Youth Civic Engagement Research Articles

Kid Governors and youth civic engagement in the USA

Kid Governors and youth civic engagement in the USA

Associations between parental civic engagement, negative beliefs towardcivic engagement and youths' future civic attitudes and behaviors.

Civic engagement (CE) in adolescence is associated with a higher level of engagement in adulthood and is reported to be beneficial to youth's development and societal well-being. Parents are among the most influential factors in adolescents' lives. This study examined the associations between parents' own civic participation, their negative beliefs toward youth CE and their child's future CE. While prior research documented positive associations between parental civic behaviors and youth CE, the role of parental negative beliefs has remained unexplored and could act as an additional barrier to adolescents' CE. A total of 234 adolescents (65% girls; mean age = 13.77) and their parents (79% mothers; mean age = 44.20), residing in the Canadian province of Quebec from 2016 to 2019, were recruited for this cross-sectional study. Parents completed measures of their civic activities and their negative beliefs regarding youth CE. Adolescents completed measures of future civic attitudes and behaviors. Hierarchical regressions revealed significant positive cross-sectional associations between parental civic behaviors and their child's future civic attitudes and behaviors. However, parental negative beliefs toward youth CE were negatively associated with youths' future civic attitudes and behaviors, even after considering parental civic behaviors and family socioeconomic status. Adolescents' age did not moderate these relationships. These findings highlight the significant role that parents could play in shaping CE of future generations. Interventions promoting youth CE should thus target both adolescents and their parents.

Youth, Associational Life and Civic Engagement in Northern Cameroon: Association des Jeunes Élèves et Étudiants de la Faada

ABSTRACT This article analyses the ways in which youths in Northern Cameroon have been able to access social citizenship. Tracing the nature of this access over an extended period – from the early 1990s to the mid-2020s – I underline the importance of youth civic engagement through associational life. Associational life is a hidden or covert way of engaging in politics, and leads to a reinvention of their interaction with hegemonic power, as they are not positioning themselves as moral stakeholders in their community. Drawing on a case study involving the members of the Association des Jeunes Élèves et Étudiants de la Faada, with longitudinal ethnographic data combined with interviews, the article articulates changes and continuities in civic engagement, based on learning by doing through discursive practices (in street parliaments), physical practices (amateur football clubs) and associative practices (in non-profit associations).

Students as Engaged Partners in Directed Research Courses

This report from the field reflects on the authors’ experiences in a directed research course on the topic of youth civic engagement in Canada. A literature review was co-written as part of a directed research course where the instructor was a visiting professor from the United States and the student was an undergraduate student in Canada. The content of this report was gathered during various stages of the directed research course and is informed by literature focused on students as engaged partners in teaching and learning in higher education. Specifically, we reflect on the ways viewing students as engaged partners can leverage their knowledge and lived experiences when engaging in directed research courses, especially when the student and faculty member may be coming from different countries in North America. In addition, we reflect on how designing a directed research course that views students as engaged partners can provide a rich ground for the redistribution of power in higher education and strengthen the quality of research through the co-creation of new knowledge and ideas.

YOUTH ENGAGEMENT IN CIVIL SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT IN UKRAINE: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

The article outlines the ways of engaging young people in the development of civil society in Ukraine. Socially and politically active young people are one of the necessary conditions for forming a democratic society and establishing sustainable and functioning civil society institutions. Therefore, in this paper, the scholars aim to identify the ways of youth interaction with public authorities in Ukraine and general levels of youth civic engagement, as well as to characterize the culture of citizenship as a factor in involving young people in civil society development. The research reveals the relevant issue regarding the prominent role of civil society in various spheres of activity of state authorities and local self-government bodies, a qualitatively new level of interaction between civil society, especially youth as an active part of it, and state and local self-government bodies in order to establish effective dialogue and partnership relations of state bodies authorities, local self-government bodies with civil society organizations.
 The research combined interdisciplinary approaches of several related scientific fields (political science, public administration and education), which allowed to set broader goals and find new ways for improving youth engagement in the development of civil society in Ukraine. The authors developed and conducted an expert survey on youth engagement in the development of civil society and identified possible ways to improve youth participation in public and political life. Authors interviewed 24 experts aged from 18 to 60 years from various fields who are interested in building a democratic state governed by the rule of law: leaders and members of public organizations, teachers of higher education institutions, scholars, deputies of regional and local councils, civil society activists and businessmen.
 It was determined that the effective participation of youth in decision-making processes consists in creating opportunities to involve youth in influencing, shaping, developing and promoting policy and development of services and programs. These opportunities are created by developing a range of formal and informal mechanisms for youth participation, from youth advisory groups to focus groups, from ongoing consultation work to supporting youth projects. As a result of the study, the authors developed a set of conclusions and recommendations addressed to educational institutions, public authorities, local governments and civil society organizations.

