What Motivates Youth Civic Involvement?
نویسندگان
چکیده
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.
منابع مشابه
A cross-cultural examination of adolescent civic engagement: comparing Italian and American community-oriented and political involvement.
The purpose of this study was to investigate community-oriented and political civic engagement activities and intentions among youth in Italy and the United States. Adolescents (N = 566) from academically rigorous schools in both countries completed surveys assessing frequency of civic activity participation, motivation for activity, evaluations of activity, and intentions for future civic enga...
متن کاملParental Influences on Adolescent Involvement in Community Activities
Youth involvement in extracurricular activities reflects both family socialization influences and civic development. Parents can promote such activity through examples set by personal involvement in the community and through reinforcement of their children's interests. Using data (N = 362) from the 9th and 10th grade waves of the Iowa Youth and Families Project (Conger & Elder, 1994), we find t...
متن کاملCall of (civic) duty: Action games and civic behavior in a large sample of youth
The positive and negative influences of violent/action games, henceforth called ‘‘action games’’, remains controversial in the scholarly literature. Although debate continues whether action games influence aggressive behavior, little research has examined the influence of action games on civic engagement. The current study addresses this gap by examining the correlation between exposure to acti...
متن کاملPushing the Envelope on Youth Civic Engagement: a Developmental and Liberation Psychology Perspective
In this article, we take a critical look at the growing interest in U.S. political participation as it exists in the youth civic engagement literature. Our critique draws from principles of liberation and developmental psychology, and from the incisive writings of experts in youth organizing. Youth Organizing evolved from the Positive Youth Development (PYD) and Community Youth Development (CYD...
متن کاملYouth empowerment and high school Gay-Straight Alliances.
In the field of positive youth development programs, "empowerment" is used interchangeably with youth activism, leadership, civic participation and self-efficacy. However, few studies have captured what empowerment means to young people in diverse contexts. This article explores how youth define and experience empowerment in youth-led organizations characterized by social justice goals: high sc...
متن کامل