Culture,Context, and Maternal Self-Efficacy in Latina Mothers

Youth civic engagement occupies a central space in applied developmental science. However, understanding of the processes and contexts in which early adolescents become civically engaged is still limited. This study draws on a sample of approximately 4,000 students from 11 urban middle schools in Tennessee to address several gaps in the civic engagement literature. First, we use latent class analysis to identify types of civic engagement in early adolescence. Second, we explore associations between types of engagement and youth behavioral and academic outcomes. Third, we focus on urban youth. A latent class analysis using survey items suggests a three-class structure for civic engagement in urban middle schools. One distinction is between students who are engaged and those who are not. Another distinction is that, among the engaged groups, one is engaged both behaviorally and attitudinally (social justice actors), whereas another has strong civic attitudes but infrequent civic behaviors (social justice sympathizers).     

Developmental Antecedents of Young Adult Civic Engagement

Abstract

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.     

Becoming American,Constructing Ethnicity: Immigrant Youth and Civic Engagement

After presenting demographic data to demonstrate why immigrant youth are and will be important, this article addresses the limited literature on immigrant youth civic engagement. It also examines the historical literature of immigrant youth in the United States, specifically that of the last great wave of immigration approximately 100 years ago, along with the literature on contemporary adult immigrant civic engagement. It concludes that today's immigrant youth are Americanizing. Nevertheless, when U.S. society and particularly the U.S. state treats immigrant youth as different, the immigrant youth respond with pride by defending their cultural integrity, their right to be different. Contemporary immigrant youth also have the opportunity to maintain transnational ties with their homeland. In response to these forces and opportunities, immigrant youth maintain multiple identities, sometimes identifying with their homeland culture at other times with the United States. The unanswered question is what difference these multiple ties may make for civic engagement.     

Parent Civic Beliefs,Civic Participation,Socialization Practices,and Child Civic Engagement

We examined civic engagement in middle childhood and the degree to which parents’ civic beliefs (i.e., social trust and civic efficacy), civic participation, and socialization practices were associated with indicators of children's civic engagement (i.e., social responsibility and civic values). Survey data were collected from 359 racially, ethnically, and economically diverse upper elementary students and their parents from six schools in Southern California. The results of path analyses indicated that higher levels of parent social trust were associated with higher levels of community responsibility and civic values in children. Additionally, parent social trust, civic efficacy, and civic participation were indirectly associated with children's community responsibility and civic values through children's perception of their parents as civic role models. Findings suggest that parents’ civic beliefs and civic participation are meaningful to children's civic engagement.     

Investigating general and specific links from adolescents’ perceptions of ecological assets to their civic actions

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.     

Unpacking the link between family socioeconomic status and civic engagement during the transition to adulthood: Do work values play a role?

We investigated whether the link between family-of-origin socioeconomic status (SES) and civic engagement in young adulthood is mediated by youth’s work values, that is, the desired characteristics of their current or future jobs. We used data from a Finnish study: 2004 (age 16–18, N_T1?=?1,301); 2011 (age 23–25, N_T2?=?1,096); and 2014 (age 25–27, N_T3?=?1,138). A higher family SES in 2004 predicted youth’s higher civic engagement in 2014. A higher family SES also predicted a lower importance of extrinsic job rewards (e.g., good pay) in 2011, but it was unrelated to the importance of intrinsic job rewards (e.g., learning opportunities). Extrinsic work values, in turn, predicted lower civic engagement in 2014, above and beyond sociodemographic and personality characteristics. Intrinsic work values predicted higher civic engagement. Thus, extrinsic, but not intrinsic, work values partly mediated the link between family SES and youth civic engagement.     

