ development. A directed content analysis approach was utilized to conduct and analyze semi-structured interviews with adolescent CLF participants (n = 9, 89% female). Results indicate that engagement in the program is associated with civic purpose development. Specifically, participants reported experiencing civic reflection, motivation, and action through their CLF involvement. Findings offer supporting evidence that the development of civic purpose may be associated with burgeoning critical consciousness. Recommendations for future programming, study limitations, and implications are discussed.
... [4][5][6][7] There is also a growing body of literature suggesting a relationship between civic engagement participation during emerging adulthood and a wide range of health outcomes. [8][9][10][11][12] According to Ballard,8 positive youth development theory provides a conceptual rationale for understanding why civic engagement broadly, and volunteering specifically, may be associated with positive health outcomes, including mental health, health behaviors, and physical health. Positive youth development theory proposes that adolescents should be viewed as "resources to be developed rather than as problems to be managed," and that programs designed to impact confidence, connection to community, as well as caring and compassion 13 will increase the likelihood of a positive trajectory throughout emerging adulthood that will in turn result in better health and social outcomes. ...
... [4][5][6][7] There is also a growing body of literature suggesting a relationship between civic engagement participation during emerging adulthood and a wide range of health outcomes. [8][9][10][11][12] According to Ballard,8 positive youth development theory provides a conceptual rationale for understanding why civic engagement broadly, and volunteering specifically, may be associated with positive health outcomes, including mental health, health behaviors, and physical health. Positive youth development theory proposes that adolescents should be viewed as "resources to be developed rather than as problems to be managed," and that programs designed to impact confidence, connection to community, as well as caring and compassion 13 will increase the likelihood of a positive trajectory throughout emerging adulthood that will in turn result in better health and social outcomes. ...
... 10 One such study has identified a relationship between civic engagement during emerging adulthood and positive mental health and healthy behaviors 6 years later, during the late twenties to early thirties. 8 An opportunity exists to identify whether this relationship persists further into middle adulthood. ...
Purpose
We examined if civic engagement during emerging adulthood positively impacted a broad array of outcomes in middle adulthood, and if associations varied based on race, gender, age, and urban-rural status.
Design
Prospective design used to determine if civic engagement during emerging adulthood (M age = 21.81) predicted outcomes 15 years later.
Setting
Restricted data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.
Subjects
Wave 1 participants who completed surveys 7 years (77% follow-up rate), 14 years (80% follow-up rate), and 22 years later (follow-up rate 72%) and who had valid sampling weight to ensure national representativeness (n = 9349).
Measures
Predictor - civic engagement; Outcomes-mental health, substance use, criminal behaviors, and healthy behavior.
Analysis
Linear regression using MPLUS 7.2.
Results
Civic engagement predicted lower levels of depressive symptoms (b = −1.05, SE = .28), criminal behaviors (b = −.47, SE = .12), and substance use (b = −.66, SE = .13), and higher levels of healthy behaviors (b = 1.26, SE = .19), after controlling for demographics, family, peer, neighborhood, and school-related background variables. Moderation analyses revealed that civic engagement benefited females and white participants more.
Conclusion
Civic engagement during emerging adulthood has a positive impact on a broad array of outcomes in middle adulthood. Implications and future research recommendations will be discussed.
... Based on their findings, the authors argued that interventions that promote civic engagement in young males may be one way of addressing mental health issues at a later stage in life for this gender group. In a study of a nationally representative sample of American students in grades 7 through 12, using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, Ballard et al. (18) examined among others, the role of civic engagement in adolescence and early adulthood on health outcomes in adulthood, including depressive symptoms. Their general findings indicated robust relations of civic engagement, either as separate variables (in particular, voting and volunteering) or as a composite variable, with depressive symptoms. ...
... Moreover, in a related longitudinal study, using the same American sample as Ballard et al. ' (18), but slightly different measures of civic engagement (e.g., community engagement, and political behaviors), Wray-Lake et al. (19) found that community engagement in adolescence and early adulthood among others, was consistently related to lower depressive symptoms over a 6-year period. Thus, Wray-Lake et al. (19) concluded that community engagement may have some positive influence on youth mental health, and that depression may deter their later civic engagement. ...
... Furthermore, we investigate the influence of socio-economic status and gender on mental health trajectories as well as control for age differences, which have sometimes been found to be related to both civic engagement and mental health (17,18,23,31). In our study, we expect that high levels of SES and being male will be positively associated with the optimal trajectory of mental health. ...
Introduction
Applying variable-centered analytical approaches, several studies have found an association between civic engagement and youth mental health. In the present study, we used a person-centered approach to explore whether civic engagement was related to optimal trajectories of mental health compared to other trajectories. We also examined how sociodemographic factors, such as socioeconomic status (SES), gender and age were related to youth mental health trajectories.
Methods
Our sample comprised 675 students (aged 16–22) who had participated in three waves of data collection (Mage = 18.85, SD = 0.55; 43% males) in the COMPLETE project, a cluster-randomized controlled trial that involved Norwegian upper secondary schools.
Results
The results revealed three trajectories of mental health (reflecting a combination of mental distress and mental well-being): optimal, intermediate, and sub-optimal. Contrary to our expectations, higher levels of civic engagement were not related to the optimal trajectory of mental health vs. other trajectories. However, we found that students who reported higher levels of SES and males were more likely to follow the optimal trajectory compared to other trajectories.
Discussion
While the findings on civic engagement could be due to our measurement’s inability to capture the concept of “dugnad,” a well-established civic activity in the Norwegian society, the findings regarding the influence of SES and gender suggest that there is still more work to be done concerning the assessment and advancement of factors that can address mental health inequalities across SES and gender.
... Several theories propose how participation may contribute to improved mental health and wellbeing outcomes. These include Positive Youth Development (PYD) theory and Sociopolitical Development (SPD) theory [15]. ...
... Within this framework, activism and resistance may serve as a particularly important medium for young people to engage with socio-political systems and promote healthy development. Ballard [15] also notes that youth civic engagement can promote skills and attributes associated with resilience, indicating that meaningful youth participation may serve as a protective factor against adverse mental health impacts of challenging life experiences. ...
... For instance, volunteer activities which allow young people to focus their energy into individual actions to alleviate the suffering of others may influence health through the positive feelings associated with helping others. In contrast, political activism in the form of protesting, building coalitions, or petitioning may influence health through empowerment [15]. ...
There is growing recognition that young people should be given opportunities to participate in the decisions that affect their lives, such as advisory groups, representative councils, advocacy or activism. Positive youth development theory and sociopolitical development theory propose pathways through which youth participation can influence mental health and wellbeing outcomes. However, there is limited empirical research synthesising the impact of participation on youth mental health and/or wellbeing, or the characteristics of activities that are associated with better or worse mental health and/or wellbeing outcomes. This scoping review seeks to address this gap by investigating the scope and nature of evidence detailing how youth participation initiatives can influence mental health and/or wellbeing outcomes for participants. To be eligible, literature must describe youth (aged 15–24) in participation activities and the impact of this engagement on participant mental health and/or wellbeing outcomes. A systematic scoping review of peer-reviewed and grey literature will be conducted using Scopus, PsycINFO, Embase, Medline and grey literature databases. The scoping review will apply established methodology by Arksey and O’Malley, Levac and colleagues and the Joanna Briggs Institute. Title, abstract, and full text screening will be completed by two reviewers, data will be extracted by one reviewer. Findings will be reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR), including a qualitative summary of the characteristics of youth participation and their influence on youth mental health outcomes. Youth advisory group members will be invited to deliver governance on the project from the outset; participate in, and contribute to, all stages of the review process; reflect on their own experiences of participation; and co-author the resulting publication. This scoping review will provide essential knowledge on how participation activities can be better designed to maximise beneficial psychosocial outcomes for involved youth.
... Attree et al. (2011) highlighted the potential for community engagement to significantly alleviate issues such as depression, loneliness, and anxiety. In a more recent study, Ballard et al. (2019) found that participation in activities like volunteering and voting during the transition to adulthood was linked to lower levels of depression and risky health behaviors later in life. Wray-Lake et al. (2019) reported that early adults' community engagement and political behaviors, but not voting, were associated with a decrease in depressive symptoms 6 years later. ...
... Given that our sample is comprised of largely White affluent women, our findings are not transferable to other groups with different intersecting identities. We recognize that sociopolitical attitudes and engagement are often dependent upon the lens of lived experiences that frame the individual in relation to an intersecting set of identity hierarchies constructed within a particular cultural context (Ballard et al., 2019;Chan & Mak, 2020;Wray-Lake & Ballard, 2023). These developmental findings should thus be interpreted with reference to this particular group. ...
Civic engagement during emerging adulthood plays a pivotal role in fostering a sense of community responsibility, providing a sense of societal purpose, and contributes to improved psychological adjustment. In this mixed-method longitudinal study, we further explored how civic engagement and psychological adjustment codevelop across emerging adulthood. Participants were drawn from The Future’s Study, a Canadian longitudinal study capturing the transition to adulthood in Southwestern Ontario. The sample was predominantly White (81%), female identifying (71%), and largely affluent with 5.8% reporting lower than average family income. At ages 23, 26, and 32, participants completed measures of civic engagement, depression, and optimism; at age 26, participants had the opportunity to also complete a life story interview where they were asked to recount a key community scene from their lives and reflect on its impact. Random intercept cross-lagged panel models illustrated that civic engagement across ages 23–32 reduced loneliness concurrently and longitudinally. No cross-lagged associations were found for depression or optimism. Four themes illuminated the role of civic engagement in buffering against loneliness during emerging adulthood and into midlife: community unites people through a shared vision, fosters meaningful and long-lasting connections, solidifies the importance of leaving a legacy for future generations, and contributes to personal growth via insight into others’ lives, which illuminated an awareness of one’s own social advantages and privilege. These results illustrate that the pathway between increased civic engagement and reduced loneliness may be due, in part, to intrinsic and collective motives that tie together personal growth, identity, and generativity.
