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Predictors and Pathways to Civic Involvement in Emerging Adulthood: Neighborhood, Family, and School Influences

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Abstract

Understanding the developmental precursors to civic involvement in emerging adulthood is important to help cultivate and sustain youth’s civic involvement. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of human development and social capital theory, this study examined the pathways that link childhood neighborhood attributes, changes in family and school social capital during adolescence, and civic involvement in emerging adulthood. Three waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 7,209, 54 % female, 63 % white, 18 % African-American, 11 % Hispanic) and multi-level models were used to examine the research questions set forth in this study. Findings revealed that increases in family and school social capital during adolescence had direct influences on emerging adult’s civic involvement 7 years later. The effect of childhood neighborhood attributes was only weakly mediated by family and school social capital. However, the expression of family and school influences on emerging adult’s civic involvement was found to differ by neighborhood groups, gender, and race. These results help to illustrate the importance of examining multi-contextual as well as demographic influences on civic involvement in emerging adulthood. In addition, the results from this study can inform efforts to strengthen the theory of adolescent civic involvement and policies on how to educate youth and communities on civic involvement and its benefits.

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Acknowledgments

This research uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due to Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

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  1. New Century College, George Mason University, 4400 University Dr, MS 5D3, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA

    Duhita Mahatmya

  2. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA

    Brenda J. Lohman

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  1. Duhita Mahatmya
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  2. Brenda J. Lohman
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Correspondence to Duhita Mahatmya.

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Mahatmya, D., Lohman, B.J. Predictors and Pathways to Civic Involvement in Emerging Adulthood: Neighborhood, Family, and School Influences. J Youth Adolescence 41, 1168–1183 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-012-9777-4

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