Published In

Youth and Society

Document Type

Pre-Print

Publication Date

1-1-2025

Subjects

Civic engagement, Political engagement, Community service, Political expression, Meaning in life, Intersectionality

Abstract

Civic engagement is an important component of youth thriving, but prior research—focused primarily on political engagement—has found a “civic engagement gap” between youth with marginalized identities and those with privileged social identities. Research is needed to understand youth involvement in other civic activities, patterns of disparities, and any implications of these differences for youth well-being. In this study, we examined differences in community service activities, political activities, and expressive activities and their relationships with meaning in life 2 years later across 11 groups of 1,088 adolescents defined by intersections of race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and nativity. Findings reveal great diversity in civic activities across groups of youth, suggesting the need to reframe the “gap” as “civic engagement diversity.” At the same time, our findings indicate that not all forms of participation offer the same developmental benefits—only political participation consistently predicted greater meaning in life across all youth.

Rights

© Copyright the author(s) 2025

Description

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published as: Civic Participation and Meaning in Life: Similarities and Differences Across Diverse Youth. Youth & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118x251387148

DOI

10.1177/0044118X251387148

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44292

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