... Physical health concerns the body's biological functions and structural integrity, encompassing factors like blood pressure and bone density (Saylor, 2004). In this study, we enhance Maker Castro et al.'s (2022) physical health construct by incorporating body emotions and experiences (Ballard et al., 2019;Cruz, 2001). This includes holistic aspects like body stiffness, numbness, exhaustion, and exhilaration. ...
... In addition, Latinx youth described their bodies as feeling exhausted, confused, intense, and stiff when they engaged in critical action toward anti-immigrant politics. The nuances of physical wellbeing described by Latinx youth in this study are not solely psychological indicators found in recent studies on youth activism and physical wellbeing (Ballard et al., 2019;Cadenas et al., 2022). Rather, these are embodied experiences, and Chicana feminist scholars remind us that the (brown) body is intrinsically tied to intellectual and experiential knowledge rooted in transformation and liberation (Cervantes-Soon, 2014;Cruz, 2001;Moraga & Anzaldúa, 1981). ...
Latinx youth are often engaged in critical action to transform social injustices, yet we know little about the wellbeing of Latinx youth activists. This study draws on critical ethnographic research to understand the multidimensions of wellbeing that Latinx youth experienced when they engaged in critical action toward anti-immigrant politics during the Trump Era. Data collected through open-ended interviews with Latinx youth who participated in social protests revealed that (a) concepts of wellbeing need to be extensively explored for a more nuanced understanding of its characteristics, and (b) when youth engage in critical action, they experience physical and socioemotional wellbeing in distinct ways. This research contributes to the critical consciousness and wellbeing scholarship by (1) adding to the dearth of research on Latinx youth physical wellbeing and critical action, (2) theorizing nuances of physical, mental, and socioemotional wellbeing as simultaneously present during critical action, and (3) centering the voices and experiences of Latinx youth, specifically Latina youth, who have historically been omitted from the literature.
... The term "wellbeing" refers to a state of "flourishing that involves health, happiness, and prosperity" (Mick et al. 2012, 6). We define well-being as feeling positive, socially-connected, and purposeful (Ballard et al. 2019), and our research explores two types of well-being: individual me and collective we well-being. Individual me well-being involves supportive and sustaining personal self-care practices. ...
... Our framework explores youth changemakers' ability to adapt, persevere, and find joy as they pursue challenging social movement work. In valuing youth changemakers' passion and effort, we not only enable youth to succeed (Ballard et al. 2019), but also provide support for youth as they strive to make the world a better place for everyone. We call on researchers to continue investigating youth changemakers. ...
... In the aftermath of George Floyd's murder, the resurgence of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, disparities in COVID-19 outcomes among communities of color, and rise in Anti-Asian sentiments, many adolescents (70%) turned to social media to participate in digital conversations about racial justice (Hamilton et al., 2023;Yazdani et al., 2022). Participation in offline activism is associated with generally positive impacts on adolescent development and adult outcomes (e.g., higher income and education level) (Ballard et al., 2019). However, participation in digital activism increases exposure to discrimination, as racist content is common on social media sites (Nesi et al., 2023;Nguyen et al., 2020). ...
Social media played a unique role in adolescent development and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. While in-person connections were limited, adolescents used these platforms to work through developmental tasks such as socializing with peers and exploring their identities. Adolescents also used these sites to cope with the stress and uncertainties of the pandemic. Emerging global research reveals nuanced associations in the ways adolescents used social media during the pandemic and outcomes related to their development and mental and physical health. This chapter discusses COVID-era research and guidelines for practitioners and caregivers, contextualized in the broader social media literature.
... Young individuals who were not regularly participating in volunteering activities were significantly more likely to self-report cannabis use, and similar findings have been reported in previous research. 27,31 Volunteering is frequently described as a meaningful activity for youth, providing them with a sense of maturity and accountability, 32 while also obviating the issues of boredom or unstructured leisure time. We also observed that adolescents who regularly participated in music/art/drama/dance were less inclined to use cannabis. ...
Objectives: Adolescent cannabis use is a significant public health concern. This study aimed to investigate how the home life environment and involvement in extracurricular activities correlate with teenage cannabis use in Ireland. Study design: Cross-sectional study Methods: We analysed data from the Planet Youth 2020 survey, an anonymous questionnaire among school-going adolescents in the West of Ireland. Adolescents with complete data pertaining to age, gender, and cannabis use were included (n = 4897). Multinomial logistic regression examined factors associated with cannabis use more than 12 months ago, within the previous 12 months (but not 30 days), and within the previous month (vs. never used). Exposure variables of interest included factors related to the home life environment (parental rule-setting, parental monitoring, being outside after midnight in the previous week, and intergenerational closure), and adolescent involvement in extracurricular activities (sports, arts, volunteering, and/or afterschool clubs). Results: Overall, 908 (18.5 %) adolescents reported previous cannabis use. Specifically, 182 (3.7 %) had used cannabis more than a year ago, 361 (7.4 %) had used cannabis within the last year (but not 30 days), while 365 (7.5 %) had used cannabis within the past month. Being outside after midnight in the previous week, a lack of parental rule-setting, parental monitoring, intergenerational closure, and lack of participation in sports or volunteering were all associated with increased odds of adolescent cannabis use. Conclusion: Cannabis use is relatively common among adolescents in Ireland. Social environment factors related to cannabis use, both within the home and in the wider community, may provide valuable insights for actionable primary prevention interventions at the grassroots level.
... In several other studies, it has been confirmed that several variables have an influence on the citizen engagement index. All forms of civic engagement are positively associated with subsequent income and education level (Ballard et al., 2019). Policy implications and future directions for research to leverage civic engagement as a coping strategy for the positive development of minority children and their communities (Causadias et al., 2022;Fenn et al., 2024;Tan et al., 2023;Willis et al., 2022). ...
Objective: This research is here to offer character education media that can be used to face the digital era. Method: Results: This research uses an approach method. The method used in this research is research and development (R&D) in the Borg & Gall model. The subjects involved in the research were 1968 students at the Indonesian University of Education. The research subjects involved were Indonesian University of Education students conducting community service program activities. By using simple random sampling, This research involved 1,968 students. Novelty: This research presents the novelty of empirical data that concludes a deviation between the attitude and behavior indexes. In terms of engagement, the citizen behavior index is better than the attitude index. Second, the obstacles to developing citizen involvement in the digitalization of character education are due to citizens' low level of awareness regarding the importance of their contribution to character education, not because of a lack of skills. Third, thus, the construction of optimizing digital platforms in character education must be made possible by raising citizen awareness.
... In previous studies, higher voter participation rates have been associated with better self-rated health, fewer health risk behaviors, less mortality, less chronic disease, fewer hospitalizations, upward social mobility, and improved mental health. [4][5][6][7][8] Such relationships have persisted in analyses that control for potential confounding factors including sex, age, marital status, race, education, employment, income, or geography. In pediatrics, early evidence suggests a link between population-level voting rates and child health outcomes. ...
OBJECTIVES
To determine parent perspectives on (1) the connection between voting and child health and (2) the best ways for clinicians to promote voter engagement among patients and their families.
METHODS
Qualitative study with semistructured interviews. Parents or guardians of all patients of academic pediatric primary care offices at a large, urban children’s hospital in the Midwestern United States were invited to participate by email. Participants completed demographic and voting habits surveys. Trained coders independently analyzed transcripts using iterative, thematic, inductive open coding.
RESULTS
We conducted 22 interviews. Most participants were female (91%), Black (55%), and non-Hispanic (95%). Participants represented a variety of education levels, political perspectives, and degrees of civic participation. Themes on the connection between voting and child health included the following: (1) voting helps “make your community a better place” for children now and in the future; (2) voting impacts funding for services that affect child health; and (3) voting influences our social environment, which in turn impacts child health. Themes on recommendations for health care–based voter engagement included the following: (4) consider context about voting messaging (eg, provide context about connection with health); (5) provide a variety of communication media options for delivering voting information; and (6) include a variety of health care staff in delivering voting messages.
CONCLUSIONS
In this qualitative study, we captured parent perspectives on the connection between voting and child health and desired methods for health care–based voter engagement. Our findings can inform future hypotheses for testing the mechanisms underlying established connections between voting and child health outcomes.
... Civic engagement offers feelings of individual and collective efficacy, conveying a sense that their voice and actions can shape the direction of society (Maker Castro, Wray-Lake, and Cohen 2022). Higher participation in civic engagement during adolescence and emerging adulthood is prospectively linked with higher income and education and better mental health in adulthood (Ballard, Hoyt, and Pachucki 2019). Civic engagement during adolescence is, therefore, an indicator of positive development and future well-being in diverse democracies. ...
