Abstract
Young people’s contribution to community development and global affairs, such as environmental sustenance, is essential. Participation in these different forms of civic engagement will require the collective efforts of the youth. As societies around the globe continue to grow culturally diverse, young people will need to see beyond prejudice, discrimination, and racism to collaborate with others from different races and cultures for the common good. Within the Positive Youth Development framework, these collaborative and interpersonal competences have been referred to as Character (e.g., valuing cultural and ethnical diversity). Accordingly, youth with enhanced skills in Character are also expected to support anti-racism and collaborate to contribute to their society. In the present chapter, the extent to which youth living in Norway report indicators of Character is investigated and then looked at in relation to their civic engagement (i.e., contribution to local, community, and global affairs). Findings based on a cross-sectional data of 220 Norwegian students (52% males) indicated relatively high scores on Character. In addition, Character as a reflection of four facets, behavioral conduct, social conscience, positive values, and diversity values, was associated with engagement in local (helping friends and neighbors), community (making community a better place), and global (making effort to conserve energy and protect the environment) affairs. When considered as individual facets, the diversity values facet was important for all three forms of civic engagement, while behavioral conduct and social conscience were essential for engagement in global affair. Supportive of earlier research, the current findings suggest that Character does matter, when it comes to youth contribution to civic development. Thus, the findings can potentially inform policy and practice that seek to address prejudice, discrimination, and racism and facilitate collaboration among youth from diverse races, cultures, and origins toward contribution to the common good of society.
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Acknowledgment
This research was supported by the Faculty of Psychology. I would like to acknowledge the Norwegian teachers and students for their engagement in the study presented in the chapter.
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Wiium, N. (2022). Character, Diversity Values, and Civic Engagement Among Norwegian Youth. In: Dutra-Thomé, L., Rabelo, D.F., Ramos, D., Góes, E.F. (eds) Racism and Human Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83545-3_10
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