Abstract
Scholars acknowledge that friends shape youth civic engagement, but the relative contribution of peer influence and critical beliefs to civic behaviors has yet to be disaggregated. Informed by sociopolitical development and critical consciousness theories, the present study used longitudinal social network analysis to examine peer socialization and adolescents’ awareness of systemic inequities in relation to participation in service and activist activities at a high school serving primarily low-income Latinx youth. Students were surveyed in May 2019 and May 2020 (N = 354; 51% female; in 2019, Mage = 15.9, age range 14.4 to 18.5). The results yielded evidence of peer influence on service activities, but not activism or perceptions of inequities. In contrast, adolescents’ perception of inequities predicted their activist behavior, but not service, after controlling for network effects and individual covariates. The school provided scaffolding for service activities, but not activist activities, potentially explaining the salience of service participation in youth friendship networks.
Highlights
Adolescence is a critical period for sociopolitical development (Flanagan & Levine, 2010) and both socialization and individual beliefs can promote civic participation
The present study examines the coevolution of civic engagement and adolescent friendships at a public charter high school in southern California that provides students with regular opportunities to participate in volunteer activities and robustly supports student government, but has neither student clubs that advocate for equity nor scaffolding that encourages participation in political movements, justice-oriented organizations, or critical campaigns
The results addressed the two research aims regarding civic socialization and the reciprocal relationships between perceptions of beliefs and civic behavior, each described in turn below followed by findings about network selection, endogenous network effects, and individual-level covariates
Summary
Adolescence is a critical period for sociopolitical development (Flanagan & Levine, 2010) and both socialization and individual beliefs can promote civic participation. Scholars have acknowledged the importance of peer influence on civic behaviors and beliefs during adolescence (Diemer & Li, 2011; Terriquez et al, 2020), yet the social processes that underlie youth civic engagement remain unclear. Longitudinal studies that examine peer influence and perceptions of inequities are lacking, and further, methodologies that account for intertwined friendship formation and network processes are needed to avoid biased results (Sinclair, 2012). The present study leverages longitudinal social network analysis to disentangle the extent to which peer influence and perceptions of inequities promote civic behavior at a local high school that primarily serves low-income Latinx youth
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