Benjamin Oosterhoff

What Do Citizens Have to Do? Parents’ and Adolescents’ Messages About Civic Duty

The current study examined demographic and civic behavior correlates of observed messages concerning civic duty coded from dyadic, semi-structured interactions between 160 adolescents (Mage = 14.42, range = 12-18) and their parents (144 mothers, 52 fathers). Anecdotal statements are provided to illustrate the eight themes that emerged within parent-adolescent civic discussion. Three themes concerned community and political involvement—community service, voting, and other standard political involvement (e.g., keeping up with current events)—and five themes concerned informal civic duties—be productive (e.g., working and becoming educated), follow regulations, help others, respect country, and respect others. In mixed-effect logistic regression models, coding categories were differentially associated with parent and adolescent demographic characteristics and parent-reported civic behavior.

How Children Understand Civic Actions A Mixed Methods Perspective

The development of civically engaged citizens is vital for democratic societies. Although several studies have explored children and adolescents’ conceptualizations of civic engagement, less is known about youths’ understanding of the individual skills and attributes best suited for civic action. The current study utilized a Q-sort methodology to explore the types of character strengths children and adolescents (n = 87; Mage = 13, 9-19, 52% female) assigned to people who engage in different types of civic activities. Participants sorted 12 character strengths (amazed, creative, forgiving, future-minded, generous, grateful, humble, joyful, leader, purposeful, responsible, and thrifty) into five categories ranging from “most like” to “least like” based on their perceptions of individuals engaged in four distinct civic activities: volunteering, voting, protesting, and engaging in environmental or conservation behaviors. Youth not only differentially applied certain character strengths to individuals engaged in distinct civic activities but also identified a set of character strengths (future-minded, leader, purposeful, and responsible) as core to multiple forms of civic engagement. Results provide new insights into youths’ budding conceptualization of the individual characteristics, attributes, and motivations, which undergird different forms of civic action. Qualitative analysis of youths’ justifications for their rankings provided additional nuance into their developing understanding of civic actions.

Adolescents’ Sociopolitical Values in the Context of Organized Activity Involvement

Sociopolitical values are hypothesized to form during adolescence, but the developmental and contextual origins of these values have been largely unexplored. A sample of 846 adolescents (Mage = 15.96, SD = 1.22, range = 13-20 years) reported on their organized activity involvement (volunteering, sports, church, community clubs, arts/music, school clubs) and their sociopolitical values (patriotism, authoritarianism, spirituality, social dominance, materialism). Structural equation models (controlling for demographics and accounting for shared variance among variables) indicated that there were unique associations between activities and values. Greater church and sports involvement was related to higher levels of spirituality. Involvement in sports was also related to higher levels of materialism and authoritarianism. Greater volunteer involvement was related to lower social dominance, and involvement in arts/music was associated with less patriotism. These findings suggest that organized activity involvement may provide a context for adolescents’ developing sociopolitical values. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Prospective identification of adolescent suicide ideation using classification tree analysis: Models for community-based screening.

Objective: Although a large number of risk markers for suicide ideation have been identified, little guidance has been provided to prospectively identify adolescents at risk for suicide ideation within community settings. The current study addressed this gap in the literature by utilizing classification tree analysis (CTA) to provide a decision-making model for screening adolescents at risk for suicide ideation. Method: Participants were N = 4,799 youth (Mage = 16.15 years, SD = 1.63) who completed both Waves 1 and 2 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. CTA was used to generate a series of decision rules for identifying adolescents at risk for reporting suicide ideation at Wave 2. Results: Findings revealed 3 distinct solutions with varying sensitivity and specificity for identifying adolescents who reported suicide ideation. Sensitivity of the classification trees ranged from 44.6% to 77.6%. The tree with greatest specificity and lowest sensitivity was based on a history of suicide ideation. The tree with moderate sensitivity and high specificity was based on depressive symptoms, suicide attempts or suicide among family and friends, and social support. The most sensitive but least specific tree utilized these factors and gender, ethnicity, hours of sleep, school-related factors, and future orientation. Conclusions: These classification trees offer community organizations options for instituting large-scale screenings for suicide ideation risk depending on the available resources and modality of services to be provided. This study provides a theoretically and empirically driven model for prospectively identifying adolescents at risk for suicide ideation and has implications for preventive interventions among at-risk youth.

Civilization and Its Discontented: Links Between Youth Victimization, Beliefs About Government, and Political Participation Across Seven American Presidencies.

Promoting trust in public officials and active political engagement is vital to sustaining a well-functioning democracy. Developmental psychologists propose that youths’ beliefs about government and participation in politics are rooted in personal experiences within their communities. Previous studies have focused on how positive experiences within youths’ families, schools, and communities facilitate greater social trust and political participation. However, less is known about how negative interpersonal experiences—such as criminal victimization—intersect with youths’ beliefs about the trustworthiness, competence, and knowledge of government officials, and their participation in political activity. Using data from 39 waves of the Monitoring the Future study, the current study examined associations among youth victimization, beliefs about government, and participation in various political activities. Adolescents (N = 109,574; 50.9% female) enrolled in 12th grade across the United States reported on whether they had experienced various types of victimization during the previous year, their beliefs about government, and their participation in multiple forms of political activity. Adolescents who reported more frequent victimization experiences endorsed significantly greater discontent with government and were significantly more engaged in various forms of political activity. The magnitude and direction of these effects were generally consistent across different types of victimization, different demographic subgroups of youth, and different sociohistorical periods. Findings are interpreted from a social contract theory perspective, followed by a discussion of implications for building psychological theory and informing public policy.