This study used a natural experiment design to examine the impact of ethnic studies courses on students' ethnic‐racial identity (ERI) development, multicultural attitudes, and civic engagement during the 2021–2022 school year in Minneapolis, MN ( N = 535; 33.5% White, 29.5% Black, 21.1% Latine, 10.7% multi‐racial; 44.7% female, 7.1% non‐binary). Compared to students who were quasi‐randomly assigned to a control class, 9th graders taking an ethnic studies class (treatment group) engaged in significantly more midpoint ERI exploration ( β = 0.12), resulting in stronger endpoint ERI resolution ( β = 0.48–0.57). Increased exploration mediated more favorable attitudes toward multiculturalism (indirect effect = 0.05) and more frequent civic engagement activities (indirect effect = 0.02). Results have implications for policy efforts to expand ethnic studies.
... Studies that have analyzed this relationship have suggested that civic engagement is associated with greater flourishing and lower levels of personal distress. The research carried out by Ballard et al. (2019) with adolescents, and by Wray-Lake et al. (2017) with emerging adults, suggests that civic engagement has a positive impact on development and is associated with both health and well-being. According to these authors, volunteering and voting are two specific forms of civic engagement that are positively associated with mental health. ...
This study analyzes civic engagement among Spanish emerging adults, exploring its association with psychological well-being and distress, attending to gender differences and other sociodemographic variables. 1,700 university students (64.7% women) aged between 18 and 29 years completed a self-administered questionnaire. Emerging adult women scored higher for civic engagement (civic awareness, civic and electoral participation) than men. Civic awareness correlated positively with flourishing and negatively with distress, especially among women. However, contradictory results were found for civic participation, which correlated positively with flourishing among men, but also correlated positively with distress, especially among women. Our findings help identify the most common dimensions of civic engagement in this vital stage and highlight the important role played by gender in the civic engagement of Spanish emerging adults.
... Recent variable-centred studies highlight complex relations between CC and various psychological outcomes in emerging adults, with a large majority only examining relations between critical action-as a unidimensional construct not distinguishing between different types of actions (e.g., sharing posts on social media vs. protesting-and well-being outcomes; see Maker Castro, Wray-Lake, & Cohen, 2022, for a review). Ballard et al. (2019) and Wray-Lake et al. (2019), for instance, found negative associations between activism and political behaviours with mental health in diverse, national samples in the United States. Hope et al. (2018) reported that activism was protective for Latine but not Black college students, while Ballard et al. (2020) observed that activism and expressive action negatively affected the well-being of Latine college students, among other groups, but had no significant impact on Black students. ...
La conscience critique (CC) est un processus important par lequel les individus analysent leurs expériences et les inégalités sociales (réflexion critique), développent un sentiment de pouvoir pour mettre en œuvre le changement (motivation critique) et prennent des mesures collectives pour remédier aux injustices (action critique). La CC est particulièrement importante pour les personnes de couleur, qui sont directement désavantagées par les systèmes d’inégalité raciale et qui peuvent utiliser la CC pour faire face à ces systèmes. Dans l’ensemble, on sait peu de choses sur les tendances de CC chez les jeunes adultes de couleur et la documentation existante est mitigée en ce qui concerne ses impacts sur la santé mentale. Pour combler cette lacune, nous avons identifié des profils distincts de CC parmi un échantillon national de 308 jeunes adultes canadiens noirs et latins (âge moyen = 24,5; tranche d’âge = 18 à 29) au moyen d’analyses de profils latents, puis nous avons examiné les associations avec des facteurs sociodémographiques, la discrimination et la santé mentale. Quatre profils de CC ont émergé : le spectateur critique (40,6 % de l’échantillon total), l’acteur interpersonnel critique (31,2 %), l’acteur libéré (15,3 %) et l’acteur critique (13,0 %). Tous les profils ont fait preuve d’une réflexion critique et d’une motivation élevées, mais ils se distinguent surtout par leur action critique. Les trois profils d’« acteurs » ont signalé un taux de discrimination plus élevé que les spectateurs. Le sexe et la race varient d’un profil à l’autre. Enfin, les acteurs libérés ont signalé des niveaux plus élevés de symptômes de dépression et d’anxiété par rapport à tous les autres profils. Les résultats démontrent l’existence de modèles distincts de CC dans le passage à l’âge adulte et soulignent l’importance de fournir un soutien en matière de santé mentale aux jeunes adultes noirs et latins fortement impliqués dans le travail de justice sociale.
... Furthermore, voting is associated with many other benefi ts related to personal wellbeing. Ballard et al. (2019) found that all types of civic engagement conducted by adolescents and young adults are positively associated with future income levels and education, and that voting is positively associated with mental health and physical health outcomes. This is consistent with the Kansas Health Foundation's (2016) fi nding that there is a positive association between voter engagement and health outcomes, and Sanders's (2001) fi nding that political participation alleviated some of the psychological stress related to having a marginalized social status. ...
This article reports findings from a piloted voter engagement assignment from fall 2016 to spring 2018. Students devised voter engagement interventions within their field assignments, targeting micro-, mezzo-, or macro-level systems. Student submissions revolved around three main issues: (a) promoting the interests of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, (b) ensuring fairness and impartiality in the electoral process, and (c) achieving the social justice objectives inherent in the professional domain. Additionally, the assignment required students to use all the EPAS competencies.
... Further, these associations may have long-term developmental significance. For example, using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, Ballard and colleagues [33] found that civic engagement during adolescence and emerging adulthood was positively associated with socioeconomic position later in adulthood, and some forms of engagement (i.e., voting, volunteering) were associated with improved mental health and health behaviors in adulthood, too. ...
Throughout history, Black women have taken their unique lived experiences to make changes through civic behaviors. At the same time, they hold a complex position in society, located at the intersection of multiple marginalizing identities that put them at risk of experiencing distinct forms of discrimination. To date, little research has examined the patterns of Black women’s civic behaviors and associations with discrimination experiences and well-being. This may be particularly salient during emerging adulthood, a key period of sociopolitical development and increasing mental health problems. The current study seeks to address this gap, drawing from theories of intersectionality and sociopolitical development. Participants included 103 emerging adult Black women (Mage = 24.27, SD = 2.76) with a range of civic experiences. Overall, anti-racist action was the most prevalent domain of civic behavior. Participants were about twice as likely to engage in traditional political behaviors (e.g., signing petitions, giving money) than political protest. Latent class analysis was used to identify three unique subgroups of civic behaviors: Stably Committed, Traditionally Engaged, or Low Engagement. Findings also showed that emerging adult Black women classified as Stably Committed experienced more discrimination and higher depressive symptoms. The current findings inform the creation of safe spaces for emerging adult Black women to be civically engaged as they navigate racism and sexism and take action to seek racial justice.
... Furthermore, the transition from late adolescence into emerging adulthood often involves greater orientation toward and involvement in community and civic causes (C. Flanagan & Levine, 2010;Mahatmya & Lohman, 2012), which may contribute to overall wellbeing (Ballard et al., 2019). Prosocial behaviors by adolescents are most often studied as helping, comforting, and sharing with others with whom an adolescent is interacting directly. ...
Both parasympathetic nervous system regulation and receipt of social support from close relationships contribute to prosocial development, although few studies have examined their combined influences in adolescence and particularly within racially and ethnically minoritized populations. In this longitudinal study of 229 U.S. Mexican-origin adolescents (48% female-identifying), youths reported on receipt of social support from family and friends from 10 to 16 years, had their baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) measured at 17 years, reported their prosocial behavior and completed the Mind in the Eyes test to assess cognitive empathy at 17 and 19 years, and reported their prosocial civic behavior (i.e., community activity) at 19 years. Family social support predicted prosocial behavior at 17 years, and friend social support predicted prosocial civic behavior at 19 years. Compared to youths with lower or higher baseline RSA, youths with moderate RSA reported more prosocial civic behavior, had greater cognitive empathy, and tended to report more general prosocial behavior at 19 years. The quadratic association between baseline RSA and cognitive empathy was stronger for youths with greater family social support. These findings are the first to extend the evidence that moderate baseline parasympathetic nervous system activity supports prosocial development into late adolescence and with the U.S. Mexican-origin community, and these findings address calls for more integrative biopsychosocial studies of prosociality.
... The health sector is integrated with other sectors of the socioeconomic system, so it is not possible to plan the health sector development without taking into view the other socioeconomic components Ballard et al. (2019) argued that investment merely in the economically productive sectors instead of social sectors, would not help in the long term development of any country. Jalal-ud-Din (2014) asserted that the health sector can have a significant impact on the socioeconomic development of a developing country like Pakistan due to its significance in human development. ...
This paper investigates the modes of impact investing to overcome the socioeconomic challenges of Pakistan. A descriptive analysis of different social indicators for the period 2006 to 2017 is conducted which includes health, education, tourism, vocational training, agriculture, and access to water. Each socioeconomic indicator is examined as a possible mode of impact investment. This study reports that a better alignment of impact investing in the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will offer maximum development. The study recommends the most efficient and effective ways to achieve the greater goal of a prosperous Pakistan. The author strongly recommends the policymakers of CPEC to focus on impact investing along with conventional investment plans to combat the socioeconomic challenges in Pakistan.
... In addition, there is evidence of socioeconomic and gender inequalities in youth civic engagement (Gaby, 2017;Metzger et al., 2020;Stefani et al., 2021). Studies have shown that children from families with a lower socioeconomic status are more likely as adults to have a low socioeconomic status as well as lower sociopolitical participation compared to people raised in families with a higher socioeconomic status, indicating an intergenerational transmission of inequalities (Ballard et al., 2019). In addition, the transmission of these inequalities early in life, strongly promoted in their family's context, are usually stabilized during adulthood (Buchmann & Steinhoff, 2017;Jennings & Stoker, 2004). ...
