A powerful rhetoric regarding the importance of adolescents' civic engagement and political participation is common in contemporary societies, whilst citizens, both adolescent and adults, seem to express a growing scepticism and alienation regarding politics. Even if this disengagement is debatable, as there are simultaneous signs of an increasing…

Many adolescents living in contexts characterized by adversity achieve positive outcomes. We adopt a protection-risk conceptual framework to examine resilience (academic achievement, civic participation, and avoidance of risk behaviors) among 1,722 never-married 12-19 year olds living in two Kenyan urban slums. We find stronger associations…

In this paper, we seek to examine the causes of civic engagement, which refers to a set of actions and efforts, a feeling of belonging, and an experience of investment and ownership in local, regional, national, or international communities. We propose that research on the determinants of civic engagement has missed an important independent…

It is widely agreed that formal learning can influence people's social attitudes and can encourage them to take part in civic activities. Less investigated, however, has been the question of whether these effects flow from any kind of education, or whether particular subjects of study are more relevant to civic values than others. The 1958 and…

This paper was developed in the interest of extending the reach and benefits of national and community service programs to larger numbers of persons from disadvantaged populations. In particular, this paper is intended to increase understanding of both challenges and opportunities that may accompany efforts to increase the participation by…

This paper provides descriptive data on differences in civic engagement between advantaged and disadvantaged groups. Because there is not always consensus on what measure best describes disadvantaged, this paper used multiple indicators (race, ethnicity, citizenship status, family income and educational attainment) across four measures of civic…

In the competitive marketplace of higher education, colleges and university leaders increasingly rely on the influence and service of their alumni to further institutional goals. Because of their demonstrated financial commitment to the institution, alumni donors are often enlisted to serve important roles as volunteers and political advocates.…

The landmark Civic Mission of Schools report of 2003 laid out an argument for the role of schools in promoting youth civic engagement and presented a range of promising ideas and practices to accomplish that. In this study we describe the civic engagement outcomes that Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) in Louisville, KY, has chosen to promote…

Using American Citizen Participation Survey data (Verba et al. 1995a), we perform logistic regression analyses to adjudicate between three core explanations for individual protest: biographical availability, political engagement and structural availability. We calculate estimated probabilities to weigh the relative effects of these factors on the…

Civic engagement was studied in relation to overall development in adolescence, emerging adulthood, and young adulthood to examine how earlier activity involvement and success in prior and concurrent age-salient domains of competence may contribute to 2 forms of civic engagement in adulthood (citizenship and volunteering). Data on 163 youth were…

This article examines the environmental impact on the programmatic implementation of community-oriented policing (COP) in large municipal police agencies during the 1990s. Three waves of nationwide surveys (1993, 1996, and 2000) based on a random sample of 281 municipalities and the corresponding police agencies were used for our analysis. Based…

What difference does education make for young adults' engagement in politics and social issues? This study is part of the OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) project on "Measuring the Social Outcomes of Learning" (SOL). It discusses relevant international research, with special attention to studies in the Nordic…

The purpose of this project was to gain a better understanding of dimensions of trust and inter-relationships between those dimensions during the adolescent years. Drawing from survey data collected at the beginning and end of a semester in eighty middle- and high-school social studies classes, relationships were assessed between: social trust,…

This document outlines the framework and assessment design for the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) sponsored by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Over the past 50 years, IEA has conducted comparative research studies focusing on educational policies, practices, and…