Нарративный анализ мотивационных структур гражданской активности студенческой молодежи при создании культурно-просветительских обучающих проектов

A modern university is a space for professional exchange, spiritual search, formation, development and self-development of the individual, students and teachers. Studying the motivational structures of student youth's civic engagement helps teachers in the search for teaching and communication strategies, and also contributes to project activities. Student activity is considered as a complex process of social interaction, including communication and professional activities. The article presents a study of motivational structures that stimulate students to be active in cultural and educational projects. The experiment (February - August 2023, Kazan) was based on quantitative and qualitative methods, including a survey (158 people), analysis of successful cases, application of a narrative approach to the focus group method and expert interviews. It was revealed that motivational structures directly depend on the psychological profile of generations. For Generation X, the least significant motive is “Communication” (3.17 points) and the most significant motive is “Self-development” (4.83 points). For generation Y, the least important motive is “Presentation, personal brand” (2.47 points) and the most important is the “Knowledge” motive (4.84 points). For generation Z, this parameter, indicated as less significant, was rated at 3.83 points, the highest value for generation Z is the motive “Self-development” (4.93 points). For older respondents, the structure of motives becomes more complex, expanding the composition of the components that form the motive, which leads to more informed decision-making. The leading motive for participation in cultural projects for respondents of all ages was “Self-development.” The results of the study were tested in training programs by lecturers and students of the High School of Journalism of the Kazan Federal University when creating educational and cultural projects based on The Contemporary Art Gallery of the National Museum of Fine Arts (Kazan), which is aimed at youth audiences.

Engaging youth in the local environment. Promoting sustainability action competence in Danish high school teaching through citizen social science.

Many young individuals experience a sense of disconnection from their immediate environment, which adversely affects their engagement in civic activities. This article outlines experiences with a sustainability actionable approach in a Danish high school, and how it influenced young people’s understanding of the local environment. The study entails a threemonth collaboration with a teacher and 17 high school students in Copenhagen who were being trained as citizen social scientists. They investigated and proposed youth-friendly sustainable changes in the neighbourhood, which enhanced their sustainability action competence. The article discusses how an action-oriented framework may inspire high school teachers to incorporate citizen social science in planning education for sustainable development that supports youth civic engagement.

Fostering Active Citizenship: Facebook's Role in Youth Civic Engagement

Social media platforms (SMPs) have revolutionized social networks by facilitating connections and shaping the landscape of social interactions. The role of SMPs in contemporary civic participation, both online and offline, is undeniable. However, to understand the beliefs that drive young adults to use popular SMPs such as Facebook for civic engagement, fresh perspectives must be considered. This study extends the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) by conducting a questionnaire among 209 university students who actively use Facebook. Our results show that both expectancy and social influence gave a significant impact on students' intentions to use Facebook for civic engagement. We also identify Facebook mobilization efforts via smartphones as a strong predictor of both intention and use of Facebook for civic engagement. These findings indicate that Facebook is a valuable tool for young people to engage and participate in online social and political movements. While we acknowledge the limitations of this study, our analysis underscores the immense potential of SMPs as means for political participation.

Making a Change! Exploring Refugee Youth’s Civic Engagement in Out-of-School Programs to Cultivate Critical Consciousness

Abstract 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.

Logging in to Learn: The Effects of Online Civic Education Pedagogy on a Latinx and AAPI Civic Engagement Youth Conference

ABSTRACTCivic education is essential to the health of any democracy. When COVID-19 emerged in the spring of 2020, almost all civic education efforts went online. This increased interest in the effectiveness of online civic education. Does it lead to similar outcomes as in-person education? I used student evaluations from a youth civic engagement conference co-run by Latinx and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) non-profit organizations to compare learning outcomes on multiple dimensions of civic education, from an in-person conference in 2019 and an online conference in 2020. I find that although students improved over the course of both conferences, the 2019 in-person conference yielded slightly greater improvement in civic knowledge confidence than the online conference. Other dimensions—verifiable knowledge, self-efficacy, and community consciousness—increased after participation in the conference in both years; however, the increases were similar between the online and in-person formats.