Civic engagement is crucial in order to uphold democratic societies, however there is growing concern about a progressive decrease in youth sociopolitical participation and the existence of socioeconomic and gender inequalities, and therefore, an unequal distribution of political power. This study analyzes the influence of family socioeconomic level—both directly and indirectly through social concerns—on the adolescents’ expected sociopolitical participation as adults, from a gender perspective. The sample included 4,448 adolescents 13 to 18 year old, selected through random multistage sampling stratified by conglomerates. Results showed family material affluence to have a limited direct influence on expected sociopolitical participation, however a significant indirect impact through their concerns about social issues. Adolescents with a low socioeconomic level were more concerned about social issues, and therefore had higher expectations of socio-political participation than adolescents with a high socioeconomic level. In addition, these effects were similar for both boys and girls. Understanding how family socioeconomic status influences adolescent civic engagement and how these inequalities are reproduced among boys and girls will aid in designing interventions that promote knowledge and opportunities for participation—especially among the more disadvantaged groups—, which can reduce gender and socioeconomic gaps.
... In addition, civic attitudes and behaviors are related to other important developmental domains such as health, well-being, and educational outcomes in nuanced ways depending on the specific identities, contexts, and experiences young people have. For example, young people who participate in civic action in the form of volunteering have more positive subsequent well-being and educational trajectories, while those involved in critical forms of civic action, such as activism, experience both empowerment and educational benefits as well as stress and challenges to well-being (e.g., [3,[18][19][20][21]). Importantly, sociopolitical development is critical for the health of society as well as for healthy individual development. ...
The objectives of the present study were to describe civic attitudes and behaviors among Latinx child farmworkers in North Carolina, examine civic outcomes across relevant demographic characteristics, and discuss the implications for research on sociopolitical development among Latinx child farmworkers and for developmental theory. Descriptive statistics (count, percent, or mean, standard deviation as appropriate) were calculated for demographic and civic variables. Associations between the demographic variables and the four civic summary variables were calculated using Generalized Linear Models, the Kruskal–Wallis test, t-tests, or Chi-Square tests. Latinx child farmworkers in North Carolina (N = 169; ages 11–19, Mage = 15.8, 62.7% boys) endorsed relatively high levels of beliefs that society is fair and connections/efficacy in their communities. They reported relatively low involvement in volunteering and political activity. Future work should examine how the daily lives and experiences of child farmworkers inform their developing ideas about civic life in the US and their behavioral participation as they mature.
... Economic values significantly influence individuals' engagement in civic groups and society at large (Ballard, Hoyt, and Pachucki 2019;Cameron 2021). Perceptions of income, employment status, and social class contribute to variations in overall economic perceptions, shaping economic voting models and influencing civic behavior (De Vries, Hobolt, and Tilley 2018;Mutz 2018;Verwiebe and Wegener 2000). ...
Aims
Citizens’ perceived values play a decisive role in shaping a responsive society, driving social and political attitudes and behaviors. Understanding these values, influenced by cultural, historical, and personal experiences, is essential for comprehending public perspectives on social, economic, and ecological aspects crucial for sustainable societies. This study investigates perceived values as indicators of citizens’ potential civic engagement, mainly contributing to societal development.
Materials and methods
For the purpose of this study, we analyzed 1012 cases from the European Value Survey/World Value Survey data set of the Republic of Macedonia. In addition to the exploratory factor analysis and cluster analysis, we employed XGBoost regression, coupled with SHAP analysis, offering a transparent exploration of the significance of citizens’ perceived values, while emphasizing their role in motivating social responsibility and duty.
Results
We identified 12 factors and categorized Macedonian citizens into 4 clusters. Through the SHAP feature importance method, we determined that perceptions of gender stereotypes, trust in people, civil rights, and job equality strongly influence the idea of social responsibility.
Conclusions
Our findings offer pathways to promote individual accountability and increased participation in societal actions, fostering greater advocacy and policy changes for a responsible, engaged, and sustainable society.
... Research shows that these constructs are linked to higher levels of emotional and psychological adjustment (Kim & Morgül, 2017;Wray-Lake et al., 2017), including enhanced self-esteem, improved mental health and increased life satisfaction (Anderson et al., 2014;Martela & Ryan, 2016). Greater empathy and prosocial behaviour have also been linked with better cognitive performance and higher academic achievement among children and adolescents (Ballard et al., 2018;Gerbino et al., 2018). Similarly, an array of evidence indicates that empathic/prosocial responding facilitates social development; promoting positive interpersonal relationships (Fike et al., 2023;Flanagan & SILKE ET AL. | 327 Levine, 2010;Spinard & Eisenberg, 2014), large-scale cooperation and reducing antisocial behaviour (Padilla-Walker et al., 2015;Raskauskas et al., 2010). ...
The aim of this study is to explore young people's perspectives on the factors that facilitate or inhibit empathy and prosocial responding among youth. Qualitative focus groups ( n = 29) were undertaken with Irish young people aged 13–17 years relating to their views on the factors that facilitate or inhibit the expression of empathy. Parents, friends, and social media were found to be key influences, whereas barriers identified included societal norms, gender norms, lack of skill, or knowledge and target characteristics. This research provides important insights into adolescents’ perceptions of the social correlates of empathy. Concepts from the sociology of empathy, such as empathy maps and paths, are helpful in drawing out the implications for future research and practice.
... Second, a large body of research has shown that volunteering at a young age is associated with many benefits at the individual level. Young people's participation in volunteering activities has positive consequences for their mental health (Ballard et al., 2021), educational attainment (Ballard et al., 2019), and learning and skills (Roker & Player, 2000). A significant benefit of volunteering for young people is the opportunity to meet new peers who, due to shared opinions and activities, can become their friends (Haski-Leventhal et al., 2008). ...
... They increase their habitual interest in voting and activity, promoting their desire to participate and make a difference in society (Evans & Andersen, 2006;Ikeda et al., 2008;Tolbert et al., 2003). As for economic values, prior findings from World Values Survey (WVS) questionnaire analyses suggest that people with fewer resources and lower economic values are less likely to participate in civic groups and society (Ballard et al., 2019;Cameron, 2021). Individuals' perceptions of income, employment status, and social class are all likely to cause variation in overall economic perceptions, which are argued to have a major role in economic voting models (De Vries et al., 2018;Mutz, 2018;Verwiebe & Wegener, 2000). ...
Numerous research studies have documented the significant influence of key types of positive childhood experiences (PCEs) on adult health and wellbeing, even in the presence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Recent studies reveal that almost 87% of justice-impacted youth reported at least one ACE. Connecting youth to PCEs after trauma has occurred has been shown to disrupt the poor health trajectory associated with ACEs. Creating juvenile justice systems that prioritize equitable access to PCEs has the potential to change the life course of system-impacted youth. The HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) framework, a research-based, community-driven approach to improving access to the key types of PCEs youth need to thrive, presents a potentially powerful strategy for juvenile justice systems to transform care for system-impacted youth. This manuscript describes this proposed approach.
Community participation is a cornerstone of effective primary health care (PHC), contributing to improved health outcomes, increased service utilization, and enhanced community ownership. This study investigates the factors influencing community participation in PHC programs in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, through a cross-sectional design with a mixed-methods approach. Data were collected from 387 participants using structured questionnaires, capturing demographics, awareness, accessibility, and satisfaction with health care services. Key findings reveal that sociodemographic factors, such as age and income level, significantly influence participation rates, with higher participation observed among individuals aged 30–39 years and those with higher socioeconomic status. Awareness of health programs strongly correlated with participation, highlighting the importance of targeted communication strategies. Barriers, including long waiting times, distance to health facilities, and poor-quality services, were identified as significant deterrents to community involvement.The study underscores the need for strategic interventions to address these barriers, enhance health service quality, and promote inclusive community engagement. Recommendations include leveraging telehealth solutions, improving health facility infrastructure, and fostering trust between communities and health care providers. This research provides evidence-based insights for policymakers to strengthen PHC systems and ensure equitable access to health services.
Background: Social-emotional competence have a high level of urgency to be actualized especially in middle school students because through this competency it is able to prevent the level of delinquency and crime and is able to improve academic achievement in students. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of friendship management training with prosocial orientation to improve the social-emotional competence of middle school students. Methods: This study used an experimental method with a pretest-posttest control group design. A total of 39 middle school students in Padang City, Indonesia, were selected by a randomization technique to be assigned to a control or experimental group after completing an informed consent. Social-emotional competence was measured using the Social and Emotional Competencies Evaluation Questionnaire (Coelho et al., 2015) developed by researchers. The scale had an Alpha Cronbach of 0.935, indicating high reliability. Results: Result showed that the ANOVA test results showed that friendship management training effectively improved the social-emotional competence of middle school students (F = 6.633; p < 0.05). The effect of treatment was proven to be significant, indicating an increase in the social-emotional competence of students who received prosocial-oriented friendship management training. The average increase in social-emotional competence of students with friendship management training was higher than that of the control group (F = 2,302; p > 0,05). Conclusions: According the results, friendship management training was found to be effective in increasing social-emotional competence of middle school students. Therefore, the training is recommended as a promising program to be implemented in schools to promote social-emotional competence of students.
