Civic Engagement: Investigating the Influence of Social Capital and the Mediating Effects of Educational Attainment

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Developing a Civically Engaged Identity: Influences and Opportunities

Abstract

This study investigates the mediating role of postsecondary educational attainment on civic engagement in young adulthood. Based on theories of social capital, the current study investigated a cohort of young people who were in high school during 1995, assessing their prosocial outcomes as young adults. We assessed young adult’s civic engagement and examined what, if any, mediating role postsecondary educational attainment had. Civic engagement in this study was measured through both political (voting) and apolitical (volunteering) measures. Ultimately post-secondary education mediates the relationship between experiences in adolescence and civic engagement in young adulthood on five of the six primary constructs.

Authors

• Kevin M Hemer, Iowa State University

• Cassandra Dorius, Iowa State University

• Brenda J. Lohman, Iowa State University

• Robert D. Reason, Iowa State University