“We Know About Things Too”: Exploring the Labors of Love Involved in Cultivating Youth Voice in Online Youth Civic Engagement Programs With Youth of Color

Online youth civic engagement programs are often designed to support the cultivation of youth voice, yet working with youth of color who are particularly skeptical of civic life takes a certain form of labor that often remains unexamined in the scholarship of youth civic engagement. Drawing on concepts of invisible, emotional, and relational labor and the work of critical race theory (CRT), this article examines what is often termed the “labor of love” that characterizes the behind-the-scenes work. Utilizing a critical ethnographic approach, we identify three stages in the labor of love involved in cultivating youth voice in five different online youth civic engagement programs as we sought to highlight youth voice, perspective, and expertise with local policymakers. We argue that the behind-the-scenes invisible, emotional, and relational labor needs to be better understood to address the barriers youth of color face in relation to gaining full access to democratic participation.

Out-of-School Youth Civic Engagement in the Microcosm of Society

The youth sector is at the heart of society; they can inspire social change. Out-of-school youth leads the global crisis of declining youth engagement. Past investigations linked the problem to apathy and that the out-of-school youth is an underserved sector without the means to activate their agency effectively. The advent of the 4th Industrial Revolution put in place new platforms where typologies of civic engagement are carried out, and there are external and internal factors that influence these. As the barangay reflects the larger Philippine society, this study examined the typologies of civic engagement that Filipino out-of-school youth participate in both in the traditional and non-traditional settings, the factors that influence their civic engagement participation, and their perceived significance of civic engagement. The study operated on a mixed-method design, which combined quantitative and qualitative research design elements to answer the research questions. The findings show that the modern youth manifested their intense participation in diverse social activities through digital civic engagement; they value civic engagement; they have a comprehensive understanding of what is happening around them; and they are conscious of their role and willing to do what they can to enrich their communities. To enhance the brewing potentials of their transformative character, existing public and private institutional mechanisms, programs, and networks must be strengthened and/or new ones created and explored geared towards fostering a more inclusive and healthy development of the out-of-school youth. The future promise of any nation can be directly measured by the present prospects of its youth.

Filipino Youth in Viral and Virulent Times: Unpacking the Predictors of Youth Political Participation in the 2022 Philippine Elections

Conventional political science literature suggests that the economic and political dislocations that accompany disasters, like pandemics, weaken community resources and disrupt social networks, consequently decreasing civic engagement. This paper examines how discontent, demotivation, and fatigue due to the dragging COVID-19 pandemic provided impetus for offline, interpersonal, and online political participation among younger Filipino citizens especially nearing its 2022 presidential elections. Drawing on an exploratory survey of undergraduate students who were constrained to online classes due to pandemic restrictions, we find that pandemic fatigue motivated the youth to explore online platforms as situ of political articulation. The findings also nuance the impact of well-known predictors such as political knowledge, interest, and efficacy on youth civic engagement. In particular, internal political efficacy was found to be strongly related to the three forms of political participation while external efficacy only stimulates online political participation. The study points to the importance of targeting political attitudes in order to shape political interest among the youth and nurture a politically engaged citizenry.

Similarities between friends on service, activism, and awareness of inequities in an adolescent social network.

This brief report characterizes the tendency of adolescent friends to be similar on civic behaviors and critical consciousness. Using two waves of network data from a high school that serves primarily low-income Latiné youth (2019, N = 519; 2020, N = 521), the present study examined homophily on service, activism, and awareness of inequities. The results of Exponential Random Graph Models indicated that adolescents tended to be friends with peers who had similar service behavior and awareness of inequities, but not activism. The findings suggest that schools could foster civic engagement by providing infrastructure that encourages civic interactions between peers. The current study highlights the potential that social network analysis holds for generating novel insights into the relational underpinnings of youth civic engagement.

Educating Youth to Civic Engagement for Social Justice: Evaluation of a Secondary School Project.

The positive effects of youth civic engagement can be felt both at the individual level (e.g., better emotional regulation, a greater sense of empowerment) and at the community level (e.g., a greater likelihood of participation in civic and political activities). They may also be a protective factor for at-risk youth in the short and long term and a valuable element for positive identity development in general. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to assess the impact of an educational intervention implemented in secondary schools to promote youth civic engagement (N = 508 at Time 1, N = 116 at Time 2). The study is divided into two parts: first, it examines the changes stimulated by the project, and second, it uses a path analysis model to explain the intention to participate. Results show that after participation, hostile and benevolent sexism, classic and modern ethnic prejudice, and social dominance orientation decreased, while trust in institutions increased. In addition, the path analysis showed that policy control, social trust, and civic engagement increased the intention of civic engagement at time T1. Despite some limitations, this study may provide useful guidance for those designing and implementing civic education interventions for young people.