This article considers the roles that smartphones play as young people living in low-income communities navigate everyday activities, including those of online civic engagement. Drawing on ethnographic data collected during the COVID-19 lockdown, we offer empirical and methodological support for Hartmann’s concept of mediated mobilism, highlighting smartphone-related frictions and tensions that emerge at the intersections of social and political mobilities and immobilities. Specifically, our data demonstrate that as smartphones kept young people on call for parents, caregivers, siblings and others who might need them to help negotiate the heightened demands that characterized family life during the pandemic, young people found themselves in situations that we term tethered compliance, torn between the desire to participate in online civic engagement and political mobilization and the need to fulfill various exigencies of family life that emerged as a result of physical and social immobilities. Whereas scholars previously argued that mobile media held promise for mitigating structural inequality and enhancing youth online civic engagement, our findings suggest that these technologies are instead adding a new layer to be managed.
Out-of-school time (OST) programs provide important contexts for youth’s development and well-being. Moreover, OST programs have the potential to serve as an anchor for refugee youth who lack familiarity with U.S. schools and communities. Youth civic engagement encompasses activities that are critical for empowering young people to participate in political, economic, and social initiatives, becoming agents of positive change. While civic engagement has been deemed an important activity, research that highlights refugee youth’s motivation, benefits, and engagement in civic duties within local communities is limited. Drawing on a critical consciousness framework, which entails becoming more aware of structural injustice and positioning oneself to participate in systemic change, this phenomenological study explores refugee youth’s motivation and types of civic engagement in OST programs. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 refugee youth resettled in Chicago, Illinois. These youth described the motivations leading them to become civically engaged, such as a sense of duty or obligation to learn and advocate for the rights of refugees and to build a sense of community with their peers and mentors. Recommendations are offered about how schools and community partners can assist refugee students in becoming more civically involved in OST settings.
This report examines the current state of youth mental health services in China through desktop research, field visits, and interviews with 50 practitioners and service users. It covers key concepts and theoretical frameworks of youth mental health, the current state of youth mental health and its influencing factors, as well as typical programmes of youth mental health services at home and abroad.
The report was organised by the Rici Foundation and funded by the Tencent Foundation and the Internet Good Summit.
The environment in which a child grows and develops can greatly influence their health and well-being. Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) such as quality healthcare, education, healthy foods, economic stability, and a safe, cohesive community are integral to the optimal development of a child. In this chapter, we discuss how each SDOH impacts health and the current efforts to improve these for all children in the United States.
Sociopolitical stress arises in reaction to awareness of, exposure to, and/or involvement in political events. Among a longitudinal cohort of 628 college students from 10 universities across the U.S., we explored trajectories of sociopolitical stress during the 2020 United States presidential election season and examined relationships to psychological well-being. Growth mixture modeling classified our sample into four subgroups each with distinct trajectories of sociopolitical stress: High and Decreasing, Moderate and Increasing, Consistently Low, and High-to-Low. Participants with lower levels of sociopolitical stress expressed higher psychological well-being (high flourishing, high optimism, low anxiety symptoms, low depressive symptoms). The High and Decreasing subgroup was associated with the highest levels of civic action. Participants in the High and Decreasing trajectory were 20 times more likely to identify as LGBQ+, and 4 times more likely to be a woman or a transgender/gender diverse student, compared to participants in the Consistently Low subgroup.
We propose that volunteering increases the likelihood of self-employment among young adults because volunteering improves self-esteem, which helps prospective entrepreneurs cope with the challenges associated with self-employment. We further predict that young adults who participate in diverse voluntary organizations are particularly likely to undertake self-employment because affiliations with diverse organizations not only enhance the social-psychological benefits of self-employment but also buffer the potential loss of a source of self-esteem caused by the discontinuation of a voluntary organization. Analysis of the data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 35,228) supports our hypotheses. Our study highlights that a better-developed self through volunteering benefits the agentic action of entrepreneurship.
Schools have been considered critical institutions for refugee youth. However, Muslim refugee youth experience challenges navigating schools during an increasingly hostile sociopolitical climate for Muslim people. Drawing on the adolescent development framework, this phenomenological study explores how school-based experiences help to shape Muslim refugee youths’ identities. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 refugee youth who attended high schools in Chicago. Findings highlight how Muslim refugee youth expressed negative feelings of school and overall adjustment to their local communities due to stereotypes or perceptions of them being “terrorists” or “violent,” which often translated into discrimination and bullying directed at them at the school level. Second, Muslim refugee youth expressed a desire to be civically engaged in their schools and communities to demonstrate their capacity to be “good citizens” or active participants with a high moral compass. Recommendations are offered on how to support Muslim refugee youth in school settings.
Recent tensions in society have led to protests and demonstrations to raise awareness and consciousness ultimately for change. These efforts can be draining. Domestic increases in youth activism has illustrated transformative community action as well as the need to determine themes related to activist sustainability and mental health. Therefore, a phenomenological study was conducted to explore Millennial and Generation Z activist mental health perceptions and engagement during times of protest including COVID-19. The voice of seven youth activists regarding their experience with concurrent activism and mental health maintenance were explored. Themes derived from interviews with these young adult activists about their mental health behaviors, included: wellness maintenance, mindset, and technology. Intentions of youth activists to participate in integrated care were discussed. Implications and suggestions for counselors and helping professions are provided.
Many scholars posit that engaging in civic actions enhances mental health, yet existing evidence is limited. To address gaps in the literature and advance understanding of benefits of civic engagement from adolescence to young adulthood, we estimated a longitudinal structural model to test bidirectional associations between civic engagement (i.e., voting, community engagement, political behaviors) and depressive symptoms using nationally representative longitudinal U.S. data. Adolescent and early young adulthood (EYA) depressive symptoms predicted decreases in later voting. Adolescent and EYA community engagement predicted decreases in later depressive symptoms. Analyses suggested that findings generalized across gender, age, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and EYA social roles. Despite key limitations in measurement of civic engagement over time, results provide some support the notion that community engagement may have mental health benefits for youth, and that depression may reduce later civic engagement.
A cutting-edge study showcases the emergence of contemporary youth activism in the United States, its benefits to young people, its role in strengthening society, and its powerful social justice implications.
At a time when youth are too often dismissed as either empowered consumers or disempowered deviants, it is vital to understand how these young people are pushing back, challenging such constructions, and advancing new possibilities for their institutions and themselves. This book examines the latest developments in the field of contemporary youth activism (CYA) and documents the myriad ways in which youth activists are effecting social change, even as they experience personal change. By taking public, political action on a range of intersecting issues, youth activists are shifting their own developmental pathways, shaping public policy, and shaking up traditional paradigms.
Section one of the book offers a historical perspective on youth activism in the United States, followed by a discussion of contemporary examples of CYA for social justice. The second and third sections analyze the individual, institutional, and ideological effects of CYA, arguing that youth activism works to promote change at three levels: self, systems, and in the broader society. Readers will come away with a clearer understanding of the many ways in which today's youth activists are working to reimagine and remake American democracy, reawakening the promise of a multi-issue, progressive movement for social justice.
Civic engagement is an important marker of thriving among adolescents, and more research is needed that clarifies the ecological assets (positive supports across settings) that foster youth civic engagement. Simultaneously modeling associations between multiple ecological assets and civic behaviors can provide a nuanced view of the way adolescents’ ecological assets relate to distinct forms of civic engagement. To advance positive youth development theory, we used a bifactor modeling approach to examine general and specific ecological asset factors in relation to volunteering, conventional political, online political, and informal helping behaviors. In a large ethnically diverse sample of adolescents, the general ecological asset factor was positively associated with informal helping only. Classroom civic learning opportunities were positively associated with volunteering, conventional, and online political behaviors. Family political discussions were positively associated with conventional and online political behaviors. Our study suggests that civic engagement should be understood multidimensionally and that broad and specific ways of conceptualizing ecological assets have merit for understanding different types of youth civic engagement.
Health researchers and practitioners increasingly recognise the important role communities play in shaping individual health. Health researchers recognise the role of community factors as causes or determinants of health problems; use community-based methods for understanding complex health issues; and design community-level health solutions. In this commentary, we propose a fourth way to think about the role of communities in individual health by arguing that the community engagement process itself has implications for individual health and strong communities. This topic is especially important during adolescence, a developmental window of opportunity during which individuals need meaningful opportunities to contribute to the world around them.
This article introduces civic purpose as a construct for learning about civic development in adolescence. Civic purpose, defined as a sustained intention to contribute to the world beyond the self through civic or political action, integrates the components of motivation, civic activity, and future-oriented civic intention. We present results from a mixed methods longitudinal study that used the civic purpose framework in which 1,578 high school seniors took a survey, 50 participated in an interview, and 9 additional adolescent “civic exemplars” participated in both the survey and the interview. Two years later, 480 participants took the survey again, and 34 participated in a second interview. A small percentage of the study subjects exhibited full civic purpose across three different types of civic activity (political, community service, expressive), while a larger percentage demonstrated precursory forms of civic purpose, with evidence of some but not all components of civic purpose. Key contributors to the development of civic purpose were: identity salience, beliefs and values, and invitation from one or more adults.
This article proposes psychological empowerment as an orientation and targeted outcome for community development efforts.
Psychological empowerment has been the focus of many studies in community psychology, where it has been defined as the psychological
aspects of processes through which people, organizations, and communities take greater control over their affairs. Psychological
empowerment has been found to increase with greater levels of community participation, and to have protective mental health
effects. Community and organizational processes that are psychologically empowering are promising as approaches to sustainably
promote both subjective well-being and objective changes in local systems. The case is made in this article for more widespread
use of empowerment theory, at multiple levels of analysis, in community development processes. Participatory development is
viewed as a particularly promising approach for the promotion of psychological empowerment, yet more thorough consideration
and assessment of psychological empowerment holds promise for achieving the full potential of participatory approaches.