Perceived advantages: the influence of urban and suburban neighbourhood context on the socialization and adaptation of Mexican immigrant young men

Neighbourhoods are important contexts for the socialization and adaptation of immigrant youth. They provide resources and opportunities for positive interactions with peers and non-family adults. But neighbourhoods differ systemically in their demographic composition and the type and quality of resources they offer young people. In the US, there is an implicit assumption equating suburban neighbourhoods with better schools, more jobs and higher quality housing compared to urban neighbourhoods. There is however, little explicit empirical evidence of how such differences may shape the experience of immigrant youth. This gap is concerning in light of recent trends of immigrants to move directly to the suburbs. The first part of the paper reviews the literatures on immigrant adaptation and neighbourhood effects. Drawing on two qualitative studies, the second part of the paper illustrates mechanisms through which suburban and urban neighbourhoods may influence the socialization and adaptation of immigrant youth growing up in them.     

Public Access for Pheasant Hunters: Understanding an Emerging Need

Ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus; i.e., pheasant) hunting participation is declining across North America, reflecting a larger downward trend in American hunting participation and threatening benefits to grassland conservation and rural economies. To stabilize and expand the pheasant hunting population, we must first identify factors that influence pheasant hunter participation. We used an extensive in-person hunter survey to test the hypothesis that hunter demographics interact with social-ecological traits of hunting locations to affect hunter decisions, outcomes, and perceptions. We built a series of Bayesian mixed effects models to parse variation in demographics, perceptions, and hunt outcomes of pheasant hunters interviewed at public access hunting sites across 3 regions in Nebraska, USA, that varied in pheasant abundance and proximity to urban population centers. Among pheasant hunters in Nebraska, access to private lands was negatively related to the human population density of a pheasant hunter's home ZIP code and the distance a hunter had traveled to reach a hunting location. Pheasant hunters interviewed closer to metropolitan areas tended to be more urban and travel shorter distances, and their parties were more likely to include youth but less likely to include dogs. Hunter satisfaction was positively associated with seeing and harvesting pheasants and hunting with youth. Whereas youth participation and the number of pheasants seen varied by study region, hunter satisfaction did not differ across regions, suggesting that hunters may calibrate their expectations and build their parties based on where they plan to hunt. The variation in hunter demographics across hunting locations and disconnects between social and ecological correlates of hunter satisfaction suggests that diverse pheasant hunting constituencies will be best served by diverse pheasant hunting opportunities. © 2019 The Wildlife Society.     

A pollution incident at a Qiaoxiang village in China: the role of migration in civic organization and political participation

Through an analysis of a pollution-based incident at Refinery-G in an infamous Qiaoxiang town in Fujian, China, this paper analyses how transnational migrants participate in and influence the public management activities in their hometowns. This paper underscores four factors driving civic and political participation that emerged during the revelation, resistance, negotiation and settlement of this incident: (1) the role of the ‘leisured’ villager; (2) the role of overseas Chinese in caring for the developmental path of their hometown; (3) the role of independent civic organizations; and (4) the role of the news media in shaping public opinion. Qiaoxiang's civic participation is both more active and more effective. With the development and globalization of modern communication technology and low-cost and convenient communication and transportation systems, it is possible for overseas migrants to influence public management activities in their hometown through civic organization and political participation.     

Religion and the organizational context of immigrant civic engagement: Mexican Catholicism in the USA

This article complements emerging research on immigrant civic participation by examining how Catholic churches facilitate volunteer and political participation among first-generation Mexican immigrants. Drawing on interviews and ethnographic data, it identifies two reinforcing mechanisms that churches foster: small groups and organizational links. Specifically, small groups, like prayer groups, provide immigrants with intimate contexts for building networks, learning skills and sharing resources. On the other hand, churches cultivate links to secular organizations that sensitize immigrants to public debates and provide opportunities for civic participation. Put simply, church-going immigrants take advantage of broader civic opportunities because they gain resources and skills within small groups. Implications for understanding immigrant religion and civic participation more broadly are discussed.     