Individual Differences in Adolescents' Civic Engagement: The Role of Civic Discussions with Parents and Environmental Sensitivity.

The main goal of the current study was to examine the direct and moderating effects of civic discussions with parents and environmental sensitivity using both the total score and its specific dimensions (i.e., Aesthetic Sensitivity, AES; Ease of Excitation, EOE; Low Sensitivity Threshold, LST) on youth civic engagement (attitudes and behaviours). The empirical analysis relied on a questionnaire-based survey conducted on a sample of 438 adolescents (30% males), aged between 14 and 18 years (M = 16.50, SD = 1.36). We used a structural equation model (SEM) with latent variables and the latent moderated structural equation (LMS) method to test our hypotheses. Our results showed that civic discussions with parents were positively and significantly associated with general environmental sensitivity and with AES and predicted both civic attitudes and civic behaviours; EOE was negatively and significantly related to civic behaviours; AES was positively and significantly related to civic attitudes; and LST was not significantly related to either civic attitudes or behaviours. Contrary to our expectations, environmental sensitivity did not moderate the relationship between civic discussions with parents and civic engagement. Our study further highlights the relevance that parents have in shaping their children's civic engagement and makes a novel contribution regarding how differences in perceiving and processing environmental stimuli can affect beliefs and behaviours toward community issues among young individuals.

The Role of Public Universities in Youth Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility: A Study of Social Sciences Faculty, University of Peshawar, Pakistan

The present study aims to explore the role of public sector universities in the social responsibilities and civic engagement of youth in the faculty of social sciences, University of Peshawar, Pakistan. Using a quantitative survey involving systematic sampling methods, the study interviewed 180 social sciences at KP public universities. For the collection of data from the respondents, a self-administered questionnaire was used. The findings indicated that most of the participants of the study had never participated in any volunteer community service, or even signed up for a social issue. In the view of the participants, the role of you in society should be to advocate for positive change and peace. Participants advocated for peace and interfaith education, fostering linkages and capacity-building opportunities with the business and development sectors, as well as folklore, music and theatre at the country's public universities. The study recommendation includes; stimulating social responsibility and the opportunities for civic engagement for students at the country's public universities so that youth may involve effectively to the benefit of the wider community.

Civic Engagement to Empower Young People to Impact Health and Well-Being.

Civic engagement is positively associated with important health and developmental benefits for participating adolescents and young adults. As illustrated by youth political participation, social activism, and rallies for racial justice during the COVID-19 pandemic, youth civic engagement is often inspired by and responsive to problems that are salient to a young person's lived experiences. Providers can empower youth and encourage civic engagement by eliciting issues that are important to them and directing them to community resources and opportunities for civic participation that can help them address these issues.

The child-friendly cities concept in China: A prototype case study of a migrant workers’ community

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) initiatives of Child-Friendly Cities have operated in more than 3000 cities around the world. However, the concept of making the city child-friendly has not been extensively recognized in China. This article aims to report a regeneration project in a migrant workers’ community, the Mingdong, and is used to illustrate the reactions of residents to youth participation (youth civic engagement) and the project through an international workshop. The article concludes with a discussion of how social workers help in the social development of migrant communities by promoting youth participation, community social awareness and social cohesiveness.

Media education and educational commons for youth civic engagement. A case study from the Horizon 2020 project SMOOTH.

This study presents the preliminary findings of the first round of implementation of a case study included in the Horizon 2020 project SMOOTH. The project's main objective is to introduce and study the emergent paradigm of the educational commons as an alternative system of values and actions for promoting intercultural and intergenerational dialogue and establishing spaces of democratic citizenship that support the development of local communities. Our case study adopts this paradigm with insights derived from the field of media education. Hence, our research questions were as follows: (a) How do young people collectively experience and build the educational commons? (b) How do participants (youth and adults) in educational commons experience peer governance and how do they handle and resolve conflicts? (c) How does the co-creation of a photo-blog as a shared space of work help young people discover and develop a "civic intentionality" in the (digital) public sphere? (d) What are the effects of applying a commons' logic to address inequalities and achieve social inclusion of young people from vulnerable social groups? Fieldwork, framed in an ethnographic and action-research approach, was developed by examining the three dimensions of the notion of educational commons (commoners, commoning practices, and community). Although data collection and analysis are still in progress, our preliminary results allow us to draw some initial reflections on what worked well in the first round and what could hinder the achievement of the project's objectives. We also propose hypotheses for re-designing the second round to overcome the weaknesses that emerged during the first experimental phase and foster its strengths.