Differential and Domain-Specific Associations Among Right-Wing Authoritarianism, Social Dominance Orientation, and Adolescent Delinquency:

Using a dual-process model (DPM) framework, this research examined whether right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) are differentially associated with adolescent delinquency. In Study 1 (N = 847; Mage = 15.96) and Study 2 (N = 340; Mage = 16.64), adolescents completed measures of RWA, SDO, and engagement in different forms of delinquency. In Study 2, adolescents also reported their beliefs about obeying different laws. Across both studies, adolescents who endorsed greater RWA engaged in lower levels of delinquency and those who endorsed greater SDO engaged in higher levels of delinquency. Findings from Study 2 suggest that these associations are contingent on the domain-specific purpose of the law being violated and are also present with adolescents’ beliefs about their obligation to obey laws. These results extend the DPM, demonstrating that RWA and SDO are differentially linked with youth delinquency.

Links between bereavement due to sudden death and academic functioning: Results from a nationally representative sample of adolescents.

Bereavement due to sudden loss may disrupt positive adjustment among youth, yet few studies have examined the age at which youth are most likely to first encounter sudden loss, the co-occurrence of sudden loss with other traumatic events, and the independent effects of sudden loss on academic functioning. Data were analyzed from the National Comorbidity Survey–Adolescent Supplement (N = 10,148, Mage = 15.18, 51.1% female). Youth reported on whether they had experienced sudden loss (along with 17 other traumatic events), the age at which they had first experienced sudden loss, and multiple indicators of academic functioning. Sudden loss was the most frequently occurring traumatic event among youth; approximately 30% of adolescents reported at least one sudden loss in their lifetime. Youth were most likely to have first experienced sudden loss during middle adolescence (15 to 16 years of age). Although sudden loss co-occurred with several other traumas, about 10% of youth reported experiencing only sudden loss. After accounting for demographic characteristics and other traumatic events, experiencing sudden loss was associated with lower academic achievement, lower ability to concentrate and learn, less enjoyment of school, lower school belongingness, and lower beliefs that teachers treat youth fairly. Sudden loss is common among adolescents and has important implications for school functioning. Schools may improve academic functioning by adopting routine screening for sudden loss and assessing potential need for bereavement-informed mental health services.

Is that disgust I see? Political ideology and biased visual attention

Considerable evidence suggests that political liberals and conservatives vary in the way they process and respond to valenced (i.e., negative versus positive) information, with conservatives generally displaying greater negativity biases than liberals. Less is known about whether liberals and conservatives differentially prioritize certain forms of negative information over others. Across two studies using eye-tracking methodology, we examined differences in visual attention to negative scenes and facial expressions based on self-reported political ideology. In Study 1, scenes rated high in fear, disgust, sadness, and neutrality were presented simultaneously. Greater endorsement of socially conservative political attitudes was associated with less attentional engagement (i.e., lower dwell time) of disgust scenes and more attentional engagement toward neutral scenes. Socially conservative political attitudes were not significantly associated with visual attention to fear or sad scenes. In Study 2, images depicting facial expressions of fear, disgust, sadness, and neutrality were presented simultaneously. Greater endorsement of socially conservative political attitudes was associated with greater attentional engagement with facial expressions depicting disgust and less attentional engagement toward neutral faces. Visual attention to fearful or sad faces was not related to social conservatism. Endorsement of economically conservative political attitudes was not consistently associated with biases in visual attention across both studies. These findings support disease-avoidance models and suggest that social conservatism may be rooted within a greater sensitivity to disgust-related information.

“Dirty politics”: The role of disgust sensitivity in voting.

A growing body of research indicates that disgust sensitivity plays an important role in politics. Indeed, preliminary evidence indicates that disgust sensitivity predicts voting behavior. However, the processes that explain this association are unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine whether disgust sensitivity predicted voting intentions and behavior in the 2012 U.S. presidential election and to test whether these associations were mediated by sociopolitical values, party affiliation, and attitudes toward political candidates. Prior to the 2012 election, participants completed measures of disgust sensitivity, right-wing authoritarianism, party affiliation, attitudes toward the political candidates (i.e., Barack Obama and Mitt Romney), and voting intentions. After the 2012 election, participants reported their voting behavior. After accounting for prejudice toward African Americans, greater disgust sensitivity was significantly associated with lower intention to vote for Obama versus Romney and lower likelihood of actually voting for Obama. Disgust sensitivity was also associated with more conservative sociopolitical values, a greater likelihood of Republican Party affiliation, a lower likelihood of Democratic Party affiliation, more negative attitudes toward Obama, and more positive attitudes toward Romney. Conservative sociopolitical values, party affiliation, and attitudes toward political candidates independently mediated the association between disgust sensitivity and voting intentions. Conservative sociopolitical values and political candidate attitudes mediated the association between disgust sensitivity and voting behavior. These findings demonstrate the importance of disgust sensitivity for political attitudes and behavior. Further, mechanisms through which disgust sensitivity is implicated within voting tendencies are identified.