The topic of youth civic engagement is increasingly popular in social science research; however, the question of why some youth are civically involved while others are not is not well understood. This article addresses the following questions: What motivations and barriers do youth report for civic involvement? How do motivations and barriers differ across school contexts? A qualitative study using in-depth semi-structured interviews with youth (N = 22) was used to identify four categories of motivations and two categories of barriers for civic involvement. Variation emerged in the motivations and barriers for civic involvement both within and across school contexts. Understanding civic motivations in context uncovers new insights about how to structure opportunities to better facilitate youth civic involvement.
Although the strong link between maternal education and children's outcomes is one of the most well-established findings in developmental psychology (Reardon, 2011; Sirin, 2005), less is known about how young, low-income children are influenced by their mothers completing additional education. In this research, longitudinal data from the Head Start Impact Study were used to explore the associations between increases in maternal education and Head Start eligible children's cognitive skills and behavioral problems in 1st grade. Propensity score weighting was used to identify a balanced comparison group of 1,362 children whose mothers did not increase their education between baseline (when children were aged 3 or 4) and children's kindergarten year, who are similar on numerous covariates to the 262 children whose mothers did increase their education. Propensity-score weighted regression analyses indicated that increases in maternal education were positively associated with children's standardized cognitive scores, but also with higher teacher-reported externalizing behavioral problems in 1st grade. The increases in externalizing behavioral problems were larger for children whose mothers had less than a college degree at baseline. (PsycINFO Database Record
(c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
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.
Objective:
This study was designed to examine whether family and peer relationships in adolescence predict the emergence of metabolic risk factors in young adulthood.
Method:
Participants from a large, nationally representative cohort study (N = 11,617 for these analyses) reported on their relationship experiences with parents and close friends during adolescence. Fourteen years later, interviewers collected blood samples, as well as anthropometric and blood pressure measurements. Blood samples were analyzed for HbA1c.
Results:
Ordered logistic regressions revealed that for females, supportive parent-child relationships and close male friendships in adolescence were associated with reduced odds of having elevated metabolic risk markers in young adulthood. These effects remained significant even after controlling for baseline measures of body mass index (BMI) and health and demographic covariates. The protective effects of close relationships were not significant for males, however. Exploratory analyses with 2-parent families revealed that supportive father-child relationships were especially protective for females.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest that, for females, close and supportive relationships with parents and male friends in adolescence may reduce the risk of metabolic dysregulation in adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record
There is an urgent need to identify lifestyle activities that reduce functional decline and dementia associated with population aging. The goals of this article are to review critically the evidence on the benefits associated with formal volunteering among older adults, propose a theoretical model of how volunteering may reduce functional limitations and dementia risk, and offer recommendations for future research. Database searches identified 113 papers on volunteering benefits in older adults, of which 73 were included. Data from descriptive, cross-sectional, and prospective cohort studies, along with 1 randomized controlled trial, most consistently reveal that volunteering is associated with reduced symptoms of depression, better self-reported health, fewer functional limitations, and lower mortality. The extant evidence provides the basis for a model proposing that volunteering increases social, physical, and cognitive activity (to varying degrees depending on characteristics of the volunteer placement) which, through biological and psychological mechanisms, leads to improved functioning; we further propose that these volunteering-related functional improvements should be associated with reduced dementia risk. Recommendations for future research are that studies (a) include more objective measures of psychosocial, physical, and cognitive functioning; (b) integrate qualitative and quantitative methods in prospective study designs; (c) explore further individual differences in the benefits associated with volunteering; (d) include occupational analyses of volunteers' specific jobs in order to identify their social, physical, and cognitive complexity; (e) investigate the independent versus interactive health benefits associated with volunteering relative to engagement in other forms of activity; and (f) examine the relationship between volunteering and dementia risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
The association between neighborhood conditions and cortisol is rarely studied in children or adolescents and has been hampered by small sample size and racial/ethnic and geographic homogeneity. Our objective was to estimate the association between neighborhood disadvantage and salivary cortisol levels in a large, geographically and racially/ethnically diverse sample of adolescents from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement. Salivary cortisol was collected before and after an interview administered in the adolescent's home. We used a propensity score approach to match adolescents living in disadvantaged neighborhoods with those in nondisadvantaged neighborhoods to create two similar groups based on the time and day of cortisol collection as well as demographic characteristics. Adolescents living in disadvantaged neighborhoods had higher pre-interview cortisol levels and steeper rates of decline in cortisol levels over the course of the interview than similar adolescents in non-disadvantaged neighborhoods. This bolsters the evidence base suggesting that place may influence the stress response system.
The formation of future occupational expectations is a critical career-development
task for adolescents that has a significant impact on adult occupational attainment.
However, sociopolitical barriers constrain the occupational expectations
and attainment of poor youth of color. Extant research has suggested that
sociopolitical development, the consciousness of and motivation to transform
sociopolitical inequity, facilitates the negotiation of sociopolitical barriers that
constrain career development. However, the longitudinal effect of sociopolitical
development on occupational attainment is unclear. This study examines
the longitudinal impact of sociopolitical development on adult occupational
attainment while controlling for academic performance. The obtained structural
model suggests that sociopolitical development influenced occupational
expectations in 12th grade and had a longitudinal impact on adult occupational
attainment among a nationally representative sample of poor youth of color.
This model also fits subsamples of female and male participants, although
sociopolitical development had stronger effects for young women. Sociopolitical
development may inform and augment career interventions for poor youth
of color.
This study examined young adult sequelae of participation in high school activities and identity group for 900 participants from the Michigan Study of Life Transitions.Participation at Grade 10 in high school activities predicted later substance use, psychological adjustment, and educational and occupational outcomes.Prosocial activity participation predicted lower substance use and higher self-esteem and an increased likelihood of college graduation.Performing arts participation predicted more years of education as well as increases in drinking between ages 18 and 21 and higher rates of suicide attempts and psychologist visits by the age of 24.Sports participation predicted positive educational and occupational outcomes and lower levels of social isolation but also higher rates of drinking. Breakfast Club identity categories were predictive of both levels and longitudinal patterns in substance use, education and work outcomes, and psychological adjustment.In general, Jocks and Brains showed the most positive adjustment and Criminals the least.
Civic engagement was studied in relation to overall development in adolescence, emerging adulthood, and young adulthood to examine how earlier activity involvement and success in prior and concurrent age-salient domains of competence may contribute to 2 forms of civic engagement in adulthood (citizenship and volunteering). Data on 163 youth were drawn from a longitudinal study of competence in a normative, urban school sample. Results indicate that competence and activity involvement in adolescence predict citizenship and volunteering in adulthood, 10 to 15 years later. As hypothesized, however, the level of competence in developmentally salient domains in adolescence and emerging adulthood fully mediate the predictive significance of concurrent activity involvement for civic engagement outcomes in adulthood. Findings also suggest that citizenship and volunteering are distinct types of civic engagement that should be studied separately.
The relationship of positive and negative dimensions of self-esteem and perceived control to substance (tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana) use was tested with a sample of 1,775 adolescents, surveyed in 8th grade and followed up 1 year later. Esteem and control were highly correlated. Concurrent multiple regression analyses with simultaneous entry indicated internal control inversely related, and self-derogation positively related, to substance use; the unique contribution for control variables was 6.4 times the unique contribution for esteem variables. In prospective analyses, only internal control was significant. Self-attitudes were less relevant in general for substance use among Black adolescents compared with Hispanic and White adolescents; self-derogation was less relevant for adolescents in single-families compared with two-parent families. Previous findings on self-esteem and substance use may be partially reflecting the effect of perceived control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Justin is not alone. In a recent study of high school seniors from California, for example, only 28% agreed that “I think people in government care about what people like me and my family need” (Kahne and Middaugh 2005). Related findings are common. A survey by the National Association of Secretaries of State, for example, revealed that two-thirds of all young people agreed that “our generation has an important voice, but no one seems to hear it.” Moreover, those youth who were least trusting were also the least likely to vote, to believe that government can affect their lives, or to pay attention to politics (National Association of Secretaries of State 1999). These findings, combined with numerous other indicators that show low and in many cases declining civic and political participation, indicate that forms of engagement required for a participatory democracy to thrive are in need of attention (Macedo et al. 2005). The initial research for this essay was generously supported by a grant from the Surdna Foundation. Subsequent research and writing was generously supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We also wish to thank Melinda Fine, Barbara Leckie, Tobi Walker, and James Youniss for helpful feedback on earlier drafts. The authors are solely responsible for any and all conclusions.
Are people who are more satisfied with their lives more likely to participate in politics? Although the literature on political
participation in the United States is one of the most theoretically and methodologically developed in political science, little
research has sought to incorporate subjective life satisfaction into models of political participation. Instead, life satisfaction
has been studied nearly exclusively as a dependent variable. By turning to life satisfaction as an independent variable, we
contribute to the literatures on both political participation and life satisfaction. Using survey data, we find that individuals
who are more satisfied with their lives are more likely to turn out to vote and participate in the political process through
other avenues, and that the magnitude of this relationship rivals that of education. We also find that the relationship between
life satisfaction and political participation is confined to “non-conflictual” forms of participation, and exhibits no relationship
with the decision to engage in political protest.