Third‐way neoliberalism and conditional cash transfers: The paradoxes of empowerment,participation and self‐help among poor Uruguayan women

The Latin American literature on Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) welfare programs has typically involved the quantitative evaluation of social and economic impact, with fewer studies addressing the qualitative and gendered impacts of CCTs. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in poor squatter settlement communities in Uruguay, this article explores the everyday social realities of poor single mothers who have been disconnected from their kinship networks and must rely on CCT payments for survival. I locate these women's experiences within the third‐way neoliberal discourses of ‘empowerment’, ‘participation’ and ‘self‐help’ espoused by the state, and the various structural conditions, including crime, violence and unequal gender relations, that impact negatively on women's abilities to comply with their social and civic duties. I argue that rather than producing responsible and empowered subjects, Uruguay's recent CCT welfare program has paradoxically limited some women's participation in civic and public life and reproduced their dependent relations with men.     

Political efficacy and interest as mediators of expected political participation among Belgian adolescents

Abstract

Citizenship education intends to prepare students to become politically active citizens. However, studies investigating the relationship between citizenship education and political participation have largely neglected the mediating role of political attitudes. This study examines whether political efficacy and political interest are mediators of expected political participation, using the data of the Belgian (Flemish) sample of the ICCS 2016 study. The results indicate that three educational strategies (i.e., classroom discussions, civic learning opportunities, and student participation at school) are positively associated with expected political participation (i.e., institutionalized and noninstitutionalized participation) in a distinct way. A substantial part of this relationship is mediated by political interest and political efficacy. Future research should take this underlying mechanism into account when studying the development of civic engagement amongst adolescents in a school context. The findings of this study call for a broad approach to citizenship education for the development of political attitudes, as well as behavior.     

How Teens Become Engaged in Youth Development Programs: The Process of Motivational Change in a Civic Activism Organization

The question of how youth become engaged or motivated is vital to youth development programs, because engagement influences not only program retention but the likelihood of youth gaining the benefits that programs offer. This article reports on an in-depth study aimed at generating grounded theory about the change process through which youth who are initially disengaged become motivated by program activities. Youth in a civic activism program were interviewed over a 4-month period and qualitative analyses were used to derive a model of this change process. This process was found to proceed from the youth forming a personal connection to the program's mission to becoming intrinsically motivated by work on program activities. The analyses suggested that peers and the adult leader played important roles in supporting motivational change at each stage. The model developed from the investigation draws on existing theories of motivation.     

Growing up in poverty and civic engagement: The role of kindergarten executive function and play predicting participation in 8th grade extracurricular activities

In the United States a “civic engagement gap” persists between low-income youth and their higher-income counterparts. To examine the developmental origins of civic engagement in a sample of U.S. children growing up in poverty, a conceptual model was tested employing the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K) national data set. Using generalized linear models, we examined the contributions of kindergarten children’s executive function and exposure to classroom based play to participation in different extracurricular activities in 8th grade. Results suggest that executive function is a significant predictor of participation in drama and music clubs, sports and number of hours spent in extracurricular activities. Play was also a significant predictor of participation in school clubs, while controlling for executive function. These findings provide initial evidence of a developmental trajectory toward civic engagement beginning in early childhood.     

The rise of creative youth development

ABSTRACT

Creative youth development (CYD) is a dynamic area of community arts education that successfully bridges youth development and arts education. CYD is an intentional, holistic practice that combines hands-on artmaking and skill building in the arts with development of life skills to support young people in successfully participating in adolescence and navigating into adulthood. Young people in CYD programs exhibit high levels of artistic skill and accomplishment along with increased self-esteem and sense of belonging. CYD participants are immersed in a broad array of rigorous artistic endeavors, including creating documentary films, researching and reporting on community issues through radio broadcasts, writing and staging new theatrical works, and engaging in thoughtful critique of one another's visual art work. The impact for youth of program participation extends beyond pride in artistic accomplishment. Throughout the United States, teen participants in CYD programs assert that the programs saved their lives, putting them on positive trajectories and away from gangs, drug use, crime, and ennui. This article provides a definition for the term creative youth development, describes core characteristics of CYD programs, and briefly describes four CYD programs. It provides background on the origins and history of creative youth development, including current advances in the field and signs the field is coalescing. The article describes creative youth development in the larger contexts of arts education and of education reform. Lastly, the article discusses policy, funding, and research needs and opportunities and provides questions for consideration.     

