Breaking Down Youth Civic Participation: The Effect of Engagement on Students’ School Climate Perceptions

• In Event: Youth Civic Engagement and School Community, Climate, and Culture: Reciprocal Possibilities

Abstract

Background. Although the individual-level benefits of youth civic engagement are well-documented , significantly less research has explored setting-level effects, particularly outcomes at the school level. Bronfenbrenner articulated a bi-directional relationship between individuals and their settings, wherein one affects the other. Multiple studies have demonstrated that characteristics of the school setting, such as relational trust and sense of community, influence student civic attitudes. Less understood is the converse direction of influence—the effect of civically engaged students on the school setting. The authors of the present study found that non-civically engaged students were more likely to perceive student/teacher relationships, democratic climate, and fairness of school rules favorably when they attended school with a greater number of civically engaged peers. The purpose of the present study was to extend this finding by examining how specific elements of civic engagement are related to average grade-level school climate perceptions.

Method. Self-report survey data and school records were collected from 4,914 students in 11 middle schools and 43 grade level cohorts (grades 5-8) in a southeastern city in the spring of 2010. The sample was 43% Black, 31% White, 22% Latino/a, and 3% Asian. Data were analyzed using multi-level modeling. Predictors included nine items measuring civic participation , as well as free/reduced priced lunch status (FRPL), race, and grade level. Each model consisted of individual- and group- level civic participation and FRPL status variables. Outcome variables included six constructs measuring school climate.

Results. The density of civically engaged students in a grade either lowered or increased average school climate perceptions, depending on the type of civic participation. The density of students in a grade level who reported offering to help someone at school was the most salient predictor of average school climate perceptions, including student/teacher relationships (β=.394, p<.001), student relationships (β=.45, p<.001), fairness of school rules (β=.371, p<.001), and democratic climate (β=.325, p<.05). Additionally, as more students reported various types of helping behavior, average perceptions of fairness of school rules increased among the entire grade. In contrast, the density of students in a grade level who were leaders in neighborhood clubs was negatively related to average perceptions of student relationships (β=-.431, p<.001) and fairness of school rules (β=-.385, p<.01). Similarly, the density of students who were leaders in school clubs was negatively associated with perceptions of fairness of school rules (β=-.299, p<.01).

Scholarly significance. The present study extends the finding that civically engaged young people can affect school climate through multiple forms of civic engagement. Results indicate that a mass of students involved in prosocial activities, such as helping others, positively affects school climate, whereas a negative effect exists with an aggregate of students who are leaders in school and neighborhood groups. Perhaps leadership in such activities involves unraveling the status quo which runs contrary to agreeing with school rules and liking teachers. As scholars seek to understand how youth civic engagement can affect school settings, future research should explore why various types of civic participation accomplish differing setting-level outcomes.

Authors

• Joanna D. Geller, Vanderbilt University

• Maury Nation, Vanderbilt University