KeywordsPolitical science–Effects of life satisfaction
A cutting-edge study showcases the emergence of contemporary youth activism in the United States, its benefits to young people, its role in strengthening society, and its powerful social justice implications.
At a time when youth are too often dismissed as either empowered consumers or disempowered deviants, it is vital to understand how these young people are pushing back, challenging such constructions, and advancing new possibilities for their institutions and themselves. This book examines the latest developments in the field of contemporary youth activism (CYA) and documents the myriad ways in which youth activists are effecting social change, even as they experience personal change. By taking public, political action on a range of intersecting issues, youth activists are shifting their own developmental pathways, shaping public policy, and shaking up traditional paradigms.
Section one of the book offers a historical perspective on youth activism in the United States, followed by a discussion of contemporary examples of CYA for social justice. The second and third sections analyze the individual, institutional, and ideological effects of CYA, arguing that youth activism works to promote change at three levels: self, systems, and in the broader society. Readers will come away with a clearer understanding of the many ways in which today's youth activists are working to reimagine and remake American democracy, reawakening the promise of a multi-issue, progressive movement for social justice.
Despite the renewed interest in youth volunteering in recent years, there remain major gaps in our knowledge of its consequences. Drawing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we examine the long-term effects of youth volunteering on the civic and personal aspects of volunteers’ lives. Our results suggest that youth volunteering has a positive return on adult volunteering only when it is voluntary, and that net of contextual factors neither voluntary nor involuntary youth service has a significant effect on adult voting. Regarding personal outcomes, our findings indicate that the psychological benefits of youth volunteering accrue only to voluntary participants, whereas both voluntary and involuntary youth service are positively associated with educational attainment and earnings in young adulthood. Taken together, these results lend support to the case for youth volunteer programs, though the civic benefits of these programs appear to be less dramatic than generally suggested.
Over the past few years, I have experimented with a classroom exercise that encourages students to think about how they perceive service and politics. I ask the students to create lists of service activities and political activities in which they and their friends and families engage. The service list typically includes such activities as working in a soup kitchen, delivering meals to the homebound, tutoring in the school system, and cleaning up parks. The list of political activities usually includes things like voting, protesting, raising money, lobbying, letter writing, and running for office.
Turning students' attention to the list of community service activities, I ask them to give some adjectives that people might use to describe the listed projects. The students usually offer such descriptors as altruistic, caring, helping, selfless, and giving, as well as individualistic and one-on-one. Often, the students will also add the words selfish or insincere to describe those students who engage in community service to enhance their resume or earn academic credit.
Asked for adjectives that describe politics, the words come fast and furious—dirty, corrupt, ambitious, crooked, dishonest, compromising, slow. After the initial rush of negative descriptors and with little prompting on my part, students will also talk about politics as a means to affect social change and make a difference for groups of people.
I have used this exercise with audiences ranging from young women uninterested in politics, to young people planning careers in politics and policy making, to foundation officials.
In this chapter we use Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (P-VEST) to consider civic engagement as a coping response to systems of inequality faced by racial minority children. After a brief introduction we present a historical and theoretical overview of civic engagement with regard to children and adolescents and racially marginalized communities. We then introduce the P-VEST framework and examine civic engagement as a proactive reactive coping method to counteract the vulnerability and stress of systematic racial injustice. Following a discussion of the current empirical literature we explore the utility of civic engagement programs (e.g., Youth Participatory Action Research) as interventions to support positive development of minority youth. We conclude with policy implications and future directions for research to leverage civic engagement as a coping strategy for the positive development of minority children and their communities.
Using both quantitative and qualitative data, this study examined the effect of participating in an action civics intervention, Generation Citizen (GC), on civic commitment, civic self-efficacy, and two forms of civic knowledge. The sample consisted of 617 middle and high schools students in 55 classrooms who participated, or were soon to participate, in Generation Citizen. Hierarchical linear models revealed that participating in Generation Citizen was associated with positive gains in action civics knowledge and civic self-efficacy. Qualitative coding identified three types of project characteristics that captured variability in the action projects student chose to complete: context, content, and contact with decision makers. Interactions between project characteristics and participation in GC revealed differences in civic outcomes depending on project characteristics.
Social Capital is created through the patterns of interdependence and social interaction that occur within a population, and we attempt to understand the participatory consequences of these patterns relative to the effects of human capital and organizational involvement. The production of social capital in personal networks was examined with the use of social network and participation data from the 1992 American study of the Cross National Election project. The results suggest that politically relevant social capital (that is, social capital that facilitates political engagement) is generated in personal networks, that ir is a by-product of the social interactions with a citizen's discussants, and that increasing levels of politically relevant social capital enhance the likelihood that a citizen will be engaged in politics. Further, the production of politically relevant social capital is a function of the political expertise within an individual's network of relations, the frequency of political interaction within the network, and the size or extensiveness of the network. These results are sustained even while taking account of a person's individual characteristics and organizational involvement. Hence, the consequences of social relations within networks are not readily explained away on the basis of either human capital effects ol the effects of organizational engagement.
The myth of generations of disengaged youth has been shattered by increases in youth turnout in the 2004, 2006, and 2008 primaries. Young Americans are responsive to effective outreach efforts, and this collection addresses how to best provide opportunities for enhancing civic learning and forming lasting civic identities. The thirteen original essays are based on research in schools and in settings beyond the schoolyard where civic life is experienced. One focus is on programs for those schools in poor communities that tend to overlook civic education. Another chapter reports on how two city governments-Hampton, Virginia, and San Francisco have invited youth to participate on boards and in agencies. A cluster of chapters focuses on the civic education programs in Canada and Western Europe, where, as in the United States, immigration and income inequality raise challenges to civic life.
Using a vast swath of data spanning the past six decades, Unequal Democracy debunks many myths about politics in contemporary America, using the widening gap between the rich and the poor to shed disturbing light on the workings of American democracy. Larry Bartels shows the gap between the rich and poor has increased greatly under Republican administrations and decreased slightly under Democrats, leaving America grossly unequal. This is not simply the result of economic forces, but the product of broad-reaching policy choices in a political system dominated by partisan ideologies and the interests of the wealthy. Bartels demonstrates that elected officials respond to the views of affluent constituents but ignore the views of poor people. He shows that Republican presidents in particular have consistently produced much less income growth for middle-class and working-poor families than for affluent families, greatly increasing inequality. He provides revealing case studies of key policy shifts contributing to inequality, including the massive Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 and the erosion of the minimum wage. Finally, he challenges conventional explanations for why many voters seem to vote against their own economic interests, contending that working-class voters have not been lured into the Republican camp by "values issues" like abortion and gay marriage, as commonly believed, but that Republican presidents have been remarkably successful in timing income growth to cater to short-sighted voters. Unequal Democracy is social science at its very best. It provides a deep and searching analysis of the political causes and consequences of America's growing income gap, and a sobering assessment of the capacity of the American political system to live up to its democratic ideals.
Contribution to civil society is a key outcome of positive youth development (PYD), as evidenced by
findings from the 4-H Study of PYD. In this chapter, we focus on conceptualizations and
measurement of contribution within PYD research. We first discuss conceptualizations of
contribution as Active and Engaged Citizenship (AEC) and the relations among AEC and other constructs, such as school engagement and risk behaviors, within the 4-H Study sample. We then describe research on contribution among youth of color, including recent research on social justice youth development and critical consciousness. Throughout the chapter, we review strategies that practitioners can use to develop and promote meaningful contributions among diverse young people. Given associations between contribution and positive outcomes among America’s diverse youth, we emphasize that policies and programs should provide more opportunities for youth contributions to society, including community service, social activism, and/or participation in local polities.
Within contemporary developmental science, models derived from relational developmental systems metatheory emphasize that the basic process involved in the ontogeny of civic engagement involves mutually-influential and beneficial relations between the developing individual and his or her complex and changing social, cultural, and physical contexts (represented as individual ← → context relations). The authors suggest that research on the development of civic engagement should be theoretically predicated, use change-sensitive, longitudinal methods, and be comparative across time and place. Using these facets of scholarship as a lens, we discuss the contributions to this special issue. We conclude that the present set of studies provides a useful basis for future research and applications aimed at understanding and promoting individuals’ civic contributions, and their support of social organizations promoting individual thriving and freedom, liberty, and social justice.
Social networks reflect the structure of our interpersonal relationships. The effect of social networks on health is a topic of growing interest, particularly in an increasingly connected world. This review provides an overview of how social relations shape obesity risk and the effectiveness of network-based obesity interventions across the lifecourse. The review highlights that while the literature suggests obesity and related health behaviors are similar between socially connected individuals, why this is the case and how to effectively intervene remain unclear. In addition, the review outlines methodological gaps limiting our understanding of how social networks shape obesity risk throughout the lifecourse. Several implications for obesity prevention and research are offered, including the need to examine the relationship of social networks and obesity across rather than within lifecourse stages, continued development of statistical social network analysis methods, and the need for new cohort studies, particularly among children and the elderly.
This meta-analysis assessed the effect of community service on adolescent development and the moderation of this effect by reflection, community service, and adolescent characteristics to explicate the mechanisms underlying community service effects. Random effects analyses, based on 49 studies (24,477 participants, 12–20 years old), revealed that community service had positive effects on academic, personal, social, and civic outcomes. Moderation analyses indicated that reflection was essential; the effect for studies that include reflection was substantial (mean ES = .41) while community service in the absence of reflection yielded negligible benefits (mean ES = .05). Effects increased when studies include more frequent reflection and community service, reflection on academic content, and older adolescents. These findings have implications for understanding and improving community service.
