James Youniss

High School Community Service as a Predictor of Adult Voting and Volunteering

The influences of high school community service participation, extracurricular involvement, and civic knowledge on voting and volunteering in early adulthood were examined using the National Educational Longitudinal Study. The major finding in this study is that both voluntary and school-required community service in high school were strong predictors of adult voting and volunteering. In addition, involvement in high school extracurricular activities was predictive of voting and volunteering. Civic knowledge was related only to voting. The authors consider the findings for their policy relevance and their contributions to theoretical debates.

Dimensions of citizenship and opportunities for youth development: The what, why, when, where, and who of citizenship development.

In this concluding article we consider the definition and conceptualization of citizenship, why youth should be interested in citizenship, when developmentally should we as a society try to foster it, where in youths lives should our efforts be placed, and the existence of potentially different needs and usefulness of different strategies in diverse populations of youth. In addressing the what, why, when, where, and who of citizenship development, we review the contributions to this issue as well as other literature. We conclude the chapter with a charge for future research.

The Role of Community Service in Identity Development: Normative, Unconventional, and Deviant Orientations

Responses from a nationally representative sample of 13,000 high school seniors were analyzed to identify predictors of normative, unconventional, and deviant orientations among youth. Normative orientation was indexed using indicators of conventional political involvement (e. g., voting), religious attendance, and importance of religion. Unconventional orientation was indexed with unconventional political involvement (e. g., boycotting). Deviance was measured through marijuana use. Frequency of community service substantially increased predictability of these variables over and above background characteristics and part-time work involvement. Involvement in most types of school-based extracurricular activities was positively associated with doing service, as was moderate part-time work. Background characteristics of attending Catholic school, being female, having high socioeconomic status, and coming from an intact family also predicted service involvement. Results are discussed in terms of a theory of social-historical identity development, suggesting that community service affords youth a developmental opportunity to partake of traditions that transcend the material moment and existential present.

Types of Voluntary Service and Adolescents’ Civic Development

The goal of this study was to examine whether and which types of voluntary service might facilitate the civic development of adolescents. The sample consisted of 428 students who were drawn from two administrations of a survey at a public high school in the Boston area. The hypothesis proposed that students who performed service that aided people in need or addressed social issues would lead to greater concern for social issues and higher intended levels of civic engagement. When these types of service were compared to other forms of service or no service, analyses showed that social cause service participation was positively related to concern for social issues, future unconventional civic intentions, and future intended service. Results were interpreted as indicating that the developmental connection between community service and civic development may be dependent on the specific nature of volunteer activity that adolescents perform.

Two Systems of Youth Service: Determinants of Voluntary and Required Youth Community Service.

Although an increasing number of schools mandate service, this requirement is seen by some as self-contradictory, especially in contrast to voluntary service. Looking closely at the service process, we argue that the categories of required and voluntary, do not in themselves convey the nature of service students might do with implications for the benefits they may derive from service. We report data from students in 2 high schools to support our case. Both schools required service, but one integrated it into the curriculum whereas the other left choice of service to individual students. Students in the former school were more apt to do the kinds of service that engage students cognitively and emotionally and involve them in reflection on politics and morals. Apart from fulfilling their requirement, many of the students also did volunteer service of the kinds that were potentially beneficial. These students were likely to have parents and best friends who also did service and to belong to churches and civic organizations that sponsored or encouraged service as part of an ideological commitment. The data support the idea that required and volunteer service can be usefully viewed as operating according to separate regimens. Nevertheless, both have the potential for yielding benefits when service is viewed as providing youth with opportunities to learn about systems of meaning through participatory action. From the viewpoint of educational policy, schools can help students most when they organize service strategically and integrate service into the academic curriculum.

The Influence of Family Political Discussion on Youth Civic Development: Which Parent Qualities Matter?

Evidence suggesting that the growth of civic roots in adolescence may be crucial to the long-term development of citizenship has stimulated research into factors that might influence civic development during this time. One interesting finding to emerge from that exploration is the apparent importance of discussion to the development of civic competence. Adolescents who discuss politics and current events with their parents, peers, or teachers tend to score higher than other youth on measures of civic behaviors, attitudes, and skills. They develop higher levels of political knowledge, show greater intention to vote in the future, and do better on a range of civic outcomes from petitioning and boycotting to raising money for charities and participating in community meetings (Torney-Purta et al. 2001 ; Andolina et al. 2003 ).

Voluntary Service, Peer Group Orientation, and Civic Engagement.

Responses from students at two suburban Catholic high schools were analyzed to identify associations among peer group orientation, voluntary service, and civic engagement measures.Crowd types were constructed through cluster analysis of reputational group activities.Types were called School, Disengaged, All-Around, Fun, and Average.School crowd members were likely to volunteer for social service activities and unlikely not to volunteer; Fun crowd members showed the opposite tendency.All-Around crowd members were likely to choose functionary service compared with other crowds.Crowd membership was also differentiated on civic engagement measures.School crowd members were likely to participate in school clubs versus Fun members.School, All-Around, and Average crowd members had high scores on future service intentions, compared with Fun and Disengaged crowd members.School and Average crowd members scored high on intentions for political activities.These results support our theory of social-historical identity development.

Social Development Through Friendship

During the past decade there has been a resurgence of interest in the study of friendship from a developmental perspective. The recent work, however, differs markedly from earlier research in that the focus now includes cognitions about friendship rather than merely the bases for friendship selections (Austin & Thompson, 1948; Cattell,1934; Wellman, 1926). Investigations have concerned developmental trends in such areas as the expectations of friendship (Bigelow, 1977; Reisman & Shorr, 1978), the definitions of friendship (Bigelow & LaGaipa, 1975; Kon & Losenkov, 1978; Youniss & Volpe, 1978), and the meaning of friendship (LaGaipa, 1979; Selman & Jaquette, 1977). While the results of these studies have contributed to a broader understanding of friendship conceptions, little attention has been given to the implications these conceptions may have for social development in general (Hartup, 1978; Youniss, 1980). Friendship relations may foster the development of social concepts that may initially be features of friendship but are eventually extended to interpersonal functioning beyond the confines of the relation. The purpose of this chapter is to examine this proposition and to present data that support the thesis that friendship relations have important positive implications for social development in general.

Youth Bulges in Communities The Effects of Age Structure on Adolescent Civic Knowledge and Civic Participation

Youth bulges, cohorts of 16- to 25-year-olds disproportionately large relative to the adult population, are linked with social upheaval in historical research. Limited civic knowledge and heightened civic participation in adolescence, resulting from socialization in communities with large populations of children, are hypothesized to be developmental precursors to the political activism characteristic of youth constituting bulges. In two studies with nationally representative samples, adolescents in communities with disproportionately large populations of children were found to have less civic knowledge than equivalent adolescents in communities without large populations of children. In both studies, civic participation was predicted by the interaction of a communitys proportion of children and its poverty level. Similar patterns were identified in a third study using country-level data. Together, the findings demonstrate that the youthfulness of communities and countries influences civic development.

Civic Education: What Schools Can Do to Encourage Civic Identity and Action.

The timeliness of civic education for American youth is discussed. Particular attention is given to the history of calls for civic education, the state of civic education in schools today, particularly those serving youth in disadvantaged contexts, and the specific ways in which schools can better address the civic education needs of contemporary youth. Findings from research are synthesized around three strategic moves: 1) Promote public discussion and debate of critical issues; 2) Provide quality extracurricular and student government activities; and 3) Build on particular types of service that have proven to enhance civic participation in and identity with ones community. It is concluded that these activities can provide factual knowledge of history and government and encourage students to partake in active practices of the daily life of being citizens.