Parents' Socializing Behavior and Children's Participation in Math,Science, and Computer Out-of-School Activities

This study examined associations between multiple parental behaviors and children's participation in out-of-school math, science, and computer activities for children in 2nd (n = 125), 3rd (n = 123), and 5th grade (n = 200). Mothers and fathers reported how often they encouraged their children's activities, participated in activities with their child, provided activity-related materials, and participated in activities themselves, as well as how often their children participated in activities. The youth described how often they participated in math, science, and computer activities. Results indicate that parents' behavior is a strong, positive predictor of children's participation. Although there were significant mean level gender differences, relations between parents' behavior and children's participation were similar for boys and girls.     

I Helped Build That: A Demonstration Employment Training Program for Homeless Youth in Toronto, Canada

In this case study I present preliminary findings on the development of Eva's Phoenix—a pilot project designed to provide housing and employment-training opportunities for homeless youth in Toronto, Canada. I focus on the construction-training program for youth and explore some of the tensions that can arise in a project of this nature. These include consulting youth about the project's directions and facilitating their participation, representational authority in relation to how the project is promoted, and the need to reconcile different values and expectations for delivering the program on the part of partnering organizations and the youth themselves. I challenge perceptions of welfare and welfare reform in relation to youth and offer some insights into what types of services and interventions can potentially help homeless youth, [homelessness, youth, housing, employment training]     

Examining the influence of sport program staff and parent/caregiver support on youth outcomes

Abstract

Youth participation in sport is associated with positive developmental outcomes. The development of life skills is especially important for urban youth of color who are often underserved and face poor long-term outcomes. To service the needs of underserved youth, community youth sport programs have begun to utilize sport-based positive youth development (PYD). Through this approach, key adult figures such as sport program staff and parents/caregivers have been identified as important mechanisms for life skill development and the transfer of learning. The aim of the current study sought to better understand how key adult figures influence life skill outcomes of urban youth of color involved in a community sport-based PYD program. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were used to examine the independent and interactive effects of staff support and parent/caregiver support on youth life skill and transfer of learning outcomes. Results indicated that staff support and parent/caregiver support predicted youth life skill and transfer of learning outcomes, both independently and, in some cases, interactively.     

Testing multidimensional models of youth civic engagement: Model comparisons,measurement invariance,and age differences

Despite recognition that youth civic engagement is multidimensional, different modeling approaches are rarely compared or tested for measurement invariance. Using a diverse sample of 2,467 elementary, middle, and high school-aged youth, we measured eight dimensions of civic engagement: social responsibility values, informal helping, political beliefs, civic skills, environmental behavior, volunteering, voting intentions, and news consumption. We compared correlated unidimensional factors, higher-order factor, and bifactor models and tested for measurement invariance and latent mean differences by age. The correlated unidimensional factors model best fit the data, yet higher-order and bifactor models fit adequately. Metric and scalar invariance was found across models. Latent means varied depending on the dimension of civic engagement and the multidimensional model examined. Findings favored the correlated unidimensional factors model; implications of each model are discussed. This study informs future research on youth civic engagement and has broad relevance for any developmental scientist studying a multidimensional construct.     

Diverse cities and good citizenship: how local governments in the Netherlands recast national integration discourse

Western European national policies increasingly portray diversity as negative and migrants as ‘others’ who do not belong to the national community. This article examines how local governments articulate alternative discourses of belonging based on residents' shared membership in the civic life of the city. In a Dutch case study, the ways in which local policymakers diverge from exclusionary national narratives are examined. It is argued that discourses about urban citizenship offer opportunities for the inclusion of migrants by drawing new boundaries between ‘good’ citizens and those who are unwilling to participate.