The CES-D scale is a short self-report scale designed to measure depressive symptomatology in the general population. The items of the scale are symptoms associated with depression which have been used in previously validated longer scales. The new scale was tested in household interview surveys and in psychiatric settings. It was found to have very high internal consistency and adequate test- retest repeatability. Validity was established by pat terns of correlations with other self-report measures, by correlations with clinical ratings of depression, and by relationships with other variables which support its construct validity. Reliability, validity, and factor structure were similar across a wide variety of demographic characteristics in the general population samples tested. The scale should be a useful tool for epidemiologic studies of de pression.
Over the past few years, I have experimented with a classroom exercise that encourages students to think about how they perceive service and politics. I ask the students to create lists of service activities and political activities in which they and their friends and families engage. The service list typically includes such activities as working in a soup kitchen, delivering meals to the homebound, tutoring in the school system, and cleaning up parks. The list of political activities usually includes things like voting, protesting, raising money, lobbying, letter writing, and running for office.
Turning students' attention to the list of community service activities, I ask them to give some adjectives that people might use to describe the listed projects. The students usually offer such descriptors as altruistic, caring, helping, selfless, and giving, as well as individualistic and one-on-one. Often, the students will also add the words selfish or insincere to describe those students who engage in community service to enhance their resume or earn academic credit.
Asked for adjectives that describe politics, the words come fast and furious—dirty, corrupt, ambitious, crooked, dishonest, compromising, slow. After the initial rush of negative descriptors and with little prompting on my part, students will also talk about politics as a means to affect social change and make a difference for groups of people.
I have used this exercise with audiences ranging from young women uninterested in politics, to young people planning careers in politics and policy making, to foundation officials.
Providing help or support to others buffers the associations between stress and physical health. We examined the function of the neurohormone oxytocin as a biological mechanism for this stress-buffering phenomenon. Participants in a longitudinal study completed a measure of charitable behavior, and over the next two years provided assessments of stressful life events and physician-diagnosed physical ailments. Results indicated that charitable behavior buffered the associations between stressful events and new-onset ailments among individuals with the AA/AG genotypes of oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) variant rs53576, but not among those with the GG genotype. These results suggest that oxytocin function may significantly affect health and may help explain the associations between prosocial behavior and health. More broadly, these findings are consistent with a role for the caregiving behavioral system in health and well-being.
This Working Paper presents an overview of findings from research that addresses whether, and to what extent, gender is salient in the development of norms of citizen behavior and key precursors to citizen engagement. A variety of data is used to illuminate the complexity of gender's relationship to citizen engagement among today's youth. The bulk of the analysis, however, is drawn from the National Citizen Engagement Study (NCES). Across some key indicators, the story is about the same regardless of sex. Young women and men appear to be receiving the same cues about politics, elected officials, and the political process. They are also responding in much the same way--i.e., tuning out and doing little. However, young women are also demonstrating their distinctiveness in ways that are both hopeful and potentially worrisome. Thus, the picture to emerge is one that cannot be easily summarized by either sameness or difference. (Contains 8 tables and 13 endnotes.) [This Working Paper was produced by CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement). For CIRCLE Working Paper 40, see ED491129.]
Objectives:
We sought to test the hypothesis that providing help to others predicts a reduced association between stress and mortality.
Methods:
We examined data from participants (n = 846) in a study in the Detroit, Michigan, area. Participants completed baseline interviews that assessed past-year stressful events and whether the participant had provided tangible assistance to friends or family members. Participant mortality and time to death was monitored for 5 years by way of newspaper obituaries and monthly state death-record tapes.
Results:
When we adjusted for age, baseline health and functioning, and key psychosocial variables, Cox proportional hazard models for mortality revealed a significant interaction between helping behavior and stressful events (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.58; P < .05; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.35, 0.98). Specifically, stress did not predict mortality risk among individuals who provided help to others in the past year (HR = 0.96; 95% CI = 0.79, 1.18), but stress did predict mortality among those who did not provide help to others (HR = 1.30; P < .05; 95% CI = 1.05, 1.62).
Conclusions:
Helping others predicted reduced mortality specifically by buffering the association between stress and mortality.
Nationally, youth organizing programs are growing in popularity. Although research has found positive short-term effects associated with participation, little work has examined longer-term implications. This study explores how alumni from one organizing group describe its influence on their subsequent developmental trajectories. Their descriptions highlight perceived effects in academic, professional, relational, and sociopolitical arenas. Although most respondents remain committed to the issues they came to care about as youth organizers, they express these commitments in various ways, including through traditional and nontraditional forms of civic engagement. They also credit a diverse set of programmatic factors with having influenced them. The findings introduce the various process and outcome factors that the participants find salient, raising implications for future longitudinal or survey research.
This study considers the impact of social support upon the psychological empowerment of community activists. Although it has been clearly shown that the human and personal resources that individual activists bring to their voluntary activity and the inputs of the agencies and associations in which they are active both contribute to the activists' empowerment, little research has considered the effect of the support given by family, friends, and significant others. One hundred twenty-two community activists in the lower socioeconomic neighborhoods of a city in the center of Israel filled in questionnaires at the conclusion of a year's training program. The questionnaires included scales of social support (family and friends), satisfaction with the course (practical and learning), leadership competence, policy control, self-esteem, and mastery. The variables were of importance in their contribution to leadership competence and policy control, but in different ways. Both forms of satisfaction from the course, self-esteem, and family support, contributed to leadership competence, while both mastery and self-esteem, and the support of friends contributed to policy control. The differences between leadership competence and policy control are discussed in the light of these findings. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 31: 371–381, 2003.
Social Capital is created through the patterns of interdependence andsocial interaction that occur within a population, and we attempt to understand the participatory consequences of these patterns relative to the effects of human capital and organizational involvement. The production of social capital in personal networks was examined with the use of social network and participation data from the 1992 American study of the Cross National Election Project. The results suggest that politically relevant social capital (that is, social capital that facilitates political engagement) is generated in personal networks, that it is a by-product of the social interactions with a citizen's discussants, and that increasing levels of politically relevant social capital enhance the likelihood that a citizen will be engaged in politics. Further, the production of politically relevant social capital is a function of the political expertise within an individual's network of relations, the frequency of political interaction within the network, and the size or extensiveness of the network. These results are sustained even while taking account of a person's individual characteristics and organizational involvement. Hence, the consequences of social relations within networks are not readily explained away on the basis of either human capital effects or the effects of organizational engagement.
This article serves as an introduction to the special issue and to the emerging topic of intergenerational relationships and partnerships in community programs. Our aim is to offer a frame in which to consider theory and practice on the topic. Toward that end, we focus on the multiple purposes of intergenerational relationships, adult strategies for creating strong relationships, and the organizational supports necessary to support relationships and partnerships. This analysis highlights program examples from the 10 articles included in this volume. We conclude by identifying key issues that researchers may explore to further enhance our understainging of youth–adult relationships and partnerships. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 33: 1–10, 2005.
Organized youth programs can serve as a context in which youth are connected to resource-bearing adults in the community who promote the development of social capital. This article explores the process of how this happens and what types of resources are gained by youth. Qualitative interviews were conducted with adolescents in three youth programs over a three-to four-month period. Two key findings emerged. First, relationships with community adults were found to develop in stages, with youth moving from a stage of suspicion and distrust, to a stage of facilitated contact, to a stage of meaningful connection. Second, these relationships provided youth with access to adult resources, such as information, assistance, exposure to adult worlds, support, and encouragement. The three programs facilitated this process of social capital development by linking youth to suitable adults, structuring youth–adult activities around common goals, and coaching youth on these interactions. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Citizenship and the Civic Empowerment Gap De Facto Segregated Minority Schools What We Can Do
Youth policy in the United States reflects the public assumption that adolescence is a time of storm and stress and that youth are therefore in need of protection and control from their communities. These and other beliefs about youth distance adults from youth in their communities and, equally important, distract attention and debate from the full range of policy responses available to address youth violence. The purpose of this policy analysis is to explore youth engagement in community decision-making as a public response to violence. A broad body of research indicates that youth engagement reduces the likelihood of interpersonal violence and delinquency, while concurrently promoting community membership and the development of positive youth competencies and emotional well being. Given that youth engagement is a viable policy option, the challenge will be to integrate youth into their communities as contributing citizens rather than regard them as objects of concern. Towards that end, the analysis offers six policy directions. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 32: 623–641, 2004.
To examine the prospective, longitudinal associations between positive well-being during adolescence and health outcomes in young adulthood, using a large, nationally representative sample of youth.
On the basis of the data from the first three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we examined positive well-being during adolescence (averaged across Waves I-II) as a predictor of perceived young adult general health and risky health behaviors (Wave III). Each model included a full set of health and demographic baseline covariates. Missing values were assigned using multiple imputation methods (n = 10,147).
Positive well-being during adolescence was significantly associated with reporting better perceived general health during young adulthood, independent of depressive symptoms. Positive well-being was also significantly associated with fewer risky health behaviors in Wave III, after adding all covariates, including depressive symptoms and baseline risky health behaviors.
Few studies of adolescent health have examined positive psychological characteristics, tending to focus instead on the effect of negative mood states and cognitions on health. This study demonstrates that positive well-being during adolescence predicts better perceived general health and fewer risky health behaviors during young adulthood. Aligned with the goals of the positive youth development perspective, promoting and nurturing positive well-being during the transition from childhood to adolescence may present a promising way to improve long-term health.